We had booked Lizard Island based on their reviews way back in 2020. Because of Covid, we had to cancel those plans, but we were happy to give it another go this time! Lizard Island is considered the best luxury lodge in Australia, attracting all sorts of billionaires, A-List actors and the overall extremely wealthy. No, we don’t fit any of those categories, but we can afford to snuggle up next to them for 4 days. To be honest, everybody here has been perfectly normal, just really happy to spend some time in a special place.
The flight to Lizard Island is via a smallish plane, and there were only 8 of us guests and 2 staff members on the flight. Here is a shot looking towards the cockpit. No co-pilot, so my fingers were crossed he didn’t have a sudden heart attack. He was my age, meaning “old”, which means anything could happen! I do still have my pilot’s license, but I really didn’t want to have to crawl up there and attempt to land the plane!
Kim and I sat in the side seats, back to back. The better for “selfie” style photos. The photo style was her idea, not mine!
The flight heads over portions of the Great Barrier Reef, so it’s quite scenic. This is looking south down the coast right after takeoff.
We flew right over this reef with a tiny sand island in the middle of it. This would be a very cool spot for a visit. That island may only exist at low tide, but it looks enticing!
We passed this huge reef not too far from Lizard Island. These reefs were the bane of Captain Cook’s existence when he visited this area in 1770.
This little island was actually visited by Captain Cook after he checked out Lizard Island. It’s called Eagle Island as they shot two Eagles here on their way back to their ship, the Endeavor. It’s amazing that many of the initial place names given by Captain Cook remain to this day.
Here is the runway of Lizard Island as we approach for our landing. You can see how small the island is, as the runway takes up nearly 75% of the overall width.
Once on Terra Firma, you are reminded of where you are. Lizard Island became a National Park in 1939.
As we were entering the site via golf carts, we saw multiple monitor lizards with give Lizard Island it’s name. When Captain Cook first visited in 1770, he noted the only wildlife he saw was lizards, hence the name.
We were escorted to a much needed lunch, and met with this incredible view from the dining room.
We did some swimming and snorkeling on the beach, then headed back to our humble room, where we saw this view near sunset.
The sunset over “Sunset Beach” was excellent. I will make a point of visiting this spot each night just before 6:00 PM.
This lizard made an appearance during the sunset, checking me out before slithering away in the underbrush.
That night during dinner we had live entertainment, an excellent musician that the ladies liked looking at named Mason Lloyd. Mason has an incredible voice! Excellent musician! I think I have a man-crush on him!
We chatted for a bit and I let him know about our new favorite musician, Stephen Wilson Jr. He said he’d look him up and see if he could get one of his songs figured out before we left. Sure enough, the next night he performed “Father’s Son”, and did an incredible job on it. Wow, what talent! I asked him if he could figure out a recent release with Stephen and Dierks Bentley, and hopefully I’ll get a video of him performing it.
The next morning it was dumping rain, so we spent the morning indoors. After lunch we got cabin fever and took a hike across the island to Blue Lagoon. You actually hike along the edge of the runway but stay clear of the asphalt as you never know when a plane is going to land.
There is another sign advising you where you are on the edge of the beach.
This is called Mangrove Beach, but we didn’t walk out to the mangrove trees in the distance.
We were quite surprised with how much trash was washed up on this beach, an assortment of plastic water bottles, plastic tops, flip flops and toothbrushes. The resort apparently comes out and cleans from time to time but the trash washes up continuously.
I asked Paul, one of the managers about this, and he said it all drifts over from Indonesia and the Philippines. This beach is impacted more than others since it’s where the wind blows ashore. If we had trash bags with us we might have been there for a few hours!
Captain Cook was attracted to this island as it had the highest viewpoints where he wanted to seek a path out of the Great Barrier Reef. Most of the other islands in the area are pretty flat.
It stopped raining in time for us to walk back along the runway. Thank goodness we have waterproof shoes!
For the second sunset I went down onto Sunset Beach to get some shots with the rocks along the edge of the water.
This is such a beautiful spot!
At dinner that night I took a photo of fellow guests Reese and Elliott from New York (on the left) and Brian and Gina from Los Altos, CA. Lizard Island attracts a lot of Americans, particularly from California!
Up next, we spend two more days on Lizard Island, eat too much, and see lots of lizards!
Great sunset shots 👏🏻👏🏻