Where the rainforest meets the reef
18 May 2008 | Fitzroy Island, Queensland
Fitzroy Island is only 16 nautical miles from Cairns, it is 96% national park and having heard plenty of stories from Jay's parents about it, we were looking forward to seeing it for ourselves.
Of course, with the luck we've been having, the resort we'd heard so much about was in the middle of a massive renovation and so was closed. The day facilities were still available for use but the sound of construction was ever present. We still ventured ashore and off on one of our many walks.
We decided to tackle the Lighthouse walk first. The walk follows an old service road which was really steep and if you've been following our trip you'll know how much I hate hills, this was almost vertical! On the way to the lighthouse there was an option to climb to the summit, Fitzroy Island was actually a mountain connected to the mainland about 10,000 years ago until the ice age ended and the ice melted raising the ocean levels and creating an island. There is loads of granite everywhere and we could look down to the anchorage, unfortunately we couldn't quite see Makani Kai but the view was great. We then walked on to the lighthouse which was not very impressive, I've seen nicer.
We walked back down again running into Jason and Loretta on the beach as they made the way to the lighthouse track, after a quick coffee with Kenny at the day resort we undertook another, much shorter and easier walk to 'the secret garden'. Not so secret I would think when there are signs telling everyone where to go, they should have called it 'garden that everyone knows about because there are signs everywhere'. At least the walk would have been shorter but we ran into some more yachties that we had seen briefly at Dunk Island and because Jay hates a chat... Lovely people though, they are not on the rally but are on the bluewater rally which I believe goes through the mediterranean.
After heading back to the inflatable we discovered that a girl Jason had gone to school with was overseeing the construction with her husband and we were invited over for dinner with the workers. Jay and I sat that one out but Loretta, Jason and Kenny ventured over and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
The next day before leaving we took the bathosphere and motored over the coral for a look while Jason and Loretta paddled over to the Nudey beach and went for a walk. Don't know if they were nudie or not, don't want to know but by the time they reached us they were clothed! Cairns, here we come!