Next day, I flew to Dunk Island, named by Captain Cook after his patron, Lord Montagu Dunk, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to get someone to take me fishing. But this was Australia, a do-it-yourself society. “Just walk down to the jetty,” said the affable sunburnt young man behind the fishing-tackle counter, “bait your hook and sling it in the water. You’re as likely to catch a whopper as the next bloke.”

I had only been on the jetty a few minutes, struggling to bait my first hook, when Jim, a young, off-duty waiter, came up to offer his help. I handed over the frozen sardines with indecent speed. In a trice he had baited up, cast and given me the hand reel. Minutes later, it was nearly yanked out of my hand and the line was burning my fingers. Whatever it was, it fought like a demon. Jim grabbed the reel, trying to keep the line clear of a wooden jetty.

Too late.

The line snapped and we lost the hook. “You had something pretty big there,” Jim commiserated. A few minutes later, something grabbed the new hook with an almighty tug and the line went scorching out. “It’s bigger than the last one,” I gasped. “Keep reeling in,” shouted Jim. Then the line went dead. “My God, look!” Jim cried. “Whatever it was, it’s bitten right through the hook.Must have been a reef shark.”

Twenty minutes by speedboat from Dunk lies the island of Bedarra. If Dunk is what you might call a beer and sandwiches place, Bedarra is more champagne and oysters. It has only 10 cabins and everything is on the house. That’s to say, there’s an overall charge but absolutely no extras, whatever you do, whatever you eat or drink. Next day, when we decided to walk through the rainforest to a secluded beach, the receptionist said, “We can send a picnic basket and a bottle of Bolly by boat to the jetty. It’ll be waiting for you when you get there.”

It was. The place was deserted apart from a pair of little terns nesting on a nearby sand spit. After lunch, we walked round the spit and swam in a sea like silk, with only a sea eagle and a few white Torres Strait pigeons for company. Then we hiked back through the forest just in time to splash into the plunge pool and have a glass of champagne before dinner. The veranda was candlelit. The only sounds were the murmur of the sea and the discreet sound of corks being drawn.

Travel Brief

Tour operators: Austravel (0870 166 2070, www.austravel.com; in Ireland 01 642 7009) can tailor-make itineraries throughout the region. For example, a 14-night trip starts from £2,999pp, including flights with Cathay Pacific from Heathrow to Cairns, seven nights, room-only, at the four-star Tradewinds Esplanade, two nights' full-board on Lizard Island, three nights' half-board on Dunk Island, two nights' full-board on Bedarra Island, and all transfers. Regional add-ons from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Jersey, Newcastle, Manchester and others are from £55pp extra. Or try Tailor Made Travel (0845 456 8006, www.tailor-made.co.uk), Travelmood (0870 066 0004, www.travelmood.com), or Trailfinders (020 7938 3939, www.trailfinders.com; in Ireland 01 677 7888).

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