THIRTY YEARS AGO, while sailing north through the Great Barrier Reef, I devoured American travel writer Paul Theroux’s book The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific. On that sailing adventure I only skimmed the outer rim of the vast Pacific Ocean, but the deck of a yacht seemed just the place to properly absorb Theroux’s vivid account of the islands that lie scattered across the largest body of water on earth.
With Theroux I could dream of “little islands…each of which was a perfectly rounded piece of land, many of them just like drops of batter on a hot griddle, the ones that cook quickly”. But most of all, The Happy Isles of Oceania conjured up a picture of remoteness, of great distances from anywhere and everywhere, of the sorts of places that in our overly connected world are now almost impossible to find. To Theroux, the experience of the Pacific was “like the night sky, like outer space, and of island-hopping in that ocean being something like interplanetary travel”.
In November 2023, I embarked with Coral Expeditions on one of their wonderful forays away from the Australian coast, this time on a voyage marketed as: “Through the Islands and Atolls of Micronesia”. Having family in Fiji, I’d travelled the less-trodden tracks across its islands many times, but Micronesia was all new to me. And what a revelation it would prove to be.
This story is from the March - April 2024 edition of Australian Geographic Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March - April 2024 edition of Australian Geographic Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
DESERT DELIGHT
The Great Victoria Desert, Australia's largest, defies expectations. Visibly rich in biodiversity, it challenges preconceptions about how a desert should look.
A NEW BROOME
New experiences with First Nations people on Country are transforming \"flop-and-drop\" tourism in this tropical getaway.
THE BREAKFAST CLUB
For six days last autumn, a ragtag band of walkers came together to tackle the famed Overland Track and explore central Tasmania's spectacular flora, from the tiniest fungus to its towering King Billy pines.
BACK FOR THE FUTURE
Bathurst is one of several regional inland cities holding historic-trades fairs, tapping into growing enthusiasm for a slower, more sustainable way of living and of making things..
HELPING HANDS
These bizarre, shy fish that walk instead of swim face a precarious future in the waters of southern Australia.
COMMEMORATING BROTHERS IN ARMS ON COUNTRY
The military service of two First Nations World War II soldiers, long overlooked by history, is celebrated annually on an outback pilgrimage by an Aussie music legend.
UNEXPECTED PACIFIC PARADISE
Visiting Micronesia's islands and atolls offers an unexpected rare glimpse into remote communities steeped in centuries-old cultural traditions.
THE PATRIOT CONVICTS
A little-known group of political prisoners, transported from Canada to the Australian colonies, had far-reaching effects.
NEW SPACES FOR OCEAN LIFE
In an alliance between Australian marine ecologists and industrial designers, science and art meet to restore ecological function at some of the world's most altered coastal landscapes.
RESCUING AN EMBLEM
Nothing says an Aussie Easter quite like the bilby, but this symbol of the outback is facing a tough struggle for survival.