Snorkling The Great Barrier Reef may have been the best thing I've ever done. Such a fantastic diversity of coral, and huge angel fish and rays and cucumbers and small sharks--I could have floated forever in that peaceful world. The beach where we launched off was perfect, too; the rainforest came right to the sand, and the water was bathtub-warm.

On the way back to Cairns, we stopped at the gorgeous Mossman Gorge for an invigorating dip and at the Daintree River for a crocodile cruise. No crocs--too hot. South of Cairns, our next stop was the Tully River for whitewater rafting along rainforest-clad cliffs. That night we stayed at the best guesthouse I'd seen--the Treehouse. It was surrounded by rainforest, with a wooded deck, a cozy lounge that offered international newspapers, and a tiny lap-pony.

I could have skipped Airlie Beach (it was a stop on the bus-tourist-tour). Lots of straight kids drinking beer. The cruise around the Whitsunday islands was pleasant though.

Fraser Island, our next stop, might be the most spectacular natural environment I've ever experienced. What you do is rent a Suzuki for 3 days and take it to the island via ferry. The whole island is a national park--the world's largest sand island (see the pic). You drive up these vast beaches and through constantly changing environments, from subtropical rainforest, to eucalyptus forests, to scrub. At night we camped near the hot, spurting "Champagne Pools", surrounded by spectacular dunes. You gotta watch out for the dingos though. There are signs in campgrounds "Don't feed the dingos" but they will take grocery bags right out of your arms and are completely without fear.

The next day on Fraser we hiked through colored sands. Even in the American southwest I'd never seen such a range of desert colors--pure white, orange, tans, reds. We climbed vast sandstone dunes and were rewarded by a magnficent view of the ocean. Time stops. Then there's the lakes, so clean and fresh you can drink from them!