Our Walkabout

Back to civilization after our marathon day of driving around The Central Deserts, we spent a few days in Broken Hill with our good mate Todd on our way back to Adelaide.  Todd and a few of our other friends from university in Adelaide grew up in Broken Hill, a remote mining town in western New South Wales famous for its silver, lead and zinc mining as well as being the birthplace of one of the world’s biggest mining behemoths: BHP.  (I only learned a few years ago that BHP actually stands for Broken Hill Proprietary.)  Today Broken Hill is a shadow of the former bustling mining town it once was when operations were in full swing.  There are a small number of shafts still in operation around town, but the population has dwindled to less than a third of what it was in its heyday.

We enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in to recover from our 18 hour drive the day before and then all ventured roughly 30 kilometers out of Broken Hill to the nearby settlement of Silverton.  Silverton is home to a range of beautiful historic buildings, many of which house art galleries with a cafe here and there.  It’s also home to the Silverton Hotel, an iconic Aussie pub that has been used for more than a few advertising and media campaigns involving photos of Outback drinking holes.  Silverton was the location for the filming of the first two Mad Max movies – the films that began Mel Gibson on his rise to stardom – and is still home to the Mad Max hot rod the Pursuit Special.  The Pursuit Special was parked in front of the Silverton Hotel, very cool to see such an iconic automobile up close and personal.  The galleries about town had a fantastic collection of Outback-inspired artwork, it’d be a great place to buy some wall hangings one day…

 

It was my birthday when we were in Broken Hill and Lisa had sneakily hidden a few gifts from her and relatives in The Tank (what a wife!) as well as whipping up my favourite chocolate cherry cake for the occasion.  After one of Todd’s mum’s awesome meals and a fashion parade of some of Todd’s most recent metrosexual garb, we all headed to Broken Hill’s main strip of Argent Street for a few beers at the Silver City Workingmen’s Club.  Todd’s dad and one of his uncles – who could probably drink just about anyone under the table – and his auntie were all at the club with us.  At $3.10 a pint, a few turned to a lot and by the end of the night Todd and I had trouble walking!  A very fun birthday!

 

Todd and Judy, Todd’s mum, took us out to Menindee for a day to visit Todd’s grandparents.  Menindee is where the Darling River takes a turn south to flow to Wentworth and into the Murray River.  The area around Menindee is home to a vast expanse of lakes, all of which were full of water when we visited but for the past 10 years or so have been mostly dry with the drought.  We stopped off at Copi Hollow – a spot where Todd and some of our other mates from Broken Hill grew up waterskiing – as well as taking a look at Lake Pamamaroo and Lake Wetherell.  Todd’s grandfather is quite the Yabby fisherman and was kind enough to load us up with a plentiful amount of the delicious crustaceans to enjoy for dinner back in Broken Hill.  Neither of us had ever devoured so many Yabbies in a single sitting! 

 

On our last morning in town Todd and Judy took us for a morning coffee at the Broken Hill mining memorial.  Perched atop one of the old mining waste dumps, the memorial provides sweeping views of town and the vast expanses of desert beyond.  A great spot to get a bird’s eye view of Broken Hill.  Thanks Todd for making the five hour drive to and from Broken Hill to show us around, we had a fantastic time, and thank you Judy for your hospitality and such great food for the length of our stay!

Broken Hill pretty much marks the end of our adventures around this Land Down Under.  From here we head back across eastern South Australia to Adelaide, where we’ll spend a few weeks tidying up The Tank and getting things in order.  Whew, what an adventure this has been!

Regardless of their artery-clogging, tummy-enlarging, generally unhealthy food offerings I find it very difficult to pass through an Australian country town without sampling the fare at the local bakery.  In the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia this wasn’t so much of a problem for us as bakeries were very few and far between.  As we made our way into Perth and south of Western Australia’s capital it seems that I’m now dining for almost every lunch at a new bakery (Lisa joins in when my sounds of enjoyment make it impossible to do otherwise!).  Some of the offerings have been unreal…  I have no doubt that we’ll continue to sample many country bakeries on our travels so want to make sure that I catalogue some of the standouts.

We left Bedourie early Sunday morning headed for the famous Outback settlement of Birdsville, just north of the Queensland/South Australia border.  It was a muddy drive along the sections of road between the towns that were unpaved (roughly 65% of the track is paved), the clay floodplains holding on to the water from the torrential rains of the previous week.  The waterholes along the way were alive with birdlife, birds like pelican and spoonbills that we didn’t expect to see more than 1500 kilometers (930 miles) from the coast on the edge of the Simpson Desert.

The Simpson and Strzelecki Deserts are located on the edge of the Great Artesian Basin, a massive underground aquifer covering almost a third of Australia’s landmass.  It’s the largest aquifer system on the planet.  In many places on the edge of the deserts the water rises to the surface piping hot, we stopped off at one of the heated artesian wells alongside Cacoory Ruins roughly halfway between Bedourie and Birdsville.  Our visit to the beautiful Dalhousie Springs along the Oodnadatta Track when we stated this adventure last June was another heated spring rising from the Great Artesian Basin.  The water at the Cacoory bore rises from the depths at 85°C (185°F), definitely too hot for a dip and we were sure to steer clear of the actual bore pipeline as it sounded to be under some serious pressure.  The water was crystal clear as it snaked its way through the desert, letting off steam into the surrounding air as it cooled in the brisk winter temperatures.

 

Birdsville must be one of the most remote towns in the country: perched between the Simpson Desert to the west, Strzelecki Desert to the south and endless expanses of Queensland’s Channel Country to the north and east.  Today Birdsville serves as a restocking and refueling point for tourists crossing the deserts on 4WD expeditions, as well as a supply base for some of the surrounding cattle stations.  As remote Outback towns go, Birdsville had a lot to offer: a full service caravan park, two petrol stations, post office, historic pub and the Birdsville Bakery.  And I should mention that the Birdsville Bakery is licensed.  Yes, all my Christmases came true at once in the middle of the desert: a bakery that serves beer.  We didn’t take too long to sniff out the bakery once arriving in town, an exceptionally well-maintained establishment with excellent pies and fantastic atmosphere.  While we didn’t visit during the evening – instead opting for the pub – the bakery advertised campfires out the front each evening, often with free entertainment.  After being very disappointed in general with the pies in Queensland, it was a breath of fresh air to taste the pies at the Birdsville Bakery, someone knew what they were doing.  The kangaroo and claret pie was great, as was the chunky beef offering.  We were in town for 20 hours and had two meals at the bakery!

 

We shacked up at the Birdsville caravan park (S25°53.997’ E139°21.244’) for the night, enjoying a hot shower and afternoon run through the wetlands on the edge of town.  With so much 4WD country around Birdsville it’s no surprise that the roadhouse was home to the toughest looking 4WD recovery vehicle either of us had ever seen.  Built like a Sherman tank with tyres of at least 60 inches (152 centimeters) in diameter, this rig was a serious piece of machinery.  I’d hate to think of the price tag attached to a recovery callout for this bad boy!

The Birdsville Hotel was established more than a century ago in 1884.  A beautiful old building with a couple of bars, beer garden, formal dining hall and plenty of characters around the bar it was a great spot to spend the evening.  On Sundays the hotel has a weekly roast, we put down $20 each for a scrumptious dinner of beef and lamb with all mandatory roast dinner sides.  Not quite as good as my grandmother’s roast lamb but it was a great meal.  The hats in the photo below were all nailed to the roof by invitation of the hotel, to have your hat put on display it’s mandatory that you spend a minimum of one calendar year in town without leaving. 

 

The usually barren clay floodplains on the drive out of Birdsville were alive with colour as we left early Monday morning, the unseasonal rain filling the land with beautiful hues of green and wildflowers as far as the eye could see.  We passed through some amazingly thick fog on our way to the Cordillo Downs Road turn-off, tackling a good portion of the 116 kilometers (72 miles) from Birdsville without seeing more than a few meters in front of The Tank’s bull bar.  From the Cordillo Downs turn-off we passed alongside the massive expanse of Moonda Lake before setting wheels on familiar ground for the first time since January: back in South Australia.

Over the border we found ourselves in the Strzelecki Desert proper, at the same time being on the property of Cordillo Downs Station.  The size of Cordillo Downs boggles the mind, we drove over 100 kilometers and were still – as far as we could tell – on the station’s property.  Steeped in history, the station is a huge cattle enterprise these days.  In the past it was one of the largest sheep stations in the country and is still home to Australia’s largest sheep shearing shed.  The shed is no longer used as today the station is exclusively a cattle operation, but it was very interesting to read some of the station’s history inside the old shearing shed.  In the 1800s the shearers would make a journey of four-and-a-half days by bicycle to Cordillo Downs when the sheep needed to be shorn, the station at its peak had over 30000 head of sheep.  The wool, once dried, was transferred to Farina north of the Flinders Ranges by Afghan cameleers where it was taken by rail to the nearest major centre of Port August or further south to Adelaide.  If only they’d waited 150 years for a Toyota LandCruiser!

  

It’s 177 kilometers from Cordillo Downs to Innamincka, the road passes through some beautiful country on its way through the Innamincka Regional Reserve and Innamincka Station.  Big red sand dunes typically associated with the neighboring Simpson Desert filled the horizon on our way through the northern portion of the Innamincka Regional Reserve, a beautiful part of the country.  Lisa had hawk eyes when she spotted this adult Bearded Dragon on the side of the road while at the same time piloting The Tank through the sand.  I’d never seen coloring on a Bearded Dragon like this one, striking yellow eyes and a jet black belly, he was surprisingly content with me taking photos of him as he lay on the sand in the middle of the desert.  Maybe he’d never seen a  human before…

We camped next to the shelter of a big red dune roughly 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of Innamincka, a picturesque spot with rolling red sand dunes to the west and a dry creek bed below.  The serenity of the spot was unfortunately interrupted a few minutes after we stopped by some of the worst flies we’ve encountered on our entire trip.  Plenty of expletives from Lisa and my attempts to ignore them didn’t work, Lisa finding refuge in our mosquito tent and me climbing into the Blue Room to read in the afternoon sun.  As the sun waned the flies left us alone to enjoy a beautiful starry night with a few beers beside the campfire, great to be out in the open country with the surrounds to ourselves again.

 

Our tranquil night amongst the dunes was interrupted at around 2:00AM with thunder, lightning and torrential rain.  We hopped out of the Blue Room at around 7:30AM to find the previously dry creek bed next to us gushing with water.  The ground under our feet turned to sticky mud as the rain persisted throughout the morning and into the sunlight hours.  Amazing how quickly the desert changed with the onset of rain…  We made it back to the road from our campsite in the pouring rain, and then the fun began.  It took us almost 90 minutes to drive the 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) between our campsite and the desert outpost of Innamincka, the rain had turned the usually solid clay into slick, boot-deep mud that caked into the tread of The Tank’s tyres.  I’d never driven in such trying conditions.  The Tank had an absolute mind of its own, sliding all over the track especially in sections where the road had even the smallest hint of camber.  We almost got stuck once as The Tank found its way into the thick mud to the side of the main track, having to crawl out with differential locks engaged.  Saying I was on edge as we made our way through the mud in the rain would be an understatement!  I would have loved to take some photos of our 20 kilometer journey, but I have no doubt that if we stopped in some of the hairier sections we would have been well and truly bogged until the storm passed!

As we rolled into Innamincka (S27°44.783’ E140°44.292’) the rain showed no sign of subsiding, we’ve never been so excited to arrive in a Podunk town in our lives!  With a few ramshackle dwellings, a homestay, roadhouse and hotel, Innamincka is even more sparse than neighboring Birdsville.  As the rain flooded the surrounding roads it made leaving town impossible so we took refuge to a motel room for the day to escape the torrential downpour.  We arrived at the Innamincka Hotel’s reception in the nick of time, snatching the last available room before similar travelers flocked-in for the same reason.  We spent the day out of the elements with a TV, heater and a power outlet to formulate this post.

 

The rain stopped at 4:00PM on Tuesday, roughly 14 hours after it began.  It dumped 50 millimeters (two inches) of water on Innamincka and surrounds, enough to close the roads across the Outback from Oodnadatta to western New South Wales.  So lucky we managed to score the last hotel room in town, as the day progressed on Tuesday more and more weary travelers rolled into town hoping for shelter, only to be turned away and forced to camp in the mud.  At least they could seek refuge for a cold beer at the bar…  We spent the afternoon watching movies on our movie channel, I don’t think we’d watched so much TV in a single day since before we left California!  For dinner we enjoyed a beer at the pub and some great Aussie burgers at the Outamincka dining hall in the Innamincka Hotel.  The place was absolutely packed, there wasn’t a spare seat in the whole pub and the dining hall almost packed.  I bet the owners of the hotel wish for more torrential downpours! 

 

We woke on Wednesday morning greeted with clear blue skies and a touch of wind, close to ideal weather for drying the roads (ideal weather would be hot sun and gale force winds…).  The parking areas and Innamincka’s two streets had been transformed to boggy mud by the water, the clearing in front of the pub and petrol station effectively a lake.  It was tough to walk around town let alone drive a car through the mud.  We were again thankful for our cozy hotel room and equally glad we had waterproof boots in which to walk around.  It was amazing the number of travelers that had rolled into town in the rain the day before, the parking area in front of the pub was brimming with people camping in the mud and clearing by the creek just out of town filled with more than 20 vehicles.  No hope of the roads opening Wednesday but we crossed our fingers with everyone else that we’d be able to get out within a couple of days with the change in weather.

 

When we did finally get out it was with the advice of the truckers who were also stranded, pictured above right.  Our original intended route is drawn on the maps here in blue, with the area closed by the rains shaded in red.  The truckers mentioned that when the roads eventually opened, the 756 kilometers (470 miles) from Innamincka to our destination in Broken Hill would take a couple of days due to the deep mud and dangerous driving conditions.  Instead, they suggested making our way out back into Queensland through Nappamerrie station and onto the bitumen roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Innamincka.  We took their advice and at 4:37AM left the small desert settlement of Innamincka with a target of Broken Hill by the end of the day.  The green line on the maps here is the route we eventually had to take, paved roads all the way once we got off the dirt in Queensland.  It was a marathon day of driving, 1429 kilometers (888 miles) in all that took almost 18 hours from start to finish with nothing more than time off for driver changes, food and toilet stops.  Across three states we had to dodge everything from Echidnas to pigs, goats, Emus and kangaroos as they scurried across the road in front of us.  Needless to say, we were extremely happy to see Todd in Broken Hill when we arrived a little after 10:00PM.  If we never go to Innamincka again in our lives I think that’ll be fine with us!

Issue six of Camping With Your 4WD  has been out for a few weeks, but with our trip to Lizard Island and then time in Bedourie we haven’t been near too many newsagents.  This article details our trip through Northeastern Tasmania with Lisa’s parents during February.  A few cameo shots of Carol and Greg should be a good souvenir of their trip for them…

Planet View: S24°21.770’ E139°28.206’

Street View: S24°21.770’ E139°28.206’

It’s a long way from Cairns to Adelaide.  2738 kilometers (1701 miles) miles if you take the shortest route.  We made our way through Australia’s centre via the small cattle station outpost of Bedourie in southwest Queensland.  It’s 1729 kilometers (1074miles) from Cairns airport – where we hopped off the plane from Lizard Island – to the remote western Queensland settlement of Bedourie.  If you’re wondering why we went so far out of our way to pass through an isolated bush town in the middle of Queensland’s cattle country it’s to catch an event we learned of way back in May when we were in Coolum: the annual Bedourie camel races. 

We spread the journey from Cairns to Bedourie over four days, first spending a night in our favourite tablelands town of Yungaburra on the shores of Lake Tinaroo.  From Yungaburra we headed west across the Kennedy Highway, through the dilapidated settlement of Georgetown and further west toward Normanton.  There wasn’t a whole lot to see on the way across the base of Cape York, seemingly endless plains of red dirt and scattered gums on either side of the blacktop.  A good portion of the road between the tablelands and Normanton has only enough bitumen to handle the width of a single vehicle, so putting two wheels on the passenger side of The Tank onto the dirt shoulder at 100KPH (62MPH) to avoid oncoming cars definitely kept us on our toes. 

We spent our first night in the bush near Twenty Mile Creek about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) east of Normanton, where we found a track off the highway leading into the bush as a service road for the Gulflander railway line.  It was a tranquil spot next to a lagoon where we watched the vast array of birdlife go about their business in the afternoon sun.  There were a couple of Brolgas poking their beaks along the waterhole’s banks when we arrived, awesome to see the towering birds up close as they hunted for food.  The bush around us came to life as the sun waned, wallabies thumping their tails in the surrounding scrub and Green Tree Frogs coming out of hiding in the Pandanus Palms next to The Tank.

Lisa had a yearning to see the Gulf of Carpentaria on our way back to Adelaide, in her opinion a circumnavigation of Australia just wouldn’t be complete without visiting the bight between Cape York Peninsula and the northern portion of the Northern Territory.  So from Normanton we drove the 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) into the sleepy fishing village of Karumba, a spot popular with grey nomads on their way across the Savannah Way.  We drove to Karumba Point to take a look at the murky waters of the gulf, amazed at the number of caravan-pulling vehicles in the middle-of-nowhere spot, all visiting for a shot at prized Barramundi in the surrounding estuaries.  Amazing the number of Brolga and Jabiru hunting in the many waterholes around Karumba, when we saw these stork-like birds in the Northern Territory last year we thought they were so rare but the area around Karumba was absolutely inundated with them.

 

Back through Normanton we stopped off at the giant crocodile monument and at the town’s only petrol station to top up The Tank.  The old fella pictured here filling up our tanks reminded me a lot of my grandfather: everything at his place of business appeared to be an absolute jumble to the uneducated onlooker but I’m sure he knew exactly where everything was.  His stockroom was an absolute mess of spare parts, old magazines, cash registers and other knickknacks.  I don’t think I’d want to have any vehicle problems in Normanton! 

We turned south in Normanton, past the Burke and Wills Roadhouse and south toward Cloncurry.  We stopped off for a night just north of Cloncurry, setting up on one of the expansive cattle stations in the area.  We were both amazed at the temperature differential with the 400 kilometers (248.5 miles) we traveled south from Normanton: at Twenty Mile Creek we were in shorts and thongs until we went to bed, whilst near Cloncurry we were in jeans and jumpers (sweaters) by 4:00PM!

   

It was a long slog from Cloncurry to Bedourie.  The first couple of hundred kilometers were a mix of boggy mud and bitumen, the former thanks to the unseasonal rain that this area of the country received a few days prior.  Amazing just how desolate this area of the country is, in some areas we could look all around as we flew down the bitumen and see nothing but red dirt and blue sky.  Not a single tree in sight between us and the horizon.  The road between Boulia and Bedourie had only been open for a few days when we passed through, the rains had turned the unsealed sections of the road into deep, waterlogged bogs, impassable even in a high-clearance 4WD.  When we traveled through we did actually get momentarily stuck in one or two spots, I had to hop out of the driver’s seat and crawl around the front of The Tank on the bull bar to lock the front hubs.  That or wade in knee deep mud: no thanks.  The rain brought the birds, the swamps amidst the desert were filled with Ibis and Brolgas, patrolling the shallows with their long beaks for food beneath.  We also drove through some unbelievable swarms of palm-sized locusts, at certain points almost having to slow down because the density of the insects impaired our vision.  There had to have been millions of the huge insects, bouncing off the windscreen like tiny pebbles as we mowed through the swarms.  Hundreds of huge Whistling Kites flocked for a feeding frenzy on the locusts, the graceful birds of prey filling the skies alongside the road. 

 

It’s hard to imagine why towns like Bedourie actually exist.  The surrounding cattle stations are effectively self sufficient, and the number one employer in the sleepy settlement of Bedourie is the city council (followed by the shire of Diamantina!).  There’s a whopping 100 residents of Bedourie, not exactly a thriving Channel Country town.  The only pub in town was a hive of activity on the two nights we stayed, we had some memorable conversations with the locals, as we always seem to do in hole-in-the-wall towns.  You know you’re in a small town when all the locals leave their wallets on the bar at the pub when they come in for a drink!

The Bedourie camel races were such a truly unique experience, we’re so glad we coordinated our trip back to Adelaide to see such a true blue Australian event.  There aren’t too many places in the world where you can watch professional jockeys riding camels in the middle of some of the biggest cattle stations on the planet!  The camel harnesses were quite a sight, without reins the camel had to be relied upon to steer itself while the jockey held on for dear life behind the hump.  There were more than a couple of occasions when we saw jockeys bucked off, camels turn around mid-race and start running the wrong direction, and camels leave the race track altogether!  Such a hoot…  There was a bookie at the races to keep things interesting, Lisa got quite involved as the day progressed, keeping tally of which jockeys and camels performed the best and jotting down race times for the winners.  Unfortunately we didn’t pick any winners (that goes for your bet too Connie!), a few second places but we need a bit more practice at picking camels, it seems…

   

An Outback race event just wouldn’t be complete without a wood chopping event.  The CEO of the Bedourie council is a professional wood chopper, so as part of the annual races he organized a wood chopping event into which anyone in the crowd could enter.  The event pictured here was full of local cattle stockmen, the gum rounds they had to chop through absolutely brought them all to their knees.  It looked like amazingly hard work, once they made their way to the centre of each log the pace really slowed and by the end of it most of them could hardly lift their axes.  One of the boys from Glengyle Station – located roughly 50 kilometers south of Bedourie – took the honors in the men’s event while the out-of-towner pictured to the right took the women’s crown.  The MC mentioned that a professional wood chopper would make their way through similar logs in 30 to 40 seconds.  That’d be something to watch!

After a dip in Bedourie’s artesian hot springs just next to where we were camped, we finished up our day with another night at Bedourie’s Royal Hotel.  We shared the pool table with a couple of Aboriginal stockmen working at one of the surrounding cattle stations, through the course of the night we discovered that they were both from Mount Barnett up in the Kimberley and were excited to hear that we’d visited their homeland when we visited Manning Gorge last August.  One of the stockmen had placed second in the saddle bronc riding at the previous weekend’s rodeo, evident from the sizeable gash he had extending down one side of his face.  A great stop off on our way south, very memorable to see those gangly camels careening down the muddy race course in the middle of the desert… 

Planet View: S14°40.101’ E145°26.750’

Street View: S14°40.101’ E145°26.750’

Temperature: 21-29°C (70-84°F)

Water Temperature: 26°C (79°F)

The northernmost of the Great Barrier Reef Islands, Lizard Island was a stopping for point for Captain James Cook on his voyage in 1770 and named for the prolific population of monitor lizards that inhabited (and still inhabit) the island.  Today the island is a National Park and houses the luxurious Lizard Island Barrier Reef Resort, an all-inclusive slice of paradise nestled in the foredunes at the northern end of the island.  Boasting some of the best Black Marlin fishing in the world, access to some of the most lauded of the Great Barrier Reef’s SCUBA diving locations, exquisite all-inclusive accommodation and beautiful beaches dotted around the island, we absolutely couldn’t have dreamed for a better spot to wind up our journey around Australia.

An hour by plane or 15 hours by boat from Cairns, we spent five nights on the island with my mum, her partner Steve and his son Oliver, who made the trip from central California.  We all met in Cairns the afternoon before catching a small Hinterland Aviation Cessna north to Lizard Island, a beautiful flight over the Great Barrier Reef and some of the islands between Cairns and Cooktown.  The brilliant turquoise colour of the ocean in this area of the country is quite spectacular.  As we descended and banked around Lizard Island all of us were in awe at the beautiful fringing coral reefs visible through the crystal clear water.

Our pampering didn’t take long to kick in after landing: met by one of the resort concierges we were escorted to a waiting coach as soon as we disembarked and all given cool, scented flannels to wipe our hands and faces in the  humidity.  The resort itself is set at the northern end of the island, a collection of private suites – most with ocean view of either Anchor Bay or Sunset Beach – connected to the main dining area by a series of pathways through the tropical flora.  The facilities included a tennis court, a beautiful pool, in-house gym, day spa and a beach activities hut where small catamarans and dive gear were at our disposal.  After a welcoming iced tea and introduction to some of the staff we were all escorted to our accommodation, Lisa and I had a beautiful suite overlooking Sunset Beach while our partners in crime had adjacent villas overlooking Anchor Bay.  Lisa wasn’t quite sure what to do first: spend some time in the double-headed shower, attack our well stocked mini-bar, lounge on our deck with our private view of Sunset Beach or just relax on the down pillow of our king bed! 

     

There’s a lot that goes into running the resort operation on Lizard Island.  At any time there’s between 50 and 80 staff living on the island to tend to the guests.  It’s somewhere we’d both happily return one day, the resort staff were all fantastic and a lot of effort goes into making sure that every guest is catered for.  We couldn’t have asked for better accommodation whilst on the island, the view of Sunset Beach and all the beautiful sunsets were just something else.  It was a very special spot, Rainbow Bee-Eaters would come in every afternoon and feed on insects just next to our balcony and the plethora of large lizards on the island were quite a sight.

We didn’t quite know where to start when we came across the bar pictured below on our first night at dinner.  With a healthy selection of signature cocktails and plentiful choices of almost any spirit we could think of, we all enjoyed sampling some of Josh’s (the bartender) concoctions before and after dinner each night.  One libation of particular note was the digestive Chartreuse that Josh had Lisa try one night after her meal, a 110 proof French liqueur that immediately opened the sinuses with its unique aroma.  The food throughout our stay was an absolute highlight.  The breakfast menu stayed constant with a selection of six or so dishes – my staple was usually a Moreton Bay Bug omelet or Eggs Benedict – served alongside fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juice.  For lunch and dinner the menu was constantly changing, four or five dishes to choose from at each sitting, we often couldn’t decide and just had to sample the entire menu!  Just amazing food, I’m pretty sure Oliver has a photo of every meal and menu we were delivered.  I took quite a few food photos (all of which are viewable in the album to the above left) and included some of the standouts below.  I can honestly say that we’ve never eaten such an extensive array of delectable, well-presented food in our lives.  The wine list was also quite a standout: an impressive array of wines from across the world, beers from every state in Australia as well as a few international brews, and a very accomplished bartender who could create just about any cocktail one could imagine.  I took photos of the wine list included in the album to the above left, I’m pretty sure Lisa sampled almost every by-the-glass wine on offer!

We made the most of the water sports on offer during our five night stay.  Lisa and Jenni ventured out on the resort’s glass-bottomed kayaks during our first afternoon on the island, both commenting that it was a great way to see the reef from above.  The shallowness of the reef in some sections of Anchor Bay in front of the resort dictated that the catamarans pictured here could only be taken out when the tide was above a certain level.  Dodge tides for most of our stay – and high winds when the tide was high enough – unfortunately kept us from training for the America’s Cup team.  We were, however, lucky enough to score a high tide with acceptable wind conditions on our last morning on Lizard, Oliver and I grabbing an early breakfast before heading out for a hell of a fun sail in Anchor Bay.  We both realized quickly why the resort doesn’t allow the catamarans out in high winds: without a keel the boats easily find their way up on one hull.  I had quite a giggle when I tacked in Watson’s Bay to see Oliver’s catamaran flipped on its side!  Luckily he was able to right it quickly, such fun scooting across the water with the beautiful reef below.  There’s a quick video of us sailing as part of the Lizard Island Movies blog if you have a fast internet connection…

   

If you don’t enjoy being in the water then Lizard Island is probably not the place for you.  Surrounded by the striking coral of the Great Barrier Reef and roughly an hour by boat to outer reef dive locations, Lizard is a snorkeling and SCUBA diving paradise.  During our first full day on the island the five of us ventured out on M.V. Serranidae to the outer reef.  After the rough trip between Lizard and the edge of the Great Barrier Reef we were all ready to hop in the water, the brilliant turquoise colour of the water was unbelievable.  I’m pretty sure I heard Oliver say that he didn’t know the ocean could be such a striking blue.  Our first dive site was the world famous Cod Hole, named for its resident Potato Cod.  All of us were quite excited to jump in the water to explore the world below after running across a couple of Minke Whales on the boat ride to the outer reef.  Steve, Oliver and I donned our SCUBA gear while the girls snorkeled on the surface.  The giant Potato Cod were like big puppy dogs, the largest of them rubbing up against us as we explored the reef and quite happy for us to scratch him under the chin as he swam around us.  An amazing experience, I’d never interacted with such friendly fish in the wild before.

After our first dive we were dished up a brilliant lunch of roast chicken, king prawns and all manner of accompaniments.  I’ve never eaten so well on a dive boat before in my life!  Oliver jumped in the water with his underwater camera and snapped a video of the largest Potato Cod (see Lizard Island Movies) before we ventured north along the reef to nearby Dynamite Reef, named for its electric coral.  Unlike Cod Hole, which is a slot in-between two reefs, Dynamite is a wall dive on the edge of a deep channel.  While we did see some good-sized sharks in the water with us at Dynamite, we unfortunately didn’t come across any of the Black Marlin or Minke Whales during our dive that the dive masters sometimes see at the site.  An awesome day, with underwater visibility in excess of 25 meters (82 feet) and some of the most amazing aquatic life on the planet it’d be hard not to have a memorable experience!

On our return to Lizard Island one of the dive masters pulled out a large Scaly Mackerel from a compartment at the back of the boat, sloshing it in the water while we all got ready to disembark.  Before long there was a small school of huge Tawny Nurse Sharks poking their heads out of the water for a feed, obviously quite used to humans as the dive master was able to give them all a pat on the nose.  But the sharks weren’t the main event: after a few minutes a gigantic Queensland Groper reared its head and swallowed the three foot long mackerel whole.  The groper was awesome, he had to have been six feet long and weigh in excess of 200 kilograms (440 pounds).  Lisa, Oliver and I jumped in the water with the sharks and groper on another day, having quite an adrenaline-filled experience as some of the Black Tip and White Tip Reef Sharks got themselves a little frenzied at feeding time.  There’s a video of us in the water with the sharks on Lizard Island Movies (third movie from the bottom), it’s quite long and has a lot of blue water but there’s plenty of sharks flying across the screen.

     

We didn’t leave too many of Lizard’s snorkeling spots unexplored.  Sunset Beach and Anchor Bay were adjacent to the resort, an easy walk to coral at our doorstep.  Watson’s Bay housed the Clam Gardens and Watson’s Wall, both fun snorkeling sites with a plethora of colorful fish and even a turtle or two grazing along the sand next to the Clam Gardens.  We hiked to the southern side of the island one morning to explore the huge expanse of Blue Lagoon, a sweeping area between Lizard and nearby Palfrey and South Islands.  It was quite windy away from the protective hills shielding the resort, Lisa didn’t last too long in the water at Blue Lagoon but Oliver and I swam a couple of kilometers out to the wall demarking the edge of the coral with the open ocean.  We made a beeline for the beach when Oliver spotted a Tiger Shark off in the deep blue, no thank you!  The kids’ (Lisa, Oliver and me) favourite dive spot was at Mermaid Bay at the northeastern tip of the island.  A location we could only access via boat, we dove at Mermaid twice and loved it both times.  An unprotected wall drops off into the open ocean on the eastern side of Mermaid Bay, a few bommys on the edge of the wall were home to an unbelievable number of colourful reef fish.  We were lucky to see some bigger pelagic fish cruise by when diving at Mermaid both times, some of the biggest Trevally I’ve ever seen and flighty mackerel whipped by in the distance a few times.  On our second dive at Mermaid we all saw a giant Loggerhead Turtle cruising the ocean floor in the deeps.  I dove down to have a closer look, Oliver and Lisa both commented that the turtle’s head was at least as big as mine. 

    

Lizard Island is only small – a few kilometers across – but there’s a great hiking trail making its way up to the top of the only peak on the island.  The walking trail to Cook’s Look was a roughly 1100 foot (335 metre) climb, the first half of the trail a steep clamber over sticky granite boulders.  It was a little cloudy on the day we climbed the peak, had it been clear we would have had unparalleled views of the island, Blue Lagoon and adjacent Palfrey and South Islands.  Regardless of the clouds it was a fun climb, all of us completely drenched in sweat in the near-100% humidity by the time we’d reached the top.  A couple of days later Oliver found three thick books in his backpack, no wonder his bag was so heavy on the way up to the island’s peak!

 

What an awesome way to cap off our journey along the Queensland coast!  A truly amazing location, Lizard is a part of our trip that we’ll remember fondly for the rest of our lives.  Thank you so much to Jenni and Steve for having the idea to bring us all together on Lizard for a week, we both had a blast.  And thanks to Oliver for all the underwater photos and Lizard Island Movies, we both enjoyed meeting you and will no doubt see you Stateside in a few months!

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