Kiribati
Kiritimati
Bonefishers wade endless turquoise flats while millions of seabirds darken the sky above.
The hard-sand flats run out to the horizon on every side, knee-deep and clear, broken only by the shadow of a cruising bonefish. Above them the air fills with seabirds in numbers that defy counting. Kiritimati is the world's largest atoll by land area, and standing in the middle of it feels like standing on the open Pacific itself.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, carries over 320 square kilometres of land wrapped around a vast infilled lagoon: more land than any other atoll on Earth. An estimated six million seabirds use or breed here, several million of them sooty terns, which is why whole zones of the atoll are protected bird habitat. The flats hold bonefish in numbers that draw fly-fishers from every continent, with giant trevally and triggerfish in the skinny water and yellowfin, wahoo and sailfish beyond the reef; local guides born on these flats read the tides, and trips run to a rhythm of six guided days. Captain Cook anchored here on Christmas Eve 1777, and the atoll later hosted British and American nuclear tests before its wildlife became its story. Lodges run full board, because away from the villages there is nothing but flat, lagoon and birds.
Solo
Solo anglers find a meditative rhythm on the flats: wading alone in shin-deep water, stalking tailing bonefish in silence, with seabird calls for company and a guide who grew up reading this tide.
Couple
Trade resort routine for six days of long lagoon horizons: one of you on the flats, both of you under the bird islands by afternoon, and lodge dinners of the day's catch after dark.
Friends
A group fishing week gives everyone the same shared scoreboard: bonefish counted, giant trevally lost and retold, triggerfish tailing at dusk, then the comparison of hands over dinner.
Family
Older children interested in wildlife get a live lesson: millions of nesting seabirds, bonefish shadows in clear shallows, and lagoon edges explored with local guides who know which zones are protected.
- Kiritimati carries more land than any other atoll in the world, over 320 square kilometres wrapped around an immense infilled lagoon.
- An estimated six million seabirds use or breed on the atoll, including several million sooty terns, one of the largest tropical seabird concentrations anywhere.
- The hard-sand flats support world-renowned guided fly-fishing for bonefish, giant trevally and triggerfish, with yellowfin, wahoo and sailfish beyond the reef.
- Fishing lodges run genuine full board with six guided days as the standard trip, so the remoteness is organised for you rather than against you.
Lodge tables run full board on Kiritimati, with fresh coconut water waiting when you come off the flats.
Ask the kitchen for te ika mata, reef fish cured sharp and silky in lime juice and coconut cream, the dish I-Kiribati cooks are proudest of.
Pichilemu
Chile
Pacific swell, black sand and long lunches give Chile's surf town an easy rhythm.
Tiree
Scotland
Scotland's sunniest island lies flat as a table, wind-scoured into surf of rare quality.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
In July the sun sets exactly through the cleft in the Pedra Furada.
Capitólio
Brazil
A dam flooded the canyons, so you sail inside them, and the boatmen cut the engines.
Betio
Kiribati
Rusting Japanese guns still point seaward from beaches where a thousand Marines fell in three days.
North Tarawa
Kiribati
Wade turquoise shallows between villages at low tide; at high water the road becomes a boat.
Abaiang
Kiribati
At high tide the sea surrounds Tebunginako's church; the village choir times services around it.
Kanton
Kiribati
Flying-boat ruins and space-tracking relics rust beside a lagoon kept by forty-one islanders.