Aah Lizard Island, so much beauty in one place. With so much to offer, there's definitely a few days worth of exploring on this stunning island.
Watson Bay
First order of the day was a snorkel of course. Straight off the beach too. Gotta love that. The reef was nothing short of spectacular. All the usual beautiful tropical fish and coral were there but I've noticed that as we get further north there are some extra little beauties. And big beauties too. Hiding in little caves in the coral were some rather large coral trout, grouper, stripey seaperch and the most vibrant large yellowfin surgeonfish. I saw a lagoon ray with beautiful blue spots sharing a hidey hole with a large steephead parrotfish. They both shot out of their hole faster than I could film them.
So, more variety, more excitement and more photos.
parrotfish
yellowfin surgeonfish
coral trout
giant clam, over 1 metre across
Captain Cook's lookout is the highest point of the island and it's where Captain Cook surveyed the coral reefs he had to navigate through to get to the mainland.
There was quite the procession on the walk/climb to the top, 9 of us in total. It's not too hard a climb but some of us, like me, needed a few stops to catch our breath and take in the views as Lizard Island revealed herself to us. Even from half way up the views were spectacular. At the top though, the views took your breath away. We've had some heavily clouded days for several days now but this day gave us sunshine that lit up the waters and showed the amazing turquoise, aqua and blue waters around Lizard Island.
The island was laid out before us to feast our eyes on. From here you could see the very exclusive resort, the runway for flying in the very wealthy guests for the very exclusive resort (prices start from $2500 per night), the research station and all the reefs around the island.
We could see the blue lagoon on the opposite side from our anchorage and part of the track to follow to get there. That definitely deserved some exploration.
The motley crew
The next day dawned back to heavy cloud and strong winds but 5 of us were up for the challenge of finding the Blue Lagoon. Along sandy tracks, through grassy fields, up sand hills we trudged. We came out on a beach that wasn't the Blue Lagoon, mmmm...., found a resting spot and watched a brave kite surfer tackle the blowy bay.
On we forged, just a hint of a goat track to follow through dense foliage. As we broke through the last of the heavy greenery, Blue Lagoon opened up before us. It was so beautiful we all just stopped and stared. And did alot of "wow"ing.
We had the whole bay to ourselves as we roamed the beach, climbed big boulders, collected rubbish (doing our bit for the environment) and made a driftwood monument to make our mark. Without the sun, the colours of the waters were hidden from their normal glory and snorkelling was off the cards. Too much wind, too much choppiness, too many clouds. No regrets though because it was still such an awesome place to hang out.
A couple of evenings a week the Marlin bar opens for the resort staff. Yachties are welcome at that bar so we scored a couple of nights off cooking and some wonderful social times with the other grotty yachties anchored in Watson bay.
Lizard Island had been on our bucket list of 'must see' places so we crossed that off as 'well explored'.
Until next time, Watusi Woman - lover of Lizard, out.
[//]:# (!pinmapple -14.675146 lat 145.452047 long Lizard Island, Far North Queensland d3scr
