PALM ISLAND a barrier island, some fifty miles south of Sarasota is a small privately owned paradise with resort facilities for quiet, family and romantic holidays, taking in all that natural environment (and man) can provide for relaxation and pleasure.

Virtually a ‘car free zone’, strolling, biking or canoeing are the popular means of perambulation around miles of beach, coast line where seabirds and marine life continue their ageless rituals and palm trees whisper in the breeze. For the overactive, there is golf nearby, photography, hiking, fishing, ecological excursions, and for the kids – an in-house giant of a pirate that will entertain. A little bit of exclusive heaven!

SANIBEL AND CAPTIVA are barrier islands off Florida coast and also the site of the ancient Calusa Indians civilization. It is speculated that this is where the explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon met his end at the hands of the warlike tribe.

Today the natives are much more friendly! Tourists are welcomed to the area’s National Wildlife Refuge which annually draws almost a million visitors. Eco-tourists bask in the Florida sun, island beaches, the Everglades jungles and waterways, swamps, exotic views and skies, recreational adventures fishing and aquatic pursuits, marine life and one of the best shell collectors sites in the world.

With both International and local Resorts and Inns on the islands, accommodation is available from Luxury to budget – if you can get in! More than a dozen Restaurants offer the freshest seafood available to tickle the taste of the most discerning of culinary fundi’s!

The great visual draws are the cream colored beaches, the azure seas and the spectacular orange sunsets. The sports fishing is legendary, the sailing and boating exhilarating and the primeval forests and waterways of the Everglades, a glimpse into natural pre-history. Awesome, don’t you think?

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DIRK HERTOG ISLAND is part of Australia’s west coast’s Gascoyne Region and Shark Bay Marine Park. Once a privately owned sheep farm, it now full belongs to the Australian Government. This elongated, narrow strip of land has an area of 640Km2.

Within the Marine Conservation Area of Shark Bay lie many smaller uninhabited islands and peninsulas part of the F.P. National Parks area as well. Picnic, Boat launch and Camping areas lie at:

• Big Lagoon,
• Cape Le Seur,
• Cattle Well,
• South Gregories,
• Gregories and
• Bottle Bay.

On the opposite sides of the Peninsula lie the small town of Denham and on the other, Monkey Mia, a popular Tourist Resort- famous for its ‘Feeding of Bottle Nosed Dolphins’ who have become so tame as to entertain visitors for decades.

On Dirk Hertog Island – the historical 1616 site of the islands namesake and discoverer stands the monument to that event, under the Inscription Point Lighthouse. The Island is promoting ‘Eco-tourism’ for visitors to view the movement and nesting sites of the Loggerhead and Green Turtles and the White Winged Fairy Wren. The Shark Bay area also conserves thousands of Sea Cows (Dugongs), mammal, bird and reptile species as well as being a breeding ground for hundreds of fish varieties and crustaceans.

With its dry warm weather and low rainfall, conditions are perfect for tourists for most of the year.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Islands are waiting to be promoted as tourist destinations. This provides great opportunity for eco-tourists who can visit before over popularity will spoil much of the atmosphere, ambiance, natural scenery and fauna and flora. Situated deep in the Indian Ocean, these Australian Territories were once mined for their guano (Phosphates) and yet retain ecological wonders of its undisturbed tropical rainforest and marine life. (With a little imagination – the shape of the island resembles a ‘flying lizard’!)

A strange history permeates both Cocos and Christmas Islands – Once the preserve of a ‘Feudal’ Scottish family, short-lived occupation by the Japanese, British and ‘cession’ to Australia, and its modern day conflict with the flood of immigrant ‘Boat People’, and a new Immigrant Detention Center. It has even been mooted as a possible ‘Space Port’ of the future.

There are two Container Ports on Christmas Island , Flying Fish Cove and the alternative port at Norris Point – in use during rough seas. A small resident population of less than 2000, it also hosts an airport with 3 weekly flights to Perth and weekly to Malaysia. A new Recreation Centre on Phosphate hill and an abandoned Casino. The road network is reasonably good, with only a few areas requiring four-wheel drive vehicles. Crustacean (Crab) and Bird species abound – a naturalist’s paradise.

Cocos(Keeling) Islands are another Coral Islands gem waiting to be promoted for tourism. Blessed with an infrastructure of a WW2 Aerodrome (now an International Airport) and Oil Terminal and various Anchorages, the South Keeling circle of islands has the potential to become a Resort Destination between Australia and Sri Lanka. North Keeling Island with its encircled lagoon offers a smaller scale development potential within the ‘Pulu National Park’ area, which protects the only endemic bird, the ‘Buff banded rail’ and a number of sea bird and Green Turtle breeding colonies. Around the archipelago are more than 500 species of fish, from migrating Whales and Dolphin to the local Angelfish and a plethora of reef fish. The wreck of the WW1 SMS Emden provides a focal point for diving opportunities. Both islands are lined with coconut palms – the major export industry.

Cooled by the Trade Winds for about nine months of the year, the climate is pleasant, except for the Monsoon Season early in the year. This idyllic little paradise is perfect for the tourist who seeks natural relaxation or adventures of discovery above and below the ocean.