Petersontravels

Fair warning, my Captain Cook “geek mode” applies to this post.  I have an affinity for historical maritime figures, and none come bigger than Cook!

On our last morning, before our flight back to Cairns, I got up at 0640 as I wanted to hike up to the spot Captain Cook climbed in August 1770, known as “Cook’s Look”.  The staff suggest hiking this early as it can get very hot later in the morning.  I had no choice, as our flight off the island departed shortly after noon.

I had arranged for a Zodiac to take me from the resorts beach over to Watson’s Bay to the start of the trail.  Here is a shot in front of the beach as I waited for the Zodiac to get ready.

Now, bear in mind, every thing I read about this trail said it was “hard” to “very difficult”.  I will admit, the first part was hard just to find!  The trail is incredibly overgrown with grass, so I had to double back at first as I couldn’t imagine where I was initially hiking was correct.  I eventually made my way onto the main path.  After about 20 minutes I stopped to take this photo.  Watson’s Bay is in the foreground, with Lizard’s sister islands “South Island” on the left and “Palfrey Island” on the right.

These pretty little blue flowers were everywhere along the trail, along with an assortment of small lizards.  I didn’t see any monitor lizards.  Either Captain Cook saw them on the beach, or he really named the island for the little lizards?

It took me about 75 minutes to reach the top, which was far better than I expected based on everything I had read/heard. This shot is looking towards the west, with the Lizard Island resort below.  Despite what I was told you will not get a 360 degree view at the top, as the summit is quite large with a lot of vegetation, so you have to walk around a bit to see in each direction.

Here is the sign letting you know you made it to the top with a view towards the east.  Cook saw massive surf breaking in this direction, but the way the sun was hitting the ocean I didn’t see any waves.  As you can see in the photo you can barely see the ocean in that direction and it nearly blends in with the horizon.

There is a Compass Rose on the summit with distances to various locations listed on the rose.  There is supposed to be a log book to record your visit, but I couldn’t find it.

Another view looking west, with Eagle Island, another island Cook visited, in the distant upper left.  The viewpoint from here allowed Cook to see a passage between Lizard Island and Eagle Island to the northwest that allowed him to reach the open ocean.  He must have had much better vision than me to have seen this, as I could only see the reefs nearby.

This is the view from the summit looking down on Watson’s Bay, with the reef clearly visible.

As I descended from the summit I took this shot towards the north.  The trail before me looks quite easy, as at that point it wasn’t steep at all.  The trail heads this direction for about a half mile before turning to the left and heading steeply down.

A shot of Lizard Island Resort from about halfway down the trail, with tiny Eagle Island in the distance to the right.

The below photo was taken about 15 minutes from the end of the trail.  The resort gave me a radio to call them when I was at this point, and the Zodiac picked me up just as I got off the trail.  Look at that water in Watson’s Bay!

My take on the trail is the first 0.3 miles are a bitch, but after that it’s fairly easy, with a few steep inclines and some steps.  If you hike a lot and don’t mind overgrown trails, you’ll be fine.  I did the entire thing in 2 hours 15 minutes, and I’m not in the best shape.  Captain Cook “geek mode” off (for now)!

Sadly we had to leave the island, and our flight left on time at 1225.  Here is a video of our departure from Lizard Island, over the gorgeous “Blue Lagoon”!

On the way back to Cairns we flew over numerous reefs.  It was a perfect day for photos!  Since the Australians are very literal in everything they name, this is “Two Islands Reef” (I’ll be honest, I think I see a lot of small islands outside of the two, but let’s not tell the Aussies).

Just a little further south is “Three Islands Reef”.  Many of others are just one island, so I guess they had to get more original.

A little further south is “Endeavor Reef”, so named as Captain Cook’s ship ran aground on this reef on June 11, 1770.  To refloat the ship they had to toss 6 cannons and some ballast into the ocean.  Interestingly, some divers found the 6 cannons and ballast in 1969, verifying this was the site of the grounding.  The Endeavor had to be repaired and pulled into what is now known as the Endeavor River (Cook left his mark everywhere) where the ship spent several weeks getting patched up.  According to Cooks log, a large piece of coral was stuck in the hole of the vessel, and had it not been for that the ship would have surely sunk right there next to the reef.

Our next flight from Cairns to Brisbane was uneventful, which is how I like my flights!  The sun was setting just as we were pulling into Brisbane.

Yet another beautiful sunset!

Coming up next, we visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and explore a bit of Brisbane, Australia’s 3rd largest city.

We had dinner on our second night with guests Colin and Melinda, from Bowral, Australia, to the south of Sydney.  Great couple that were a lot of fun to chat with.  We saw them again at breakfast and they invited us to join them on a boat ride to a remote spot called “Mermaid Cove”.  I didn’t bring my phone with me, so here is a shot from the internet of the cove.

We spent nearly an hour there snorkeling and this was the best spot we saw during our time there.  Plenty of fish and massive clams!  The water just in front of the lodge is a bit murky, as is nearby Sunset Beach.

On our way to lunch I spotted this bird with long tail feathers called a Pheasant Coucal.  They apparently don’t fly too well, which explains why he just ran away from us.

We got back from out snorkeling trip just in time, as it started raining again just as we sat down to lunch.  These two Silver Gulls have been constant companions around the dining area, hoping for a handout.  The staff said they can’t turn their backs on them as they’ll fly right in and snatch food right off the plate.  You can see the streaks of rain in the photo if you look closely.

We were treated to excellent musician Mason Lloyde during lunch.  A few minutes after sitting down we heard the familiar tune of the Dierks Bentley/Stephen Wilson Jr. song I asked him to check out the night prior, “Cold Beer Can”.  He had it down overnight!!  What a talent, and such a great song!  Here is the original:

After lunch we were the only ones in the restaurant and Mason was still playing, so we sat across from him and had a half hour private concert.  Very cool!

That afternoon, after the rain stopped, we walked down to Sunset Beach, and had the place to ourselves.  Such a gorgeous little spot.

Beautiful views in every direction!

Selfie time!

The next day brought plenty of sunshine, and the Yellow-Spotted Monitor Lizards were out in force

Here’s a video of one of them foraging in the dirt for bugs.

Another shot of a beautiful Pheasant Coucal so you can see the tail feathers.  This one figured out how to fly up into the tree.

That afternoon we took out a kayak that had a clear-view bottom, so Kim could see some ocean life.  She’s not a big fan of snorkeling, so this portion of our trip has been a little limiting for her.  Again, no photos from that since I didn’t want to lose my phone in the drink, but we did see one sea-turtle.

That evening we had a history and nature walk with a guide, who took us over Chinaman’s Ridge to Watson Bay.

Our guide said this was thought to be some Aboriginal rock art, with the left side of the rock chiseled out to represent an eagle or some other sort of bird.  Speaking of Aboriginals, the reason this spot is called Chinaman’s Ridge is the natives killed a Chinese servant here who worked for the colonist Watson family.  More on that shortly.

The view of Lizard Island Resort from Chinaman’s Ridge.

This area has an extensive mangrove forest, and was noted in Captain Cook’s log to have “sweet fresh water”.  The sun was fully cooperating with the scenery!

Our guide pointed out this Green Ant nest, that they have created from the leaves of a tree.  Their bite is nasty, so you have to be careful where you walk, both on the ground and in the trees!

A nicely constructed boardwalk takes you through the mangrove forest.  That’s “Cooks Look” in the background, the spot Captain Cook climbed up to for a look at the surrounding reefs.

The trail runs by the ruins of the Watson family home.  In 1860 a commercial sea cucumber operation started in this area. They built a stone hut and after several months of operation they folded.  The Watsons arrived in 1879 and tried again, modifying the stone hut to turn it into their home.

In 1881, while Robert Watson was out collecting sea cucumbers, some Aboriginal people from the mainland came out to investigate smoke on the island.  Unknowingly to the Watsons, this island was sacred and used for native right-of-passage rituals for young men, and having a female here (Mary Watson) was strictly taboo.  The Aborigials were enraged and killed a Chinese servant, so Mary fled the island with her new born baby and another Chinese servant in a small square boiling tank.  They all died of thirst 9 days later on a waterless island.  When her husband found out what happened he killed many Aboriginals in revenge.  Happy story!!  Should be on Netflix soon!

Unfortunately the ruins have been gradually destroyed by the weather and people pillaging pieces.  This is a shot of the ruins from 30 years ago.

On the hike back to the lodge we took an alternate route to avoid Chinaman’s Ridge.  This Paperbark Tree really stood out.  The bark was used by Aboriginal people for wrapping baked food and lining ground ovens.

Our guide advised that just a few weeks ago this entire area had no grass, and they recently did a control burn of the palm trees here.  The area bounces back fast!

That night we had dinner with our new friends Sean and Monica (from CA and WY) and were seated near musician extraordinaire Mason Lloyd.  Towards the end of the night he played both Stephen Wilson Jr’s “My Fathers Son” and Dierks Bentley/Stephen WIlson Jr.’s “Cold Beer Can”.  I recorded “My Fathers Son”, and here is Mason’s version.

By the way, I got Mason to play an encore and he played one of our favorite songs from “Bowling for Soup”, “Stacy’s Mom”.  This is the original.  Love this song!

Here are more guests we got to know at Lizard Island, Heidi and Darrell in the middle, and the previously mentioned Sean and Monica to the left and right.  Everybody we met were wonderful!  If you travel a lot, how could you not be wonderful?

One more post about Lizard Island, as I woke up early and conquered the supposedly “mostly difficult” trail of “Cooks Look”!