...the tropical north

I'm a fan or 28 degree water temperature. I'm not a fan of transparent, floating globules of jelly the size of my little fingernail that can kill you simply by looking at you. Conclusion, big fan of hotel swimming pools. You can drink gin & tonic there too.

A few piccies from my mini-moon to Tropical North Queensland. Highlights being diving with sharks, snorkelling with turtles and hot air ballooning at dawn. Due to a lack of water-friendly technology (or camera housing for my camera) my artsy-fartsy shots were somewhat limited to 'supremus humus'. That's 'above gound in latin for the uninitiated. Tourist note; if you want to go out to the Great Barrier Reef, do it from Port Douglas, not Cairns. Better reef, fewer backpackers.

No trip to the GBR would be complete without several hundred shots of the crystal clear turquoise water...believe me, there were lots. I won't bore you with them, instead I will recommend you visit Palm Cove yourselves. Very chilled out place, but word to the wise... eating isn't cheap!

While you're there, eat at Far Horizons... quite simply, yum. I know it sounds random but we met the best waitor ever, a South American who was travelling, had spent time in Mona Vale (random?!) and had started working at the hotel as a luggage porter.

When he hurt his back and couldn't carry bags anymore, the manager gave him a shot at being a waitor and has consequently become pretty much fluent in conversational english in about 6 weeks. Seriously impressive and a bloody good bloke.

He obvioulsy had a better grasp on this waitoring thing that we thought because he got us pretty drunk (becuase we needed encouragement) and we ended up tipping him something ridiculous.

Anyway, when you're there, say hi from us.