The Rock Islands

The Rock Islands are three hundred islands of limestone south of Koror, in the lagoon of Palau, undercut by the sea into green mushrooms on stems of rock — the Chelbacheb, a World Heritage site since 2012 as the Southern Lagoon, and, seen from the air, one of the great shapes on the planet. Among them: Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk, a marine lake where millions of golden jellyfish that lost their sting over the ages migrate across the water with the sun each day and a swimmer floats among them; the Milky Way, a cove whose white limestone mud the boatmen scoop up for the skin; Ulong, where the reality show was filmed and the rock art is older; Ngermeaus and the beaches of the lunch stops; the Seventy Islands of Ngerukewid, a reserve no one may land on, kept for the turtles and the birds; and, on the outer reef, the German Channel cut by the Germans for the phosphate boats, where the mantas come to be cleaned, and Blue Corner, where the divers hook onto the reef edge in the current and the grey reef sharks pass in the blue — by common consent among the finest dives on Earth. Palau made the first shark sanctuary in the world in 2009 and closed eighty per cent of its waters to fishing in 2020; and since 2017 every visitor signs the Palau Pledge in the passport on arrival, a promise to the children of Palau to tread lightly. To the south, Peleliu keeps the memory of the battle of 1944 — two months, more than twelve thousand dead — in its caves and its rusted amtracs, held in dignity.

The traveller flies to Koror — from Manila, Taipei or Guam — sleeps in the town, and takes the boats out every morning: a day of the lakes and the beaches, with the kayak in the coves and the marine lake in the afternoon light; a second for the Milky Way, Ulong and the long beach; two days of diving for Blue Corner, the German Channel, Ulong Channel and the Blue Holes with an operator who knows the tides; a day to Peleliu with a guide who walks the battlefield with respect; and the Belau National Museum and the bai of the chiefs in Koror for the country. The traveller who has the days adds Babeldaob, the big island, for the stone monoliths of Badrulchau, the waterfalls and the capital in the jungle at Ngerulmud.

The Guide's honesty: the Rock Islands are managed and it shows — the permit for the lagoon and the lake is fifty and a hundred dollars, the boats are licensed, the lake closed to visitors from 2016 to 2018 when the jellyfish crashed in a drought and reopened when they returned, and the traveller swims there without fins and without sunscreen because the rules are the lake's; the diving is for the competent, and Blue Corner in a running tide is not the place to learn; the flights are few and not cheap; Peleliu is a battlefield with unexploded ordnance still in its jungle and the traveller keeps to the paths; and the lake at Eil Malk at midday, with the sun coming down through a million pulsing golden bells around a swimmer's still hands, is one of the gentlest wonders on this planet, which is why Palau asks for a promise on the way in.