Christmas Island

The Dales is one of the Island's iconic sites and one of the few places with permanent flowing water and stunning wet areas, providing significant habitat for endemic blue crabs and impressive stands of Tahitian chestnut trees. The drive through the Dales leads through rainforest to a scenic and tranquil area, which has two walking trails starting from the Dales 4WD car park. The first trail is mostly a boardwalk, leading to Hugh's Dale Waterfall, about 1 kilometre each way from the car park. Signage along the trail offers information on the island's plants and animals. For the adventurous, the second trail leads on from Hugh's Dale for about 800 metres to Anderson's Dale, a small gorge with a stream that flows to the sea.

It’s hard to imagine a more visually tantalising place to photograph than Christmas Island. All around you are sights, colours, textures and landscapes you’ll want to capture, so bring nature to life through your lens. From soft, pastel sunrises to glorious sunsets, Christmas Island is bathed in ever-changing tropical light. Vivid colour is everywhere, from the crabs’ rich reds to the rainforest’s deep greens, to turquoise waters. Catch the robber crabs on film, zoom in on gentle orchids and twisting vines, and train your lens skywards to capture the elegance and freedom of rare birds in flight. Underwater photographers have a kaleidoscope of colours and shapes to shoot. On land, the imposing, inspiring and detailed architecture of temples and other built forms keeps the shutters clicking. Videos capture the sights and sounds of millions of scurrying red crabs, or the hauntingly musical call of the island’s thrush, and the stirring call to prayer from the mosque. Best spots for best shots: - Martin Point, for staggeringly beautiful sunsets and seabirds; - Blowholes capture the energy of the water on a rugged coastline; - Dolly Beach has impressively large robber crabs plus turtle tracks; - Hughes Dale Waterfall is an iconic island place for your unique shot; - Blowholes Road lets you get creative with a special tree along the road; - Greta Beach hosts nesting turtles all year round; - Island temples boast rich colours fused with wisps of incense smoke; - Tai Jin House invites you to capture the detail of this building and its gardens; - Flying Fish Cove is a must for underwater photography.

Golf is one of the favourite pastimes of Islanders and the Golf Course is well worth a try for professional golfers or first timers. The 9-hole golf course is situated amongst palm trees and tropical rainforest with a magnificent view of the Indian Ocean. Clubs are available for hire from the Christmas Island Visitor's Centre and visitors are most welcome. Christmas Island Frigates nest inland from the course and land crabs can be a local hazard.

Tens of millions of red land crabs live on Christmas Island. They are the Island's keystone species, because they play a vital role recycling nutrients and shaping and maintaining the structure of the rainforest. At the beginning of the wet season (usually in October/November), most adult Red Crabs suddenly begin their spectacular migration from the forest to the coast, to breed and release eggs into the sea. Breeding is usually synchronised island wide. The rains provide moist overcast conditions for crabs to make their long and difficult journey to the sea. The timing of the migration breeding sequence is also linked to the phases of the moon, so that eggs may be released by the female Red Crabs into the sea precisely at the turn of the high tide during the last quarter of the moon. It is thought that this occurs at this time because there is the least difference between high and low tides. The sea level at the base of the cliffs and on the beaches, where the females release their eggs, at this time varies the least for a longer period, and it is therefore safer for the females approaching the water's edge to release their eggs. Sometimes there are earlier and later migrations of smaller numbers of crabs, but all migrations retain this same lunar rhythm. The main migration commences on the plateau and can last up to 18 days. Masses of crabs gather into broad "streams" as they move toward the coast, climbing down high inland cliff faces, and over or around all obstacles in their way, following routes used year after year for both downward and return migrations. Movement peaks in the early morning and late afternoons when it is cooler and there is more shade. If caught in open areas, in unshaded heat, the crabs soon lose vital body moisture and die. The crabs will migrate to the coast, where the males will dig mating burrows and they will mate. After mating, the males will commence their return migration. The females will brood their eggs for 12-13 days before emerging from the burrows to commence spawning. The females will commence their return migration immediately after spawning. The eggs hatch into free swimming larvae immediately after they are dropped into the sea. The larvae grow through several stages in the ocean for over four weeks before emerging from the sea to become tiny crabs.