Nauru
My day on Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, began at 5:45am. It finished at 6:25pm the same day.
There’s not much on Nauru. By area, it’s the second smallest country in the world. I had a tour of the island, which only took 2 hours. My comprehensive tour of the entire country was only AUD$25. The circumference of Nauru is only about 20km.
The centre of the island was in total desolation, and looked like an ecological nightmare. After all the phosphate has been mined out, there is not much of Nauru left. The golf course had no grass, the airport runway runs alongside the Parliament and government offices and the national bird, frigate birds, are kept in nets to make sure they don’t fly away.
I visited Nauru well before the infamy of the Tampa, refugees and detention centres arose. It seems that now the detention centre has closed, Nauru is having some real troubles that go to the core of its survival. Some sort of rehabilitation of the island is reportedly planned, but have a look at the photos and see how easy you think that might be. What does the future have in store for this tiny Pacific country?
