Lizard Island

Lizard Island is a ruggedly beautiful island on the northern Great Barrier Reef in Tropical North Queensland. Lizard boasts 24 pristine beaches that range from white sand to rocky escarpments. Lizard Island is renowned for its scuba diving and snorkelling and is surrounded by coral reefs, ribbon and lagoon reefs.

There are many walks one which is Cook's lookout. Captain James Cook climbed the peak on Lizard Island to chart a course out to sea through the maze of reefs which confronted him. Above are photos of the view and an interesting dial showing how far we were from everything. Sydney over 2,00o miles with Darwin 500 miles. It takes about 3 hours with a book at the top recording everyone who has done the trek. Looking out to the horizon you can see where Cook was able to get out past the reef.

There is also the Research Station. The Lizard Island Research Station is a world-leading supplier of on-reef facilities for coral reef research and education. The Research Station is owned and operated by the Australian Museum and is supported by the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation and the Coral Reef and Marine Science Foundation. We went there for a tour and found it most interesting. Shame there is not more funding available for such a valuable resource.

Every night sundowners were available on the beach. This was to have a drink on the beach and watch the sun go down. There were so many interesting people. Two people of note were Frank Robson (Frank talks about his dog Lucky and has published a book) and Leisa Scott. (Leisa writes about the Marlin event) Both journalists they had some interesting stories. Click on the links to read more.

Day 150 Cooktown to Lizard Island

We left on our last leg north today! With a mixture of emotions excitement and a little sadness we headed off with slight SE/E winds onto Lizard Island. At this part of the Queensland coast the reef comes very close to the coast and therefore is the main shipping channel. We saw many large tankers on our way to Lizard. On the way we stopped at a majical place for lunch and had a swim before heading to our final destination north. We came in late that afternoon and it would seem the island is quite unique and well worth the trip to get here. There were many boats (approximately 20) and this was the sunset.

Day 148 Hope Island - Cooktown

Finally the wind eased for us to move onto Cooktown. Cooktown is a small frontier town located in the far north of Tropical North Queensland. Cooktown boasts a unique character that is evidenced from its years of geographic isolation and hard-living, but it is this local charm that makes it all the more appealing. Add to this the unspoilt natural beauty of the area, and you'll really feel like you've stumbled back in time and across a local secret. Cooktown is Australia's first non-indigenous settlement, discovered and settled by Captain Cook and his crew in 1770. It was the site of the first white 'settlement' in Australia when Captain James Cook, having accidentally struck the Great Barrier Reef off the coast north of Cape Tribulation, struggled up the coast and beached the H.M. Barque Endeavour on the shores of the Endeavour River. Cook and his crew were to stay on the river's edge from 17 June to 4 August, 1770: the greatest amount of time they were to spend at any one location in Australia.
There are no fewer than six monuments to Captain Cook in the town. Sadly while we were there a man was taken by a crocodile. (there were drag marks into the river) There are signs everywhere and click here for the brochure made freely available. We certainly kept an eye out as we were anchored very close to the attack!

Day 144 Lowe Isles - Hope Island

We moved onto Hope Island with a very nice sail SE/E 10- 15 knots. We were fortunate to be able to take on the Barrier Reef mooring and settled down for the night. In the afternoon we dinghied (is there such a word? lol) around the island and there was plenty of bird and sea life. You could work around the island in about 10 minutes.

Well, the wind blew up that night and we were at the island for the next four days. We met some interesting people during the stay. Family who had been sialing for the past twenty years with three of the children being born on the boat. They had been to Japan and back and were now headed to Thursday Island. Another interesting couple inlcuded Ben Cropp who is well known to Australian divers, particlarly those of my vintage who had the pleasure of knowing him in the 1970s and 80s, and seeing his films on the dive congress circuit. He is a passionate diver, rsearcher, author and film-maker. Very interesting discussions were had on avoiding crocodiles and sharks.

Interesting we could get TV reception and managed to watch Cronulla and Warriors beaten in the NRL finals!

Day 143 Cairns to Lowe Isles

The Lowe Isles consists of a series of small uninhabited islands. This protected environment is home to white sandy beaches, spectacular corals, birds and giant sea turtles. The reef around Low Isles comprises of 150 species of hard corals and is dominated by 15 species of soft corals. Living amongst the corals in the blue lagoon are a large variety of reef fish including angelfish, damselfish, anemones, giant trevally, sweetlip, fusiliers and many green turtles are sighted daily. Everyone we meet loved this spot but we were not impressed. Too may tourists and the beach was not as impressive as we were led to believe. Perhaps we have raised the standard from all of the other beautiful islands we have been too!

Day 140 - 142 Cairns

Came into Cairns after being blown away at Green Island. We fortunate enough to be in Cairns when the Cairns Yacht Club had its last night. (Saturday Night and they are moving to a new place) Great night and we shared this with Terry and Kim off Easy Rider (they have a beautiful boat built by Terry) We have been travelling with them and they are from Moloolooba. We watched the finals at the Casino and were disappointed when Brisbane were defeated!!

Day 139 - 140 Green Island

Green Island is a very unique island. It is one of 300 sand cays on the Great Barrier Reef, but it is the only one with a rainforest. A true coral cay, Green Island is around 6000 years old and was formed by a build up of sand sediments, animal and coral deposits to above sea level. It is 15 hectares (approx 37 acres) in size and takes around 45 minutes to walk around. It was very commercial and over 300,000 people visit every year. The wind blew and blew so we only stayed for one night.

Day 137 - 138 Fitzroy Island

Fitzroy Island is located approx. 35 kilometres (18 nautical miles) south east of Cairns. Fitzroy Island is one of 600 Continental or High islands on the Great Barrier Reef. It is located on the inner barrier of the central region of the Great Barrier Reef, and is part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The views from the Lighthouse are not to be missed nor are the views from the Summit which provide a panoramic 360 degree outlook of the island, its amazing rainforest and reef lapping at it's doorstep. We did all the walks and there was some great dives of a trampoline in the middle of the bay. Click here to watch some video footage.

Day 136 High Island

We left early in the morning and there was virtually no wind and we had about 50 miles to cover. We ended up getting a mooring at High Island, a memebr of the Familty group of islands.

Day 134 - 135 Dunk Island

Finally Jim and Maxie were well enough for us to press on to Dunk Island. A great sail and we stopped off at Wheeler Island, beautiful Island and spectacular day. We finally made it to Dunk late that afternoon. This is the third time we have been Dunk so we very excited about getting there.

This is an arial view from the top of the mountain and the three tiered pool we swam inafter climbing to the top! How exhausting, but great to relax in the pool.

Day 128 - 133 Hinchinbrook Island Marina

Although unexpected we have spent the past few days in at the marina. There is a tennis court and swimming pool but 3 kilometres from Cardwell shops. (which are a mini supermarket and a fruit shop only) Jim has been quite ill with influenza and Maxie very ill with a tic. (both are well on the road to recovery) So we are having a rest to make sure all the crew is ready for the last stages of our trip. So some pictures of the marina and surrounds.

Zoe Bay, Hinchinbrook Island

A special mention of Zoe Bay. Through tropical jungle rainforest, skirts around mangrove forests and swamps before breaking out of the jungle onto the magnificent Zoe Bay beach. It is then just a short walk up to the famous Zoe Waterfall. South Zoe creek cascades over the falls into the crystal clear pool that has made Zoe Bay famous. You may have to share this pool with visitors from cruising yachts but we were very lucky the day we went and had the waterfall all to ourselves.

The only issue we had was the thought there were crodiles. Signs such as these were everywhere. But we were lucky not to see any that day!

Day 126 - 127 Hinchbrook Island

One of the highlights of our last trip was the beautiful Hinchinbrook island and it didn't disappoint this time. It is Australia's largest island National Park and is separated from the mainland by the deep, narrow, mangrove-fringed Hinchinbrook Channel, scoured from sand and mud by strong tidal currents. Rising to 1121 metres in the centre of the island are the jagged battlements of Mt Bowen, largest in the chain of rugged granite crags forming the backbone of the island's southern half. The island is approximately 37.4km. long and 10km. wide. The National Park covers 39,300 hectares.

Day 124 - 125 Magnetic to Orpheus Island

Great weather and headed off north now that Jim has rejoined the trip. He had a great time at the Hamilton Island Race but was exhausted. We headed to a wonderful place.. Orpheus Island part of the Palm Island Group. The water is very clear and great snorkelling and the walks wonderful. There is a Research Station on the island which we were fortunate to visit. The following are some pictures: