Cocos (Keeling) Islands

I'm, I'm really excited about Madagascar.

Cocos Keeling actually is one of my favorite, or not favorite, I've never been there, but it's one of my favorite types of places 'cause it's an atoll, so there's beautiful water.

It's really good kiting, and apparently there's surfing too, so I'm, I'm really excited to, to visit there.

What about food? How is that managed on board, and what do you look forward to seeing next, next time you hit land, let's say? Do you have goals? Do you have, like, a food log? You're like, "You know what? When I go here, I'll get this."

This extraordinary solitary traveller left Boston some two years ago single-handed, crossed to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to Australia and through the Torres Strait to Thursday Island.

End of footnote The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Admiral Fitzroy, R.N., lie between the latitudes of 11 degrees 50 minutes and 12 degrees 12 minutes south, and the longitudes of 96 degrees 51 minutes and 96 degrees 58 minutes east.

They were discovered in 1608 to 1609 by Captain William Keeling, then in the service of the East India Company.

The southern group consists of seven or eight islands and islets upon the atoll, which is the skeleton of what some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a continuous island.

And with these just prejudices indelibly stamped on my mind, I have, I am afraid, answered impatiently too often the query, why didn't you have a dog? With, I and the dog wouldn't have been very long in the same boat in any sense.

A cat would have been a harmless animal, I dare say, but there was nothing for Puss to do on board, and she is an unsociable animal at best.

True, a rat got into my vessel at the Keeling Cocos Islands, and another at Rodrigues, along with a centipede stowed away in the hold.

But one of them I drove out of the ship, and the other I caught.

Yes.

I guessed Cocos Islands for number two, and I don't have the best idea of how far they are apart from each other, so I ended up on a wild goose chase in the wrong direction.

I went Iceland first, which was way off, and then I went Seychelles, and then it was northeast of the Seychelles and not big, so I knew it wasn't Sri Lanka, and I knew it was an island, and so that was basically it.

That was all that was left.

This was as much fun as Pavarotti, I can tell you.

We were up at Cocos Island.

My wife's a really good server, and I'm a bit of a Gumby, I've got to tell you.

But I enjoyed getting out there, and I was with one of the docs from Subi, Gerard Taylor, and a good mate of mine who was a vet.

[gentle music] Kia ora everyone, and welcome to episode 128 of the WA Running Podcast, recording on Monday the 31st of August, 2026.

In this week's episode, we recap the Cocos Island Marathon, Perth 32, the Soul Runners Trail Blaze Fun Run, the spectacle that was the Sydney Marathon, and of course, City to Surf.

Um, across my screen is someone who claimed a couple of weeks ago that, uh, Underwood Avenue is easy.

Uh, Vicky Richardson, how are you?

[laughs]

On that note, uh, results.

Um, we had the Cocos Islands Marathon, uh, that was on Wednesday the 19th of August.

Um, so th- this was one of the marathons that, uh, Brian organized with, I guess, his cult of followers of, you know, international runners that just follow, follow Brian around and, and race everywhere.

I started off down in Mount Barker, so the southwest of West Australia up until about year three.

And then we moved out from there to Cocos Islands.

So out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, which is something completely different.

And then from there to Geraldton, Kalbarri, Karratha.

Very good.

Interesting.

Cocos Islands.

Certainly like to hear a little bit more about that.

And it's a similar thing with being really far up the seventh arc.

Yeah, they're the Cocos Islands or something up near Java.

But...

I am, I would be delighted if you guys would go search.

I think I did look it up at 1.9.

Yeah, it's for the Kokosh, Keeling Islands, a part of Australia.

Yeah.

Which makes sense.

And we know them to do this in offshore tropical islands or around seamounts, so mostly in the Pacific.

Your classic, uh, pictures of scalloped hammerheads in the Galapagos Islands or in Cocos Islands, in the Pacific ones, um, Costa Rica.

Um, but it's rare to see large aggregations of scalloped hammerheads in coastal locations, also so far south.

So Perth is quite a temperate, um, location in, in Australia.