18/8/01

My first glimpse of Lizard was from the 16-seater plane as we came in for landing. I knew from that moment that I was going to like it. Lizard Island is made up of 3 main islands, all of which are national parks. The resort we were staying on is the only one on the islands, so the whole island is more or less empty. The area around the islands is also protected as it is a marine conservation area, so as you could imagine, everything is pretty much untouched.
The pre-holiday pasties
Check out the tiny plane
Views of the resort  

Peter and his family had been here once before, a few years ago, and since then the resort has been totally done up. The rooms were amazing, but unlike when we were in Langkawi, we managed to overcome the tempation to say in our room all day. I suppose this was helped by the fact that we had no television in our room, and also because there was so much to do, and only a week to do it all.
The view from our room  
 

Despite the fact that we arrived at about 3 in the afternoon, Peter and I wasted no time and immediately went out and got a catamaran and sailed around the bay for a while. Then we came back in and were given a mask, snorkel and flippers, so off we went snorkelling. This pretty much set the pace for the whole holiday, with us running around and trying to cram as much fun into the week as we possibly could.

The next day I experienced first hand what Fausta meant when she said that she and Carl "just aren't boat people". As we were planning on going out for a picnic on Thursday, we decided to take 3 motor boats out for a test run to the blue lagoon. The next thing I knew I was in the lagoon doing donuts and watching - with a mixture of amusement and horror - as Mark was trying to keep Fausta and Carl off the rocks as they got their boat in gear (or not which was the main problem) and Jane and Peter tried in vain to get their engine started again. We did all manage to get away safely, but we only returned back to the activities centre with 2 boats because the engine just refused to start again. Funny enough when it came to us borrowing the boats later on in the week it was "too windy" for us to take the boats out to Mermaid Cove. I think that they may have been protecting us from ourselves.
Our own private beach The tiniest gekko in the world
That boat incident was the only thing that happened throughout the week that could have been classed as even remotely stressful. It felt like I was in a coma by the third day because I was so relaxed. Our typical day consisted of going to breakfast and then snorkelling/paddle-boating/sunbathing until our 3-course meal at lunch. After lunch we would pretty much do the same as we had that morning, and maybe also take the catamaran out for a spin, or if we were feeling really active go for a wander around the island. Then in the evening we would meet up for a glass of champagne before dinner, and then make our way to the restaurant for our 5-course evening meal. After which we would all go back to our rooms clutching our stomachs and groaning "I ate too much!". The food was just too good! I don't think I felt hungry once the whole time I was there. To be honest it was a bit of a relief when we got home that we didn't have to eat anything for dinner if we didn't want to!

 

For me, the very best thing about the holiday was (apart from the delightful company of course!) the fact that you could just put on your mask and flippers and go out a few metres and there was all of this amazing coral and gorgeous fish to look at. All of the underwater pictures that we took were all taken metres from the shore. We did go out on a boat to go scuba diving on Great Barrier Reef too, but we don't have any pictures of that unfortunately. The sea was pretty rough on the way out and Peter was quite sick and I went a delightful shade of green. Mark and Jane were fine though, so I guess we are just weak! Anyway, the diving was absolutely brilliant and even Peter agreed that it was worth the terrible journey. The first place we dived was the Cod Hole and we saw some enormous fish called Potato Cod, the vampiresque Red Bass and numerous other colourful fish. The second dive was at No Name reef, and we were "lucky" enough to see a black tip reef shark. It's weird because even though you know that it is harmless it is still quite unnerving to see the ominous shape lying on the sea bed.
A sting ray
One of the giant clams  
A massive Grouper that lives in bay. Not dangerous thankfully!
 
 
 
 

As they say, all good things come to an end, and unfortunately so did our week in Lizard Island. There were only two things that got me onto that plane back to Cairns. The first was that I was looking forward to the fantastic views from the plane of the reef and the second was that I needed to feel hungry again! I know I will probably look back on this in a couple of months when we are travelling around in the van again, and come to the conclusion that I was nuts to ever want to feel hungry, but there you go.

The views of the reef from our plane
 
 
 

So the day after we came back to Sydney, Mark and Jane were going home to England, so we went out for one last goodbye meal (ahhh, more food) and then bid them adieu at the airport.
 
And since then? Well Peter went back to work last Monday and I have been a lady of leisure all this week and have divided my time between doing coffee (dahling), wandering around Sydney and updating the website - which has taken a substatial amount of time! You all better be enjoying it!!!!

And now we are getting in our van and doing a bit more driving. This time we are heading up north, so goodbye for now - who knows when we will have a chance to do a comprehensive update next! Though I have heard a rumour that there may be Internet Cafes in Queensland, so we will probably be contactable by email!
Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that we have decided to come home a little earlier than we had expected and now we are flying into the UK in November, and then going off again a month or so later to go to France for a ski season. Can't wait for that snow!

Now all that remains is to thank Ann and Ian for letting us stay in their lovely apartment with Carl and Fausta while we were here in Sydney. It has been wonderful and very much appreciated!

Perth   From Perth to Sydney   Sydney   Sydney to Byron Bay   Cairns