Moore Reef

Sunday 8th July

Now I could tell you all sorts of things about the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, or about coral reefs in general, but I'll stick to the main points in case you desert me in my hour of geographical waffling.

Well, the most obvious thing to say is that the Great Barrier Reef is the only living thing on earth that can be seen from space, and here's the picture to prove it.

The second thing is that it takes up an area greater than the UK (which the Aussies love to repeat over and over) and that it's home to squillions of fish of all different sorts and lots of types of coral, some hard and some soft; brain coral, staghorn coral, anemone - that sort of thing.

The third thing is that there are three main types of reef; fringing reefs (which lie about the edges of the coast and islands), patch reefs (which look like, well, big patches of coral in the sea) and ribbon reefs which hang about places like the edge of a continental shelf, sort of in a line.

And finally, if you come to the great barrier reef, the trick is to go to the outer reef for the best coral and the best fishes. At least, that's what all the tour operators say, and as it's further away and more expensive to get there, they must be right.