November 1, 2012

Lizard Island, Australia (Great Barrier Reef) Oct. 25-29, 2012

LIZARD ISLAND

From Lord Howe we flew to Sydney,  got a taxi to take us to the Four Seasons where we picked up our stored luggage, and returned to the airport for our flight to Cairns with a stopover in Brisbane.  We arrived in Cairns late and stayed in the Harbor Lights Hotel.  At 8:00 am the next morning we were at Hinterland Aviation for our private flight to Lizard Island aboard a Cessna 310.  This plane looks like a mosquito and our pilot is 23 years old.
Not a very big plane.

Our pilot was 23 years old
 But what a beautiful flight.  We flew up the middle of the Great Barrier Reef looking down on an ocean route that would have been taken by Captain James Cook in 1770 as he sailed north looking for a way to escape from the treacherous sailing within the Great Barrier Reef.  Since the time of Captain Cook there has been 600 shipwrecks on this reef system.

Views from the plane to the reef 8000 feet below

Amazingly clear water with coral and sand seen from the plane

The Runway


Our first view of Lizard Island.  The freighter brings supplies every two weeks.


Barb on the plane


The airport at Lizard Island

Captain Cook named Lizard Island in 1770.  He had sailed from England and spent 23 months on the ocean before landing on mainland Australia close to modern day Sydney.  He named the area Botany Bay because he found so many plants that were not known in his world.  He rested 9 days and then sailed north up the coast and struck a coral outcrop of the Great Barrier Reef.  It ripped a clean hole in the side of his ship and he had to throw cannons and ballast overboard in order to float the ship free of the reef with the aid of a high tide.  The crew wrapped a sail over the hole and limped into a safe harbor now named Cooktown.  For 48 days the crew repaired the boat and foraged for food and managed not to be killed by the native Aborigine tribes.  [Cook was later killed in Hawaii by the native Hawaiians when he was speared as a test to see whether he was a God.Cook thought he could escape the reef by sailing to the north.  When they set sail again it became increasingly difficult to navigate through a narrowing channel through the Great Barrier Reef.  When Cook was caught between shallow reef on the mainland side and waves crashing on the ribbon outer reef he decided to climb the highest island to see if he could see an escape out to sea.

Map of the great barrier reef.  Lizard Island is the orange island on the top right.

Close up of Lizard Island

As he climbed he noticed that large lizards (one to two meters tip to tail) were “pretty plenty” so he named the island Lizard Island.  When he reached the top (now named “Cook’s Look”) he could see for 20 miles and he found a deep water break in the outer reef where waves crash on coral on either side of the deep water.  Today this is called Cook’s Passage and it is still used today as the safe exit to the north out of the Great Barrier Reef.  Captain Cook’s charts with distances and depths are amazingly accurate.

When we arrive at Lizard Island Resort we have breakfast and arrange for activities.  This is the only resort this far north into the Great Barrier Reef.  It is set in a National Park so independent yachts, sail and motor, can moor in a restricted area in Watson Bay and are allowed to come on shore for the Cook’s Look hike but the rest of the island and the airstrip and helipad and resort facilities are for exclusive use of the few guests of the Resort.  We are given our own motorboat for our use to explore the 24 deserted beaches around the island and surrounding islands.  We showed our scuba dive certification cards and arrange to dive twice on the outer ribbon reef including at the world famous “Cod Hole” where you can swim with 500 to 1000 lb giant Potato Cod.
First view of our lodge

Dining area

Having lunch

Lobby


Pool area that we never used.  The ocean is the best pool.


Our bedroom


Scott on the deck

 That afternoon we have them throw some drinks and lunch into a cooler on our boat and we go to Turtle Beach.  We snorkel, lounge, and goof off.  This is a little bit of heaven.  Giant Clams are everywhere.  Each one has different coloring since florescent microorganisms attach themselves to the clams.
Scott, the skipper of the dinghy

Lots of private beaches


Gourmet lunch box


Our dinghy parked at our personal beach


Barb Snorkeling


Giant clam shell with a starfish

 Our room has a nice view of the sunsets over the Coral Sea.

Our room is on the hill with sunset views

Sunset the first night taken from our room
Sunset the second night
Another day in paradise means we want to do the same thing.  We have a gourmet lunch with all the drinks we want put into coolers and we are off to find the best snorkeling and the most private, secluded, secret beach that we can find.  We are not disappointed and we wrap up another perfect day in paradise.
Barb's idea of beach art
Back out on our own
Take me to my beach


Self portrait


We took these photos with an underwater camera

Beautiful coral

Colorful fish and coral

Lots of varieties of fish


More of Barb's beach artwork

On Saturday we have arranged to go to the outer ribbon reefs to make a couple of deep water dives on the Great Barrier Reef.  Our first dive is at Cod Hole where we will dive with the Giant Potato Cod.  This is one of the most famous dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef and is only accessible on a day trip from our Lizard Island Resort.  Any other diver who makes his way out this far must spend multiple nights on a boat to get there and back.
Looking back at Anchor Bay and the fishing boat available to Lizard Island guests
 On the way out we spot a group of dolphins jumping in and out of the water.  Our Skipper steers over toward the dolphins and the dolphins turn and begin to ride and jump in the swell pushed forward by the bow of our boat.  The dolphins are having so much fun jumping, darting, and flying on the wave.  It is no wonder that sailors love the dolphins.   What a beautiful sight.
Barb points to the dancing dolphins

The middle one wins by a nose

Barb is having as much fun as the dolphins

Scott
 Our Skipper told us that there are only 3 or 4 days per year that are this nice for weather, water visibility, and flat water.  It is a beautiful day.  I guess we are just lucky.
If you can't be good, you might as well be lucky.
We anchored our big cruiser boat on a mooring near the Cod Hole dive site and we stepped into a dinghy while wearing our scuba tanks.  We are a group of 5.  There is Barb and I and a resort guest from London and we have 2 dive masters from the Resort.  We will be well cared for under water during our dive.
 
Scott with our tanks
Barb is excited to go
Barb with all the gear

Scott in the dinghy

The coral and fish are amazing.  This is the Great Barrier Reef!!!!  Yahoo!!!  Right away we spot a Bump Headed Parrot Fish.  These guys create about 5 tons of sand per year by chewing up the reef.    They say the top of their heads is filled with oil to offset the heavy bones in their jaws and skull.

Barb is on the left
Trumpet fish


 
We saw two white tipped sharks resting under a ledge.  We are happy that they seem to be sleeping.
White tipped sharks

LOOK.  Here are the Giant Potato Cod.

These guys are big.

Barb chasing a potato cod

Why the sad face?

 Here is a beautiful school of Sweet Lips fish.

Huge school

Beautiful colors

After a gourmet lunch we head over to our next dive site.  We are going to do a wall dive on Reef Number 10.  The ocean floor falls away to a depth of 2000 meters on the outside of the wall.  We only dive to a depth of about 60 feet.  Colors begin to disappear when you go deeper than 20 feet in the water.
Reef wall

Scott

Barb

Parrot fish

This one looks florescent



Barb getting out after her dive

Some of the fish we saw


More fish

As we were pulling into Lizard Island Anchor Bay after a beautiful day of diving the first mate got onto the dive platform and began dipping a dead fish in the water.  He said he was chumming for a 700 lb Grouper that lives here.  Instead of getting the Grouper we soon had about 5 Black Tipped Sharks chasing the dead fish. 
Chumming with a mackerel

Black tipped sharks
                                                                  Video of the sharks
On Sunday we take our boat at 9:00 am and explore the west side of Lizard Island.  We motor through the Blue Lagoon past the Great Barrier Reef Research Station.  
The blue lagoon

We stop on a deserted beach and play ball with some coconuts.
Passing deserted beaches
Ready to go in our dinghy

Coconut bowling

We motor back to the east side of the island and go snorkeling in Mermaid Cove.

Then we went back to Watson’s Bay and anchored our boat in chest deep water since the tide was going out, and we began a hike to the top of the Island following Captain Cooks steps when he hiked to the top to find a way out of the treacherous reef system.
Starting our hike
Incredible views
A bit rocky

We watched a plane come in for a landing

View of Watson's Beach
 We came across this lizard.  He is about 1 ½ meters long.  They say these lizards are related to the Komodo Dragon Lizard found in Indonesia.  This lizard has a long forked tongue.  We are glad this guy is not aggressive.

He had a forked tongue
We saw this guy by our room.
The views along the way to the top are spectacular.

Barb along the trail
Scott along the trail

Time for a little rest

The views just keep getting better



Scott on top
 At the top there is a dial that indicates where Cooks Passage is located.  The deep water passage is clearly visible today.  
Barb is pointing to Cooks Passage
 From this vantage point high on an island mountain you can see the safe passage out of the reef.  You can see the whitewater breaking on the ribbon reef on either side of the safe passage. 

After our hike we motored our dinghy over to the south side of the island to Hibiscus Beach to enjoy our gourmet lunch, Tasmanian sparkling wine, and complete privacy on a deserted beach.  Did I mention that this is HEAVEN !!!!
Barb is having fun
Monday is our last day.  We want to snorkel in a new spot so we load up our boat with our snorkel gear and some drinks and head toward the Blue Lagoon.  The water is a little rough but we get the anchor on the dinghy to hold so we suit up and jump in to see what there is to see.  We fought the current to get 50 yards offshore to get on top of the reef.  The coral is nice but there are not many fish.  The current is strong and we have to swim parallel to the beach to make it back to shore.
The winds have shifted and are running parallel to Anchor Bay instead of directly offshore.  So, Scott grabs a catamaran and does a little sailing.
Scott out sailing

Then we had fun with the stand-up paddleboards.  These boards are 10.5 feet and are much more stable than the boards we used on Koh Samui Island, Thailand.

This board was more stable
Look at that woman go!
There was a marlin fishing contest while we were there.  They were catching (and releasing) marlins this big.  They were 1200 pounds and about 3 meters long.

It is time to fly back to Cairns on a Cessna Caravan.  We will spend the night in Cairns and catch a 7:30 am flight for our 2.5 hour flight to Ayres Rock.
































































































































































































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