Great Barrier reef

Yes, it is amazing. Yes, it is like all the pictures. Yes, Nemo and Dory do live there. Part of me can’t quite believe that we had the chance to go and see such an amazing and beautiful place. We saw it through our snorkels and through the bottom of a glass bottomed boat. Even Evie donned her mask and snorkel and had a go. However, when I say we, there was one notable absence from the glass bottomed boat trip. Craig Borlase, rock and roll legend was ensconced in the upper deck, lying down and groaning gently.

It takes about an hour and a half to get from Port Douglas out to the reef and it was on this journey that Craig disappeared to his post on the upper deck. The memories of our Greek holiday came flooding back and I suddenly remembered that we had spent all our time on boats concentrating very hard on fixed points on the horizon to try and quell the rising sea sickness. Excitement had obviously made us block this memory out when we booked the boat… Still Craig soldiered valiantly on, only vomiting in the sea a couple of times….

Dad, Barney and Evie positively revelled in their enjoyment of the trip. Mum was a little green. I was feeling pretty proud of myself (and not a little smug) until 30 minutes before we got back to shore when I suddenly threw up in dramatic fashion (luckily I made it to the bathroom before completely embarrassing myself).

So: beautiful, beautiful world. Frail humanity.