Could we make something work?
Of course.
But, it wouldn’t be the Swell Lodge experience, and we don’t believe the island should have to compromise for us to provide one. So we close.
We hand the roads and rainforest back. The island moves at the crabs’ pace for a while, and they get on with something they have been doing here for thousands of years. Then, when the migration is over and the dry season returns, we open our doors again.
The red crabs wont disappear. You’ll still find them wandering through the rainforest, beside walking trails and occasionally going about their business around the lodge.
There just won’t be 60 million of them trying to get to the ocean at the same time.
If the migration is what you most want to visit for -
Please still visit and explore our beautiful island.
The annual red crab migration is something worth travelling across the world to witness. We simply don’t think Swell Lodge is the right place to experience it from. During migration season, we recommend basing yourself in town, where you can stay close to the action and adapt easily as the crabs and road closures to move across the island.
Our friends at Indian Ocean Experiences specialise in Christmas Island's migration season, with accommodation packages, guiding and the local knowledge to know where the action is happening on any given morning.
Swell Lodge welcomes guests from 1 May to 31st October each year.
We choose not to open during the red crab migration - here’s why.
Our season runs from May to the end of October.
When our last guests depart for the year, we close the doors, park the vehicles and hand the island back to the crabs.
A few weeks later, the rains arrive.
Tens of millions of Christmas Island red crabs emerge from the forest and begin their extraordinary annual journey to the sea. They move through rainforest, across roads and over almost anything in their path, transforming the island as they go.
It is one of the greatest wildlife migrations on Earth - and for a few remarkable weeks, the crabs have right of way.
As the migration builds, Parks Australia closes roads across the island to protect them. Sometimes for a few hours. Sometimes for days.
Swell Lodge sits in a particularly wild corner of Christmas Island, on the far west coast and is one of the only luxury lodges that are set within a Federally managed National Park. Our property sits deep within the rainforest and every journey to and from our eco-chalets crosses country the crabs migrate through.
When those roads close, there is no alternate route.
No airport transfers. No heading into town. No driving out for lunch or disappearing to a secluded beach for a picnic.
We hold permits for crab-safe vehicle attachments and use them when driving genuinely can’t be avoided. But during the migration, the safest vehicle for a red crab is one that stays parked.