This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by @marc-allaria: LE VOYAGE D'AURORA - CHRISTMAS ISLAND - Episode 2...!

^{As my primary language is not English, there are probably some mistakes in my translation.}

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Marc Allaria (@marc-allaria), a French guy.

THE JOURNEY OF AURORA - Christmas Island
Part 1

The Indian Ocean is very avaricious when it comes to offering navigators some shelters in its eastern part. Indeed, very few islands present themselves on the Eastern route leading to Australia and Indonesia. The last one, before the Indian Ocean presents its borders, is a pearl whose isolation and aggressiveness of its coast have preserved a purity worthy of the most beautiful. On the other side of the ocean, Christmas Island.

A PHOSPHATE-RELATED HISTORY

At more than 400km from the Indonesian coast and 1500km from the first waves of Australian surf, Christmas Island is not on any major maritime trade route. It was not until 1888 that a colonial power became interested in this lost stone whose coasts drawn into torn cliffs delayed colonization. Phosphate in its pure state! This is what Murray, a scientist for the British Navy, will find on this island suddenly become interesting. The first mines will open very quickly and their operation will last until the second world war. A short takeover of the Japanese will interrupt the extraction of phosphate, which will resume soon after the war is over. In 1957, Australia will buy the island for £ 2.9 million, making Christmas Island one of its islands in the Indian Ocean Australian Territories.

Nowadays, the exploitation continues and creates the only true economy of the island. Because here, everything is imported. Goods, food, and inhabitants, everything arrives by planes or cargo ships. As a result, the main residents of the island are expatriates who have been on mission for short periods. This situation creates a strange atmosphere of the "all temporary". Houses are made in imported kits, nobody invests in culture or livestock, and moving boxes are never completely unpacked. A signal would suffice, an economic crisis of phosphate, and the island would be depopulated in a few weeks.

However, a pleasant social life is taking place year after year around the main center of life, Flying Cove. A Pub, A supermarket, A tourist office, An electronics store, A taxi! Here, any initiative is certain to become an exclusivity. Two thousand souls live here for an island as big as half of Mayotte. Two thousand souls who call each other by their names, and who enjoy one of the most spectacular islands of the Indian Ocean.

(to be continued)

* * * * *

01: DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: Funny situations ...! at sea..., by @marc-allaria
02: DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The fishing file ...!, by @marc-allaria
03: DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The Cagayan Islands, by @marc-allaria
04: DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: Seaweed...!, by @marc-allaria
05: DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The Bacuit Archipelago, by @marc-allaria
06: BORNEO: Kudat and the technical stop, by @marc-allaria
07: BORNEO: Kinabatangan River, by @marc-allaria
08: BORNEO: Maratua, part 1, by @marc-allaria
09: BORNEO: Big Fish School, by @marc-allaria
10: BORNEO: Diving in Maratua ...!, by @marc-allaria
11: BORNEO: The jellyfish lake ...!, by @marc-allaria
12: SULAWESI: Sewia...!, by @marc-allaria
13: SULAWESI: Story of a dive at Pasoso Island...!, by @marc-allaria
14: SULAWESI: Tanjun Kai...!, by @marc-allaria
15: SULAWESI: Kopoposang...!, by @marc-allaria
16: SULAWESI: PA-RA-SI-TE...!, by @marc-allaria
17: SULAWESI: BIRA...!, by @marc-allariaThe long mishap - Part 1
18: SULAWESI: Diving under my house ...!
19: SULAWESI: Stright ahead ...!, by @marc-allaria
20: The long mishap - Part 1, by @marc-allaria
21: The long mishap - Part 2, by @marc-allaria
22: The long mishap - Part 3, by @marc-allaria
23: The long mishap - Part 4, by @marc-allaria
24: The long mishap - Part 5, by @marc-allaria
25: THE JOURNEY OF AURORA - Christmas Island - Part 1, by @marc-allaria