After the success of the sailing trip we found ourselves back on another boat this time a fishing boat with a skipper called Jono and two lads from Liverpool. We loaded the eskie (cooler box) full of Auzzie VB beer and set off out of Able Point Marina once again. This time however it wasn't quite so sedate and relaxing. Once out of the harbour Jono let rip full pelt on the throttle and we sped off crashing and bouncing through the waves at top speed, exhilarating, slightly terrifying and very wet!

Jono was another Auzzie who liked to regale the gullible pommies with fantastic stories and he took great delight in showing us the two point scars on his right foot. The story goes that he and his mates were camping on Hook Island and after consuming a great deal of amber nectar they settled down for the night. Jono woke up at sunrise to the most excruciating pain on his right foot. Looking down he saw a gigantic barking spider the size of a dinner plate sinking his bacteria filled fangs into his lower leg!!!......true story?? I don't know but they were impressive scars!

Eventually the white knuckle ride settled down and we came to a halt just off of Double Cone Island. Being a novice fisher girl Jono thought I would definitely catch the biggest and the three boys wouldn't get a bite. So once I was shown how to stab a piece of dead squid with one glazed over eye on the hook ….yuck!!...we got started.

Ray and the two scouse lads got nibbles immediately..but I just stood there, dangling my rod over the side for what seemed like hours while the boys kept hauling them in....me?.....nothing...waiting and waiting...and waiting..then suddenly I got some hefty tugging on the end of the rod and I wound up the line as quickly as I could, Jono got excited, Ray got the camera ready, the scouser's cracked opened another beer and out came a huge.......chunk of coral reef!!....and that's how it continued all afternoon….I just kept destroying the reef….oops!

Although I like to eat fish, like so many others I couldn't kill one so was happy not to get a catch really. Finally I did catch a little coral wrasse but he was only a tiddler so I gave him a name..'Bruce' (obviously) and threw him back!!

Ray had better luck and caught two fair sized yellow tailed surgeon fish and after Jono had 'dealt' with them, ( I couldn't watch) they were put into the eskie on ice until we got back to the marina.

The journey back was as white knuckly as the journey out and I'm sure Jono was twisting and turning into the big waves on purpose to drench us because I was saturated by the time we arrived back...great fun though!!

Jono had told us about a restaurant in town who for $5 would fillet and cook your fish for you. So that evening we ate fresh fish and drank spiced rum and lime.....another brilliant day!

Sunday is a day of rest and we found a lovely hotel by the edge of the ocean where for a $25 dollar lunch you could use their pool and facilities all day, so with books and IPods there we stayed.

The next day we caught the 'Sea Flight', a 37-metre wave piercing ship and headed for the outer part of the Barrier reef. After a two hour journey we landed at the pontoon on the reef. Once again, on with the stinger suits and in we jumped and once again we were mesmerized by the beauty of the reef. We snorkeled along the shelf of the reef and watched as giant clams opened and closed, listened as the beautiful parrot fish munched their way through the algae growing on the coral. Peered into the depths and saw huge Maori wrasse and groper fish patrolling around the corals and plants as they waved and swayed with the tide. We saw big eyed squids, bright red sea anemones and tiny shoals of electric blue neon tetras, beautiful clown fish, coral salmon and I tried to remember all the names but there were just so many..it was a tropical wonderland! Just off of the pontoon was a semi-submersible glass bottom craft. We watched and listened to the commentary as it slowly edged past the corals and when we got back I jumped back in again and dived down to the windows of the pontoon while Ray took photos of me swimming with a shoal of yellow tailed surgeon fish...(the same ones that we had eaten a couple of days before....sorry fish!)......Just a wonderful day!

Sailing back on the Sea Flight, my skin was warm from the Australian sun and salty from the coral sea, my hair was like straw, tangled from the wind but I cannot describe how happy I was...I'd just experienced once of my greatest ambitions, something I have wanted to do since I was a child and it was more magical and more beautiful than I had ever imagined.......and yep...you guessed it....we are definitely going back!!

Next stop the Queensland rainforest, a very old caravan and some of my favorite creatures…..NOT!!....