It’s not at all tough to fall in love with Lizard Island’s coral-fringed curls of sand and the cornflower-blue bays that beckon snorkellers under the sea. Travel authors and reef fans besotted with this tropical island call it picturesque and wild, and while Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is cluttered with such charms (some far more verdant and with coral reefs in much muchbetter shape), the appeal of Lizard Island lies in its being so really far away.
Reaching its nationwide park-protected coasts is an experience in itself, guaranteeing extremely coupleof individuals assemble on Lizard’s 24 glittering white sand beaches at any one time. Those who do make the journey — by aircraft, charter boat or personal luxuryyacht — quantity to an incongruous lot of castaways: luxury resort visitors, daring grotty yachties and fly-in campers who gethere with campingtents and snorkelling equipment, and pay in pocket modification for their rustic beachfront views. All come lookingfor privacy under the sea and Lizard Island neverever stopsworking to dissatisfy.
Lieutenant James Cook called the island for its homeowner yellow-spotted screen lizards and it’s here where biologist Sir David Attenborough started his 60-year-long love affair with the Great Barrier Reef, which he calls “the most wonderful location on Earth”. On its northern suggestion, Lizard Island’s step-off-the-sand reefs are studded with luminescent huge clams, flowering coral bommies and a kaleidoscopic cavalcade of lime and tangerine-coloured fish.
Sadly, the last 8 years haveactually pressed Lizard Island’s beautiful wilderness to the edge. In 2014 and onceagain in 2015, classification 4 cyclones Ita and Nathan mauled the island, all however flattening its just resort. A year lateron, the veryfirst of 4 devastating coral lightening occasions activated by internationally increasing sea temperaturelevels left Lizard Island’s fringing reefs in precarious shape.
In July this year, the findings of long-running researchstudy on the island exposed that 16 per cent of Lizard’s coral types have vanished because2011 Zoe Richards, senior researchstudy fellow at Curtin University, forecasts extinctions will mostlikely continue as international temperaturelevels increase. Ironically, the exactsame cyclones that batter Lizard Island every summertime bring a silver lining, cooling the sea and assisting stressedout coral reefs makeitthrough each long hot summertime.
It’s tough not to see these bleached undersea landscapes as the canary in the coal mine, however Lizard Island has not yet reached its tipping point, and the more visitors it bewitches, the more hope there is for its reefs.
Fortunately for those who make the journey, snorkelling and diving experiences off Lizard Island stay extremely lively with hectic biodiversity: black-tipped reef sharks and green sea turtles, octopus, substantial humphead wrasse and intense spotted lagoon rays. The world-famous Cod Hole on the Ribbon Reefs lies simply a fast boat trip away, and Lizard Island’s Blue Lagoon harbours genuinely exceptional, shallow-water snorkelling websites that throng with fish.
Walking tracks pull travelers out of the sea to stand on the top of Cook’s Look at daybreak, to find Indigenous and pioneer-era heritage websites, and to rappel down sheer granite cliffs and collect up nautilus shells on the great, faraway Coconut Beach.
As tropical isles go, Lizard Island has significant wow aspect. Attenborough and I are in contract when he calls Lizard Island one of his preferred locations to be. I when cruised there for a two-week stay and 3 months lateron I was still under the sea, anchored in uber-clear Watsons Bay and living off fresh fish, a micro-garden and home-brewed beers.
No matter how lotsof times I checkout, there’s constantly something brand-new to experience, like this year’s unscripted yoga sessions on the casuarina-fringed edge of Watsons Bay (Mary Watsons Bay to be exact). Joining a laidback band of early risers, our mats, blankets and beach towels rolled out on the sand, we extended and smiled and saluted the sun in one of the most incredible areas on the world. Afterwards everybody wandered back home, paddling stand-up paddleboards and sea kayaks to their personal luxuryyachts, or walking along the sand to their momentary digs in one of Australia’s most stunningly situated fly-in campingsites.
Shoestring remains
Lizard Island levels the playing field for self-dependent visitors with more spunk than costsavings. Its beachfront nationwide park campingsite provides the perfect chance to play Robinson Crusoe in primitive campgrounds that expense simply $6.85 a night.
Sandy sleeping bags are de rigueur, however the views, snorkelling, excellent sundowns and daring checkingout all make this one of the mostinexpensive island flings you can delightin in Australia. The low rate tag likewise indicates there’s plenty left to invest on sundown beverages on the frangipani-scented yards of the resort’s “all-welcome” Marlin Bar.
Right off the camp lies Lizard Island’s notoriously vibrant Clam Garden, and you can fin out from the beach to eyeball the safe reef sharks that cruise underneath Watsons Bay’s vibrant north wall. The campground offers simply the essentials: picnic tables, a complimentary gas barbecue and composting toilet, and there’s drinkable bore water a brief walk away. Most campers showup armed with their own animal conveniences: hammocks and shade fabrics, eskies complete of cold beverages, snorkelling equipment and inflatable SUPs.
These additional toys assistin exceptional half-day paddles north to Mermaid Cove (where the honeymooners hang out) or south to the Blue Lagoon — the island-studded sanctuary made well-known by 2008’s hit Fool’s Gold. Filmed on place, the motionpicture’s star Kate Hudson called Lizard Island “the most romantic location on Earth”; the Blue Lagoon’s tricoloured blue-green, gold and viridescent, palm-fringed vistas are what she’s referring to.
The lagoon is scenically nestled inbetween 4 remarkable granite islands with similarly picturesque beaches: Osprey, Palfrey, South and the Seabird Islets.
A stunning area to snorkel, supplying you can gainaccessto it by boat, lies along the southern edge of South Island (just time your drift dive with the tide