Well what a week that was! the Great Barrier Reef is without doubt one of the great wonders of the world,but how do you get the very best out of it? in my humble opinion its to steal the Beckhams gin palace, hire an all girl crew and navigate well away from all the other boats, filled to the bilges with Moet and Caviar you could be forgiven for occasionally peeping over the side and winking at the odd octopus or turtle!
The reality is somewhat different however, you get on a big fast reef cat, head out at 40 knots and get ushered along with 300 others into various activities including, diving, snorkeling,Helli flights and then submersible cruises! you go at 9 and come back at 4 and you will have "done" the reef, you get a good lunch and all for about $450(£250) which is great!
The other three days in Port Douglas where bliss, I had one day fishing the reef and met a real boat full of characters(the photos speak for themselves) we caught lots of reef fish and I lost a big Spanish Mackerel.
The following day I chartered a local guide called Jamie Beitzel who took me out wrecking off the mouth of the Daintree River, real jungle this!Jamie lives with his wife and young family in the jungle over the Daintree ferry, no electricity and very little else but the feeling I got was that here was a very contented young man doing what he loved!he put me on to some amazing fish including Nannigai and Cobia and boy did they fight especially in the 30 degree heat!again the photos speak for themselves,the fish I caught went to feed some of Jamies Aboriginal friends in the jungle where he lives!The Daintree is full of Crocs so take care with the bathing!

Flying back from Cairns probably afforded the best view of the reef yet, vivid colours showing the real extent of the place all 800 miles of it!sadly the plane was full, i didn't have a window seat and we couldn't move around because of turbulence, so photos were not an option, still we had the helicopter shots to fall back on, I forgot to take my fishing hat off and stow it in my luggage so I ended up having it confiscated for trying to carry an illegal weapon on board at Sydney!

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