The Blowholes is one of the most iconic hiking spots on Christmas Island, one of the spots featured in David Attenborough's 1988 documentary of the island. It's also one of the best places to see the male red crabs after they have mated with the females and returned to their jungle nests.
In my mission to visit every country and territory in the world (a total standing at 269), I sometimes end up booking trips to visit some of the world's most remote places and undertaking serious bucket-list worthy adventures.
We are basing ourselves in Australia for a year, traveling around the country in a campervan. Given it's the biggest country in Oceania, it's also the perfect opportunity to visit some of the many islands surrounding it across the Indian and South Pacific Oceans.
I spent six weeks backpacking around Australia back in 2019, one of my first solo adventures and my first on a one-way ticket. During my two years I would end up living down under, mostly based out of New Zealand, I also visited Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Samoa, scratching the surface of these fascinating island nations dotting great expanses of open ocean.
When mapping out the rough corners of our year-ish down under, planning to land in Sydney at the beginning of October, I realized it would be the perfect timing to fly out to Christmas Island six weeks later from Perth. Primarily to witness the world famous red crab migration, we spent a week on Christmas Island and explored all the other things to do on the island aside from looking for crabs.
→ Check out my complete guide to witnessing the red crab migration!
When: year-round; crabs are visible all year round, although most likely to be out of their jungle burrows during the wet season from October to April
Where: the start of this hike depends on the red crab migration as roads can be closed across the island; when we hiked this, we had to park our car quite far away
Difficulty: easy, just watch out for red crabs all over the forest floor!
Length: again, this depends on how far out the roads are closed from the Blowholes. Based on where we had to park, we hiked a 5km return trail.
Directions: follow the Google Maps GPS as far as you can down Blowholes Road. Once it's closed, you'll simply need to park and keep walking down the road. The last few hundred metres are boardwalked with informative signs.
→ Check out my exact route on Strava!
Bathrooms: no
Public Transit: there is no public transit on Christmas Island, you'll need to rent a 4WD to get around the island
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Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.
