Stamps In My Passport: Islands

Looking back over my years of wandering around this beautiful planet, I find that a great deal of my fondest memories dwell on some small plot of land – completely surrounded by water. You guessed it – ISLANDS! Now I know a lot of my readers will immediately focus on Hawaii. I have no problem with that, but eight or ten islands are head and shoulders stronger in my memory. The reasons for this are that each of these spots of land tickled my fancy or generated some emotion inside of me. And, they remain at or near the top of my “island” list.

Bear with me while I dredge up a few specifics about an island or two. Perhaps during your travels you stopped off at one or more of these isles, and I can shake a memory out of your storage banks.

Certainly the British call their land “an island.” I’m going to ignore that definition – it’s too big for me to include. But it has two very interesting islands just off its shores.

One of these gems is referred to as the Channel Islands – a group located in the English Channel. The one I particularly enjoyed was the Isle of Jersey. This island was occupied by the Germans during World War Two, and the remnants of their occupation have been preserved. Guns, uniforms, and an underground hospital – all well worth the visit.

Another enjoyable island off the British coast is the Isle of Man. This outcropping lies between England and Ireland in the Irish Sea. It, too, is loaded with early history. Certainly the Viking influence is mixed in with the British and the Scottish. There is a highway circumventing the island which gives you a great variety of scenery, from huge rock outcroppings to sandy beaches. The low rolling hills amid quaint little cities give it a life of its own. (For those of you who remember the movie Waking Ned Devine, it was filmed in the Isle of Man.)

For those of us who love animals, Kangaroo Island – a short sea trip from Adelaide, Australia – has to be near the top. Here, wandering around totally unchecked and free are wallabies, wombats, koalas, echidnas, as well as the island’s namesake – the kangaroos. No zoo in the world can come close to this collection of free-ranging animals on this small spot of land. Barb got to hold a baby wallaby in her arms, and it cuddled up like a little baby. That feeling is not to be missed.

It was not easy to call Kangaroo Island the best collection of free-ranging animals I’ve visited. The Galapagos run a very close second. The huge lumbering turtles and the blue-footed boobies have to make you smile. The animals, totally unafraid of humans, are a joy to behold. A seal lumbered out of the ocean up to the swimming pool of our hotel – and actually did a few laps in the water. Hard to believe. There are approximately twenty-one islands in this archipelago, and many are populated by only some specific species. Darwin wrote a book about the islands, and I can understand why.

There are innumerable tropical islands that are perfectly suited for relaxing. I could mention many, but the two that stand out for me are Rarotonga (part of the Cook Islands group), and the other – almost on the opposite side of the world – is St. Maarten in the Caribbean. One of the features that made Rarotonga unique for me was the preponderance of churches on this little bit of land. These white-painted houses, with their steeples and bells, are hard to resist. Although the language is quite different, the music tells the story. Most of the singing is acappella – with a leader as soloist and the congregation responding. .

St. Maarten is quite different. This island is owned by two European countries – France and the Netherlands. More on the expensive side and certainly quite cosmopolitan in the cities, but very friendly and congenial off on the back roads.

I did not mean to ignore the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps the best of many in this body of water, in my opinion, is Malta. It strikes a classic balance between sophisticated cities with elegant food and rolling hills with farms plowed by horses. A horse carriage trip around town is a must to study the history of this island. There are sites predating Christ and going back into early recorded history.

I could go on and on, but I’m getting this urge to go into my picture gallery and relive a few of the pleasant times I’ve spent in these places. Maybe I should check my atlas for island I’ve ignored.