Lizard Island - Dinghy Outing

Wow, what a day!  We decided to go out on our own today, so we ordered a picnic lunch, got a dinghy and went out on our own! Before we left on the dinghy, we got a map of where we could go and a very detailed safety briefing... off we went!

Cheryl did a great job as captain, I was the navigator as we needed to be very careful to maneuver around the reef.

First stop was Turtle Cove, we anchored the boat and jumped in for our first snorkel.  Decided it was best to start going against the current, then we could float back to the boat.  We had a blast exploring the reef.  It is very difficult free diving in salt water, you keep popping up... this definitely takes practice!

View to our room from the water

Second stop Clam Garden

Then we took the dinghy around the reefs and back to Turtle Cove

We had a spectacular day alone, doing our own thing!  The reefs were beautiful and full of life.  We practiced free diving, which is definitely a skill that needs to be perfected when snorkeling.  We enjoyed a picnic in the Clam Garden and exploring this beautiful Island!  This was a great day

Relaxing afternoon in our plunge pool enjoying the view.

Off to the bar the bar to relax and have another passion fruit drink...  we showed the bartender the recipe made the night before... he added his spin to the drink... still

And another wonderful beverage... passion palm (clearly anything with passion fruit is going to be a winner with me!)

Our last dinner was relaxing and delicious!  We shared photos from today with a family that was with us on the outer reef... this family has a young child with them... we have been wondering about this as Lizard Island does not allow children... apparently this family are regulars at this resort and others owned by this company... as we shared the photos, we were discussing our travel plans leaving the island... the father said we have our own plane so we aren’t sure when we are going to leave the island tomorrow... they live in Darwin and they were very nice!  We are definitely the rif-raff here!

Lizard Island - Outer Reef

Early morning, breakfast, snorkel trip to the outer reef.

It was about an hour boat ride to get us to the outer reef, winds were picking up a bit, so they let us know the water was going to be a bit choppy.  We arrived at the outer reef and our first site was Dynamite Reef... turns out there was a current, so the snorkel turned into a drift snorkel.  Saw sharks and other big fish.  We were both surprised by the condition of the reef, not a lot of life, some small corals and plants, but not much.

Our second site was Cod Hole, yes, the home to giant Cod fish!  The winds have increased and the water is super choppy... this would have been much better to dive!  We opted to skip diving since we didn’t have our equipment and weren’t sure about what to expect... plus we would have needed to do a certification dive before we could dive the reefs.

They are very safety conscious here!  The captain actually completes a log of the boat trip and each diver/snorkel must sign in when they get back on the boat.

They are very environmentally friendly.... paper straws, cartons of water

Watched the Sunset from our deck this evening, beautiful!

I have a new best friend... Zoe.  She was our server for dinner, but after dinner she was covering the bar. The night before the bartender made me a Passion Fruit Mojito, so I asked for another one!  Well Zoe went to town making me a drink.  She filled the glass with ice and then poured the alcohol and mix, she stepped away from the bar and came back with three giant passion fruits!  She cut two in half and put all four halfs into my drink!  Now that is a passion fruit mojito!!!!  Delicious!  The absolute precious thing about this Zoe had no idea what she was doing, but she did a fake it until you make it!

Cairns and Lizard Island

In Cairns our room was at the very end of this hallway, as we turned the corner I only had one thought... redrum 😳

Our hotel is environmentally conscientious! The keys to the room are bamboo!

We started off our day with a nice walk around the harbor in Cairns.

Our hotel spent $24M to build this saltwater lagoon.  It has sand entrances just like the beach.  Not save to swim in the harbor, you will get eaten!

  View from our room in the morning.

We made it to Lizard Island and we have decided we are not leaving... will send for the dogs and cats!  

View from our private little infinity pool...

Happy little campers on this Thanksgiving Day!

We spent the afternoon snorkeling. Saw amazing giant clams. Beautiful reef and fish life.

Pictures to come when we download the GoPro.

Mutitjulu Meander

This morning was another early morning... up at 5:00, breakfast 5:45 and 6:30 off for our morning hike around the base of Uluru.  Nice and cool this morning!

We stopped to get a quick picture of the South West side of Uluru, which is not photographed as much as the iconic North facing.  Just as beautiful!

It’s an absolutely beautiful hike around Uluru

The Outback has 1 million camels... we didn’t see a single one 🙃.  Cheryl got Great bird shots!

Our time at Uluru has come to an end.  It is not possible to describe or show beauty of the rocks, it is definitely something that needs to be experienced.

While we were waiting for our ride to the airport, we had a little entertainment... very wealthy Texans and Swiss family looking at aboriginal art, each piece was approximately $5k.  The Texans actually said “we can’t move the Chagall, but we can move the Salvador Dali”.

The Swiss family spent over $20k and were still shopping when we left. 😜

Off to the airport... short trip, walk into a huge crowd waiting to be checked in and check baggage.  Computer system was down, so they were issuing hand written boarding passes.  Once we boarded the plane the craziness continues... since the computers were down they could not properly balance the baggage, so everything had to come off and be balanced manually.

The Captain came out of the cockpit and started visiting with the passengers, we think he was bored of waiting too!

We finally got approval to leave so they brought the paperwork to the crew... oh wait... they only brought one copy of paperwork and two copies are required... now finally ready to go, 2 hours past our original departure time.

One night in Cairns, before heading to Lizard Island in the morning.  View from our room.