Lizard Island

Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Thu 9 Jun 2011 22:49
We're now spending our second day anchored off Lizard Island: we arrived here on Thursday after a good fast sail up from Cooktown.
Cooktown was our last stop in civilisation on the route to Darwin. Though we'll be stopping overnight in anchorages on the way up to Cape York, there will be no phone/internet/shop......and indeed no people-it's empty!!!!
Cooktown was very different--I guess Australia as it used to be--it was a boomtown in the 1870s--based on a gold rush--but by the 1880s the gold was coming to an end, people were leaving and it was left as a rural small town--but with some lovely buildings built during the boom years. And that's how it has remained.  Some tourists--but only the dedicated ones as it's far from anywhere and the roads are bad---and some yachties like ourselves. We stayed a couple of days.
And now Lizard Island--good anchorage, nice beach and bush trails---and coral in reasonable nick--far better coral and water visibility than the Whitsundays.
But tomorrow we set off up the cape--long way yet to go to Darwin--our ETA there is 2 July. Once over the top of Cape York, we'll be sailing to Gove--350 miles--and then Darwin--a further near 500. In the meantime, this is the only e-mail we can be contacted on.