That's the 'phib on Whitehaven Beach and then Whitehaven at lowish tide from the air, one of the most beautiful sights anywhere.  Below is the Barrier Reef, no that's not land, it's all underwater.  This reminded us of the Med and the "island" in roughly the position of Corsica is actually the famous Heart Reef.  From directly above, an absolutely accurate heart picture and a favourite spot for proposals!  To give an idea of scale, we're quite close, Heart Reef measures about 4m in diameter.....

Flights of Fancy...

Glenn checks with Greg the pilot that he hasn't been drinking, has he? I fly better when I have, he retorts. None the wiser, we board the seaplane with a family group for an hour's flight over the reef and islands. Glenn sits next to Gregg and you can see he is thrilled to be in the co-pilot's seat - but is warned to 'touch nothing'. After a brief drill on how to open the doors and jump out if instructed (!), we are off and I am surprised at the ease with which this amphibian takes off the runway and how stable she is in flight. Just high enough to get the most fantastic aerial views of the islands, we get a great guided tour. The tide is low enough to show the irridescent rings of white fading to turquoise which mark the islands' boundaries with the Coral Sea and stand out starkly against the green vegetation of the interiors. Only 2-3 islands are inhabited - and those by holiday resorts. One with an airstrip and 2 high-rise which I feel is not in keeping, but necessary for the tourist trade they want to attract here. The plane dips to left and right over Whitehaven beach - the beautiful white one in our previous photos - and we see that at one end there are white dunes in serried waves which ripple back into the interior of the island like a river. Silica sand thrown up from a volcanic fault millenia ago creating a beautiful image. 50km of open ocean and then a staggering view of the barrier reef curving out and over the horizon, so vast is it's area. The shades of blue, green and white create an effect which looks like the verdigris mottling on old copper as it sweeps into banks and circles shaped over time by tide and coral growth. At one point we see a large shark cruising along a bank of coral, unaware of the human audience above.

We get to land on the sea at one of the anchored pontoons attached to the Great Barrier Reef - the family of 6 disembark and we have the plane to ourselves. At this point, Gregg opens his door and gets out, standing on one of the floats to assist people into the rib which has come to collect them. The engine is still running and the plane is moving - Glenn asks what he should do if Gregg falls in and is met with another scathing remark!

In a shower of spray and noise, which must send the fish into meltdown, the plane is off again and we get a personal tour of the reef and islands once more before coming in over Shute harbour and an aerial view of the house we are occupying so that we can see we truly are at the highest point of the bluff.

An unforgettable experience and our luck held with the weather and the tide to get the best views.

Later, we decided on a walk at a local beauty spot - Cedar Falls. The drive (thank god for the air-con) takes us through the old sugar cane plantations where the cane is still grown and the little railway first started in the late 1800s is still in place criss-crossing the highway from time to time. When the rain comes it is obvious that this area suffers a great deal of flooding from all the warning signs and measuring sticks. The homesteads are interesting and reminiscent of Louisiana with 'stoops' and rocking chairs - mostly sitting on stilts, one assumes for reasons of flood or snakes. Some of the trees are beautiful and full of blossom despite the drought although some are bleached white in the searing heat; the cattle are gaunt and appear to have no grass. Cedar Falls has no falls. The creek is dry, there is a muddy and uninviting waterhole, but no falls. 'when the rains come...' say some locals who are enjoying a tinny in the shade.

We carry on to the end of the road - Conway beach. Now this is more like it. There is a small township on another beautiful horseshoe bay of sand, completely deserted. We sit under some coconut palms in the shade with a cooling breeze and watch the white horses on the ocean while enjoying our own tinnies. We walk the length of the beach near the shallows, careful not to go in; the stinger season means that even bits of jellyfish which have broken off and washed up can still cause a fatality. Sure enough, there are the bodies of many of them lying on the sand where the water has ebbed. No wonder the beach is deserted!

Getting Wet Hair

OK, we had enough of being lazy and it was time to play tourist.

So we booked a day trip out to the Barrier Reef (3 hours on a fast cat, 60 miles, as far as Poole-Cherbourg). Picture 1 shows the pontoon they have there, tethered above the reef and you get 4 hours to use the glass-bottom boat, the semi-sub, the underwater observatory, water slide AND YOU GET TO DIVE (we chose this operator as the only one not to insist on a current dive medical for Glenn). Very pleasant but not the greatest diving I have done, no wonder, with 100 people thrashing around each and every day.

Next day we did a trip just around the Whitsunday Islands themselves and took in another dive, an island resort and the world famous Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday itself. That's Sue on this beautiful, beautiful beach in her fetching snorkel suit. The suits are de rigeur coz they have jellyfish here that are so small you can't see them and so venemous that they do kill. I think I read somewhere that Queensland has more things to kill you than almost anywhere on Earth.

The local knowledge divers told me that if I wanted to scare myself to try http://www.yongaladive.com.au/ for the BEST dive in Australia just a couple of hours north of here but they are booked this week. Nature's way of telling me that I didn't want to dive with bull sharks, sea snakes, below my allowable holiday-insurance depths, in a fast current and in a shipping lane. What the hell, hoping for a cancellation. If not, fall-back position is next most dangerous thing, zipping around the reefs in a small sea plane to get some great pix (probably not insured for that either). Essential to do it at low water for best views but this week we are on neaps, never mind.

pass the XXXX Sheila!

Singapore was a funny place - anyone who's been from France into Monaco will know what I mean. It isn't really Asia at all (except for the humidity of 90%) -it's clean - everything works - people are genuinely helpful without wanting to sell you something: in short, a little unreal. We lost a day by sleeping for 18 hours and then thought we were sleepwalking on the streets in the central district (Glenn's back was bad and not helped by the 13 hour flight) when we could hardly see a soul but then cottoned on to the N.American idea that everyone was trogging it underground because of the heat and humidity, not the snow! Underground (or above ground in some really amazing skyscrapers) everyone was making money or spending money, but staying cool, and being quite vertically challenged. We did the tourist bit. If you think where they started, from the surrender in 1942 to the japs, from independence in the 60's, what they have done in a small place without any natural resouces is simply amazing. They should give lessons to the rest of Asia (just not in mild fascism). China town was disappointing, but the Botanical gardens were fantastic - particularly the orchid gardens, but it was surreal to see dozens of decorated christmas trees in the steamy heat with humming birds and parakeets instead of robins!

Like Ronnie Corbett, I digress. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. The plan was really to go to NZ and now I have to explain why we are in Oz for a month. Well, there is this amazing site called homexchange.com and we hoped we could travel by exchanging houses, although this would have to be non-simultaneous since few would want to come to France in the European winter. So, we looked for people with second homes to exchange and whilst we were looking, we were approached by an Australian couple who were proposing their FABULOUS second home overlooking the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland in exchange for time in one of our properties. It was too stunning to miss and if you are interested in their website to see how the other half live, ask us for the link. It must be a first since we are in heaven without dying. Obviously above you have the shot of Raffles Hotel in Singapore but the other 2 are shot from the deck here, a single of Shute Harbour below and a 3-shot stitched together to give the panorama over the Whitsundays.

We flew into Brisbane and the owners (who live there) were incredibly kind and met us at the airport at 7am and looked after us until our onward flight at 5pm to the Whitsundays. They're coming to us in France next September. We also met with another Brisbane couple who, at the last minute, are taking one of houses in March (the clock is ticking, we have to be back there to greet them on their arrival 8th March after our return flight back into London on 27 Feb) and in exchange have proposed their beautiful second home at Noosa should we ever come back to Queensland (yes, please). Glenn is going to eat humble pie later after hoping to use this trip to reinforce his prejudices about Australia - he blames his daughters for making him watch Neighbours.

From here after sitting looking at each other on Christmas Day (it'll be a first for both of us not to be able to share Christmas with our families but, hey, maybe our families are glad about that!) we fly back to Brisbane on Boxing Day to stay with an old friend from Wimborne who has now relocated back to her native Oz. Then after New Year we fly to Sydney to stay with Sue's cousin and THEN we get to go to NZ.....

More about that later. Did I tell you yet how FABBY it is here?

Apparently the XXXX brewery is near here - for all those who are interested - but seriously, cold beverages of any description are welcome and I can now see why Australians and Americans have such huge fridges.

The plane was delayed a couple of hours and we arrived, too late to see the stunning views, due to cyclonic conditions in Darwin!!! So opening the electrically operated curtains from bed to reveal this panorama in all its glory was quite something. Who needs pictures when you have a view like this! The house is on a high promontory, along with several others all equally well hidden in the bush, and overlooks the Whitsunday Passage with the islands (most uninhabited) overlaid in varying shades of green and blue beyond. Tiny Shute harbour is below us where you can watch the activity of the yachties in miniature. I don't think we are going to venture far away from here for the next 12 days, although we do plan to visit the Great Barrier Reef for Glenn to dive and me to snorkel one day and visit one or two must-see places.

We finally got into action late yesterday afternoon to venture out in the car our hosts have so kindly left for us. We had been existing on beans on toast just because it was too gorgeous here and we were too lazy, but did manage to find a shop still open after 6 on a Sunday to get a few provisions in order to change the menu. Today we'll venture further and do a proper shop.

So far the only wildlife we have seen are cokatoos which make an almighty racket, but are pretty to watch, no roos or wallabies - but we are told there is a 'saltie' (salt water croc) in a creek near here and there was a rather large crab-like spider on the terrace table yesterday morning.....Also, fish in the harbour which bite off your toes (I kid you not) if you go wading. Did I tell you how FABBY it is here?

that last from Glenn - I think it's all too much for him. I leave him to it while I go for my regular 50 lengths in the pool and see what he does??

Overcast and showers forecast with temperatures from 29-31C lower humidity than Singapore, but still hard to get used to. Going to take one of the ceiling fans into a local repair shop this afternoon whilst shopping (Glenn just can'r resist being Mr. Fixit). Considered getting a christmas tree, but will stand firm against all things seasonal as planned. Doesn't stop us getting in some smoked salmon and champagne though...!

OK, so no-one likes round robin letters, but this is different - hey, this is new technology even if we are a couple of TOGS (thats Terry's old geezers for the uninitiated). So watch and learn all ye who are yet to discover the joys of blogging.

We haven't even started out yet, but thought I would just have a practice session to see if this works. I have changed from my original mail address to this one so will also have sent out a new blogaddress for you to access.

The purpose is for us to diarise our travels, not only for you poor souls left behind in the midden of a european winter, but for our benefit when we get back. You see, the aging process may well develop more quickly in the heat and STML (not a sexually transmitted disease, but short term memory loss) will probably mean we won't remember a thing. 'Have I had my dinner yet?' syndrome creeping ever closer.

D-Day for leaving here is Saturday 5th which is worrying since we aren't ready yet, but when we do get our act together, we are staying with friends for a couple of days in UK and from there fly out for the first leg (why do they call it that? My daughter very seriously corrected her grandad when she was 5 and was told they were on the 'last leg' of the journey and told him it was 'the last wheel' - since they were in a car at the time....) which takes us to Singapore. Neither of us have been that far east before and its likely to be a shock, but a pleasant one I hope. Just praying that we don't get swine flu or any kind of flu before we go since we are told that everyone is scanned as they exit the 'plane and if just one person has a temperature (what about hot flushes?) then the whole flight is quarantined. Mind you this is usually in a nice hotel, so could be worse, but really don't want to lose out on our time in Oz.

So, hasta la vista, a bientot, til later....