Fun things to do in British Indian Ocean Territory

Coconut crabs grow very slowly and must reach an age of 4-8 years before they can reproduce. An adult may weigh up to 4kg and live for over 30 years. Coconut crabs are not like humans, they have their skeleton on the outside (carapace). As they grow they must shed this hard carapace and grow a new, bigger one. They hide away in shallow hole for about a month to moult and grow a new carapace.

Mating occurs from May to September, with a peak in July to August. The females will come out of their burrows several months later in October or November to release the eggs which they have stored under their tails (abdomen). The female moves to the shore and releases the eggs into the sea. After hatching, the tiny baby crabs float around in the water for four to five weeks before settling. For about nine months they will use an old seashell to live in. They stay close to the water, and gradually develop their own shell and become more like land animals. As they grow they move further inland away from the coast.

This archipelago is roughly 300km south of the THE Maldives it is in fact more than Crabs but also the hime of the crucial US base on the British Indian Ocean territory at Diego Garcia. It is about 600 Km from the tip of of India. Through its three main channels more than $300bn worth of oil is shipped annually. The islands were and still are a British protectorate, not least because of their strategic position.

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Coconut crabs on these BIOT islands were everywhere once found widely throughout the Indian and Pacific. They have now disappeared over much of their previous range because they are so big and taste. But no people lots of Crabs so I guess the Coconut crabs are very pleased with the American and Brits giving the poor Islanders the boot.
During the day they hide in holes in the sand or under coconut trees and shrubs. At night they forage along beaches and over coral rocks looking for food. In areas where there are a lot of coconut crabs they will also forage during the day. They eat fruit, rotting leaves and animals. With their massive claws they can open and eat fallen coconuts. This crab is the largest crab found in the world and spends most of its life out of the water, although they do need to drink seawater from time to time to keep up their salt levels. If you leave an adult coconut crab in the water it will drown.

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The town and copra plantation house

This is a very sad place but belive it or not it is quite often visited by the yachting crow of the world, the time I was there it had three large yachts in and around the Island. A Danish couple with two small children had been around for many months just haging out eating fish and coconuts and staying out of sight of the American planes that would time to time fly in to check it all out.

The little town had streets Church, graveyard and abandon homes very ghost town like because the homes were like the were going to be reoccupied. The little town also has all the equipment for the coconut oil industry that use to be the economy. Simon Winchester the author was there “illegally” about 5 years befor my trip and he wrote a book about it. See the link on tip before this one -- he does a much better job of telling the story than I can. I can confirm what he stated is true even five years latter still a ghost town -- “... a cemetery containing the tomb of a woman named Mrs. Thompson who had died in 1932. I asked the Ilois who this could be and they thought the wife of one of the overlords befro the war.

“There was a copra-crushing mill, with rusty cog-wheels and pockmarked boilers and hardwood pestle-and-mortars where the coconut oil had been pressed. Also a small railway for taking the drums down to the pier, which now sagged wearily among a grove of sea-grape trees. Old lighters were still drawn up on the beach, as well as harnesses for the mules which had helped drag the trucks down to the loading stage.” this is from Simon Winchester link on anther tip in this section.