Bart Bear's Blog

This little lighthouse is on Grassy Hill, a high hill near the entrance to Cooktown harbour. It usually looks dirty like this because it gets coated by red dust from the road. It has been marking the entrance to Cooktown since 1885. It is a bit different to most lighthouses because it has a timber frame and corrugated iron walls. The Barrier Reef is close to shore here and there are lots of reefs close in to the shore. My hero, Captain Cook, hit one way back in 1770. He had to beach his boat, the "Endeavour" on the bank of the river and that's how Cooktown and the Endeavour River got their names. There is a rock monument near the lighthouse that commemorates Cook's trips up Grassy Hill to try and see a way through the reefs. Half-way up the hill there is a statue of a kangaroo, at the spot where kangaroos first got their European name. The story is that Cook saw this strange critter and asked the local aboriginals what it was. They said "kangaroo". Cook didn't know that that meant "What did you say?" in the local language so he called the critter kangaroo. No wonder kangaroos get stroppy sometimes.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Captain Cook, lighthouse, Queensland

Here's a photo of two real sea monsters who never ever take a small bear with them when they go snorkelling. This day we were at the Low Isles near Cairns. At least the island has a lighthouse so there was something for me to explore while the meanies were terrifying the marine life. Snorkelling must be fun because they always have a big grin on their face when they come back to dry out, and they yabber on about the fantastic fish and coral they see. But Scruffy and I are always left behind so the only way we ever see fish and things is through the glass bottoms of see-through boats. Not fair to small bears!!

Labels: Barrier Reef, Cairns, Queensland

This is one cute lighthouse. It is on one of the Low Isles, near Port Douglas, and is the main lighthouse for boats coming back from trips out to the Barrier Reef. The Low Isles are a pair of very different islands. The small one is nice and sandy and the bigger one is yucky and swampy. Naturally, the lighthouse is on the smaller one. We went out for a day trip on one of the Quicksilver boats in 2005, just before we did our Barrier Reef cruise with Captain Cook. I had fun that day. It had a bit of everything, a bus trip, a look at some cassawories, lots of different sorts of boats, a small train, a boat trip, a beaut beach to explore while the Oldies were off snorkelling, and enough people around to scare the crabs away. We walked all around the island, and had a good look at the lighthouse which is in the middle of the island. There is a nice path from the beach so not even small bears can get lost there (unless we want to). The only problem is that once I got away from the crowd on the beach I was back in crab territory. Fortunately there is a set of posts to climb and a chain joining them that I learnt to tight-rope walk on while the Oldies were busy taking photos (can you see me in this one). Crabs are not good tightrope walkers.
I love holidays. Only two more sleeps before we are off on our next one. My next post will be in a fortnight, with more pictures of my favourite thing, cruising Fiji with Captain Cook.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Cairns, Captain Cook, crabs, cruising, lighthouse, Queensland

There is something special about sitting on a beach on a tropical island and seeing your cruise ship anchored in the bay. This is the Captain Cook ship "Reef Endeavour" that took us on our Barrier Reef cruise two years ago. It is anchored off Fitzroy Island near Cairns. Fitzroy is a special island to my oldies because it is where thay had their first holiday together, way back in the days before me. It is where Mum first snorkelled over coral, and where she got some great photos of manta rays so close that she could touch them. Back in those days Fitz was a low-key resort island. Now it is being turned into an up-market one. I will see it again when the oldies next cruise the reef. Hopefully small bears will still be allowed to visit and check for mantas.

Labels: Barrier Reef, boats, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

Now here's a sign that really means it. You would expect a place called Lizard Island to have lizards on it, so Mum and I went looking for them. As soon as the oldies got out of the water that is. Sometimes I think that their ancestors must have been mer-people. We were visiting the island on our 2005 Barrier Reef cruise on Captain Cook's "Reef Endeavour". Anyhow, we walked across the island trying to find some of the big goannas that Cap'n Cook named the island after. The only one we saw was crossing the path but we didn't get his picture because a group of noisy old ladies came along and scared him off. When we got back to the beach Dad took this picture of Mum and I leaning on the sign just to prove we had been there and guess what, this little gecko was hiding on the back of the sign. Mum really loves geckoes and I don't mind them because they aren't as scary as goannas, so I have put a bigger picture of him in the corner.

Labels: animals, Barrier Reef, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

One of the highlights of a Captain Cook cruise is the crew show. The Barrier Reef crew of "Reef Endeavour" are good, but the Fijian crew of "Reef Escape" are superb. Fijian singing and dancing just has to be experienced at least once in your life. Actually once you hear it once you will surely want to hear it again. Here is some of the crew from our 2006 trip serenading us before performing some of the most exciting dances this small bear has ever seen. My special friend, 'Tiko the divemaster, is playing guitar at the far end of the front row. I just love this crew. There seems nothing they can't do to make the trip one to remember. I can't wait to meet them again.

This will be my last post for a few weeks. Tomorrow morning we hop on a plane for Melbourne. We go to the Avalon airshow, catch up with friends from our 2005 Barrier Reef trip, and spend the next 2 weeks driving to Adelaide, seeing all the spectacular scenery along the Great Ocean Road and checking every lighthouse along the way (all 22 of them!).

Labels: aValon, Barrier Reef, boats, Captain Cook, cruising, Fiji, Great Ocean Road, lighthouse, Victoria

Cooktown is one of the stops on Captain Cook's Barrier Reef cruise, and one of Mum's favorite places. Here we are watching the "Reef Endeavour" come up to the dock. We are watching from the sundeck, right at the top of the boat. The "Endeavour" is the biggest ship to go to Cooktown and there is always a mob of spectators watching to see if the crew gets it wrong and bumps the dock too hard. They never do. Notice that Mum is so interested in proceedings that she hasn't noticed that I am sitting on the rail and could fall in if I don't hang on tight.

Labels: Barrier Reef, boats, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

Here's a picture of what the oldies get all wet to swim over. I am a lot happier now that I have found that if I lie on the glass in Captain Cook's see-through boats I can see it as well and not get wet. This stuff looks like cabbage plants, but is actually limestone castles built by tiny critters that live in it. There are all sorts of shapes of corals. This type that grows near the surface is called plate coral. I like fish better, but coral is OK.
You can see lots of my cruising pictures by clicking the Captain Cook link below, but for the early ones you will have to click into my archives 'cause they drop off the link page after 20 posts.

Labels: Barrier Reef, boats, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

I've been to a lot of beaches over the last couple of years. This is one of the best. White, fine sand to dig in. No big waves to sneak up on small bears and get them all wet. Great coral and fish offshore to get the oldies out snorkelling and out of my hair for a while. Lots of boats of all sorts to look at. Even Captain Cook (the original one) liked the place when he visited here in 1770. He called the island Lizard Island because of the big sand goannas that live here. The big hill is called Cook's Look because he climbed up there to look for a way out through the reefs to open sea. We went there with today's Captain Cook crew. Can you see where I am hiding in the picture? And can you guess why I am there? (hint: crabs can't climb).

Labels: Barrier Reef, beach, Captain Cook, climbing, crabs, cruising, Queensland

Here's the ship we cruised the Barrier Reef on in September 2005. It is the "Reef Endeavour" and belongs to Captain Cook. We spent a week on this boat and visited islands and reefs from Hinchinbrook Is to Lizard Is. The ship is bigger than our Fiji one, it has a whole extra deck. Here it is tied up at the dock in Cooktown, just about where Lieut. James Cook beached the "Endeavour" after he hit the reef back in 1770. Cooktown is one of Mum's favorite places and she wants to go back someday. The most memorable thing is the huge mango trees along the main street. Mangoes are there for the taking while we have to pay dollars for them here in Canberra. Actually, Scruffy and I were watching Dad take this photo. We are sitting in the window of our cabin but you can't see us in the picture.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

Last September we went on a cruise along the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was Captain Cook's "Reef Endeavour". This is a bit bigger than our Fiji boat "Reef Escape", but it gets you to just as many interesting places. Scruffy and I spend a lot of time on these trips looking out our window at the islands and reefs. Here we are looking at a very big island. It is Australia. We are anchored off Dunk Island and the houses on the mainland are at Mission Beach. Mum and Dad are getting ready to go ashore and explore Dunk. Scruff and I are settling in for an afternoon of watching boats go by.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Cairns, Captain Cook, cruising, Queensland

Here's where Scruffy and I spent most of our time while Mum and Dad were snorkelling Hardy Reef. It is the porthole of the cabin on the pontoon where overnight visitors stay. Sitting here we had a great view of the reefs either side of the deep channel that the Reefworld pontoon is anchored in. We even sat here after sunset while Mum and Dad partied with the crew who live on the pontoon.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Queensland

Scruffy and I went to the Whitsundays with Mum and Dad back in July 2003. We stayed overnight way out on the reef at the Reefworld pontoon, anchored at a place called Hardy Reef. We were the only visitors out there after the day trippers left at 4pm and Mum and Dad had the whole reef to snorkel by themselves. Scruffy and I stayed dry and saw lots of fish from the underwater theatre. Next day we all stayed dry while the day trippers clogged up the snorkelling area. We watched the reef as the tide rose and fell. Here we are on the top deck of the pontoon.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Queensland