Pete and Fern picked us up at 07:30 to go on the Cook’s Look hike up the mountain to the left of us. In 1770, Captain Cook mapped the Queensland coastline. He was trying to make his way to the open ocean and couldn’t find a pass through the reefs. He sailed to Lizard Island, anchoring in Watson’s Bay, and scaled the mountain. At the top of the mountain he was able to see the breaks in the reef that he could utilize to get to the open ocean.

It looked like a fairly short and not too terribly steep of a trek. Boy, were we wrong. It really wasn’t too rough, but it was certainly longer and harder than we had anticipated. The terrain varied vastly throughout the hike. Some sections are all rock that had to be scaled. Others are dry fields. Still others are forest-like with many trees and shrubs. The view is pretty even from the bottom, and the higher we climbed, the more spectacular it became. Most of the trail was steep. The first picture is Watson’s Bay. Can you see Kosmos? You can see this part of the mountain is all granite. The buildings in the distance across from the tiny island in the bay is the fancy hotel. The second shot gives you a good feel for the terrain. The third one we are getting close to the top. The last one is the view from the top.

We stayed at the top for a while, taking in the spectacular setting around us before heading back.

Back at Kosmos, we had some lunch before heading out with Fern and Peter to go snorkeling at a reef near the research station. This was a fabulous snorkeling spot, with tons of fish and colorful coral. There were lots of big fish, too. We saw lots of blennies, lizardfish, cleaning wrasse, puffer fish, batfish, diamond banded sweetlips, feather starfish, coral trout, Christmas tree worms in several colors, giant clams, yellow and blue damsels, parrotfish, a small reef shark lying in wait on the floor in between two coral heads, and much more.

Here are a few pictures: The first is a sea cucumber. We see lots of them everywhere. In French Polynesia they were all black, and the farther west we get, the lighter they are getting in color. Here they are predominately the leopard spotted variety, which are light brown with darker brown spots, though the occasional black one is still around. The next is a butterfly fish and a chromis. This chromis species are the only ones that rear their young. You usually see two adults, a mama and a daddy, accompanying a school of babies. They are neat to watch. The third is a sea fan. The fourth is a school of fish foraging in some staghorn coral. We’re not sure what kind of fish they are. The last is some coral. Mushroom leather coral in the center, fire coral to the right and left, the purple is staghorn coral, and at the very back edge you can see a little brain coral.

As soon as we got back, we hit the showers and were right back out the door. We found out that there is a get together every evening at 17:00 (5:00 pm) on the beach. It just happened to start early the day we arrived because of Melbourne Cup Day. We were told that Lizard Island lends itself to being social, with a nice beach, a table and benches, shade trees, and no bugs, so people like to come out and socialize. The winds had picked up and many boats had pulled in over the last couple of days in search of shelter from the wind. It seemed like everyone in the anchorage came and it was a packed party. We happened to meet a couple on their way back from Asia that invited us to come by the next morning for the low down on where to go there. Or, actually, we invited ourselves and they didn’t say no.

Jan and Eric invited us over for dinner after social hour was over. They had gone fishing and had caught a big crayfish and a big Spanish mackerel, so they were having the whole crew from yesterday’s trip over. Dinner was a lot of fun. The crayfish and mackerel were great. They are all nice people with a good sense of humor, and time just flew by with lots of laughs.

One of the ladies in the group, Shannon, gave us a copy of some songs by a Canadian artist named Eileen Quinn. They played her music at dinner and we loved it. Her music style is kind of folksy, and most of the songs are about sailing. They are hilarious! We recommend checking her out. She even has a great song about SCUBA diving, for those of you that aren’t sailors.

We got in really late and were exhausted. We just can’t keep up with these retirees!