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.
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| Not a very big plane. |
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| 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.
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| Views from the plane to the reef 8000 feet below |
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| Amazingly clear water with coral and sand seen from the plane |
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| The Runway |
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| Our first view of Lizard Island. The freighter brings supplies every two weeks. |
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| Barb on the plane |
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| 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.
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| Map of the great barrier reef. Lizard Island is the orange island on the top right. |
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| 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.
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| First view of our lodge |
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| Dining area |
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| Having lunch |
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| Lobby |
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| Pool area that we never used. The ocean is the best pool. |
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| Our bedroom |
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| 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.
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| Scott, the skipper of the dinghy |
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| 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.
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| Barb's idea of beach art |
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| Back out on our own |
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| Take me to my beach |
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| Self portrait |
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| We took these photos with an underwater camera |
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| Beautiful coral |
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| Colorful fish and coral |
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| Lots of varieties of fish |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Barb points to the dancing dolphins |
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| The middle one wins by a nose |
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| Barb is having as much fun as the dolphins |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Scott with our tanks |
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| Barb is excited to go |
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| Barb with all the gear |
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| 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.
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| Barb is on the left |
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| Trumpet fish |
We saw two white tipped sharks resting under a ledge.
We are happy that they seem to be
sleeping.
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| White tipped sharks |
LOOK.
Here are
the Giant Potato Cod.
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| These guys are big. |
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| 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.
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| Reef wall |
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| Chumming with a mackerel |
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| 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.
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| The blue lagoon |
We stop on a deserted beach and play ball with some
coconuts.
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| Passing deserted beaches |
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| Ready to go in our dinghy |
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| 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.
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| Starting our hike |
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| Incredible views |
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| A bit rocky |
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| We watched a plane come in for a landing |
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| View of Watson's Beach |
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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.
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| He had a forked tongue |
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| We saw this guy by our room. |
The views along the way to the top are spectacular.
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| Barb along the trail |
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| Scott along the trail |
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| Time for a little rest |
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| The views just keep getting better |
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| 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.
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| 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 !!!!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| This board was more stable |
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| Look at that woman go! |
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| 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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