Saturday
18th May
We arrived at beautiful Lizard Island at
2.00 yesterday after a beautiful sail up the coast, with bouncy 1-metre waves
and a nice 20-ish knot wind. It was
quite overcast so not too hot, and not so much need to be shrouded in saris and
sarongs to keep the searing sun off my beleaguered skin.
Pete spent most of the morning
downstairs, constructing chicken stock out of our remaining bits and pieces,
and making a most delicious chicken noodle soup for lunch and a curry for
dinner. I stayed at the helm and listed
to Life Matters. I learned about:
Living with multiple sclerosis (MS) l
Living with cystic fibrosis (CF)
Living with skin diseases
How hard it is being a woman in prison
and then coming out of prison.
The effect of pornography on young
people and their expectations when they start relationships
Many many problems.
I felt quite happy, when Pete arrived
with my bowl of soup, not to have any of the abovementioned problems.
I took a few photos, just to show what
it is like on the boat when we are on the move.
One from the front, to show how steady
the boat is as it bounces lightly across the waves. In the distance there are two low flat
islands. Australians can be very
unimaginative when naming landmarks.
These are called, lyrically, Two
Islands. A bit further south there
is a low flat island with some trees. It
is called Low Wooded Island. And on the north and south of Lizard Island
are two starkly beautiful little island called…North Island and South
Island. I reckon Lizard Island is so
named because Captain Cook saw a lizard there and noted it in his diary.
One from the back. I sometimes sit on the back steps with my
feet dangling in the water – instant foot spa, very nice!
It was very breezy and not especially warm
when we got to Lizard but I was very VERY keen to go for a swim no matter
what. But as we were dropping the
anchor…up swam a dear little shark, with a friend, circling the boat. Not a big one, just about one metre, and very
cute, with its black and white fin. But
I sighed deeply and did not get in.
I said pointedly to Pete that I would
swim if I had someone to go with. He looked around and said, Well I wonder who we could find to go with
you? And retreated to zzzz happily
on the couch with his book.
This morning we did a bit of research re
swimming and snorkeling in Watsons Bay.
A few people from the five star resort in the next little bay were
happily swimming around on the reef, and everyone we talked to said it was
fine. The little sharks are no bother at
all.
Our first mission was to go for a walk,
however, on beautiful Lizard Island.
There is a very well presented track, with interpretative signs
explaining the flora, fauna, and history from this bay to the next, so we gently
pootled along, learning:
* About poor ill-fated Mary Watson,
adrift in an iron tub with her baby and one surviving Chinese servant, Ah Sam:
This is not her cottage…but it might
well have been…and in fact I gather for a long time common wisdom had this firmly
established as her domicile. Recently
archeologists have come along and dug around and said No, it’s too big, or too
small, or whatever. So Mary is homeless.
* About trees:
This one is Corymbia Tessellaris – such fascinating bark!
This is a pandani grove, sacred to the
aborigines – it is possible that Mr and Wrs Watson didn’t treat the area with
the respect required which is is Mary was cast adrift in the aforementioned tub
while her husband was off fishing for beche de mer…
* About green ants:
They make nifty nests in the trees.
* And about…lizards! Indeed I was correct, Captain Cook, in 1770
said, a bit despondently, that there were no animals at all on this island.
Only lizards. Great big sand monitors,
to be exact. I was thrilled to bits to
see not one but two!!
Number #1:
Number #2
Almost impossible to see under this tree
– this one is a Where’s Wally puzzle…
On the way back over the top of the
headland, after a disappointing visit to the Marlin Bar at the resort…disappointing
because…it was closed; Happy Hour is obviously not 11.30am…we stopped to take a
Scenery Shot.
2XS is there, at the back of the boats,
looking very pretty in this gloriously little bay.
By the time we got back, well after
1.00, I was desperate for a swim. It all
looked so fabulously inviting. I had
spread out my new toys for their Photo Opportunity – fabulous new PINK snork
and flip from Cairns, and new and as yet untested underwater camera from
Hobart:
Wee hee!!
Pete came with me and not on single
solitary shark did we see. What we did
see was giant clams!! Dozens of
them! We had seen one or two before, in
far-flung Pacific islands, but here, on the northern end of the bay, there was
a positive profusion of clams of all sizes.
I took a photo of a gang of pretty little ones first up:
So pretty!! I took about ten photos of the big ones…some
of them are very blurry. And there is no
scale…I should have got Pete’s foot, or my flipper, in the picture. But just imagine that they would weigh about
40-50 kilos – they are huge! And so
fabulous!!
Update on this information…after our
visit to the research Station we discovered that e had greatly underestimated
the size of our speccy clams. They can
weigh up to 150 kilos!! And they live
till they are about seventy years old…
Sunday
19th May
It is raining on beautiful Lizard
Island…
So we have no choice but to lie on the
couches reading and drinking cups of coffee after an ENORMOUS breakfast which
should last us well and truly until dinnertime.
We are going to the Marlin Bar, which
apparently is open Sunday nights, and only then, with the other five boatloads
of people in Watsons Bay. Last night we
all met on the beach for sundowners and chat.
All but one boat is heading for the Indonesian Rally; wee hee!!
Our one big event of the morning was – a
few moments of phone reception. Oh and a
visit from a very formal Customs boat, with officials, friendly but firm,
asking us a few pertinent questions.
And my big event of the day was another
very nice swim, over another part of the reef.
More giant clams, and one timid little reef shark which swept by, giving
me a very wide berth.
Monday 20th May
The Marlin Bar was…closed. So we had drinks on Settlement, a lovely big
cat from Mackay, also on its way to the Indonesian Rally, with hospitable Andrew
and Sue aboard.
This morning we walked to the Research
Station, about three kilometres away from the (closed) Marlin Bar. All of the people from the five boats
anchored in Watsons Bay walked across, through the beautiful low forest.
The presentation was great, and no it
did not go on too long. We learned all
manner of things. For example, the giant
clams don’t eat little fish, as I had always thought. They photosynthesise from sunlight, and they
feed on particulates in the sea. And
crown of thorns starfish are not, as I had thought, a ghastly foreign
invasion. They are native to the Barrier
Reef, and they present the greatest present danger. They are phenomenally efficient at
reproduction, and at destroying coral, and they also have very poisonous spines
which can cause great pain (but not death.)
I loved all of this info, and could have listened to Lile, the director
of the station, for hours longer.
Pete and I had taken a picnic lunch to
the other side of the island, where the station is situation, on a glorious
lagoon. The other eight people had
assured us that that was the plan, man, and that we would all have sandwiches
and then a swim in the lagoon. But as it
turned out they had all failed in the sandwich making area and we were the only
ones with food…We sat happily enough, with one lone teenage seagull, and
admired the lagoon while the others went back to their boats for lunch.
We are leaving tomorrow morning so I was
very keen to have one last swim on the reef.
Yesterday my underwater photos were a dismal, blurry failure, and
included lots (too many…) photos of my intrusive fingers. But today – success! I got several photos of some of my very
favourite darling little anemone fish…peering up at the camera with great
interest.
Tomorrow we are leaving for Howick
Island, on our way to the Flinders Group.
I think there will be no swimming for quite a while so I will have to gaze
regularly and fondly at the dear little fishy faces.
Tuesday 21st May
Howick Island – lots of mangroves,
possible crocs, no swimming…
Some of our friends have joined us here
– Settlement (Andrew and Sue) and Tiare Taporo III (Jim and Gina.)
No phone reception. No internet
connection. I am very disappointed…never
mind…
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