Is trying to protect newly hatched green turtles from gaggles of predatory gulls interfering with nature?

What if those turtles have already foolishly reduced their less than one in a thousand chance of reaching adulthood by emerging with the sun high in the sky, before attempting to cross 30m of open beach with the tide at its lowest?

Only the most stonehearted could stand by and watch these most ancient of creatures picked off one-by-one before they ever get to run the ocean’s gauntlet.

So yes, I’m guilty as charged. I didn’t touch the turtles trying to reach the Coral Sea on Australia’s Heron Island, but I did join other holidaymakers who heeded a surprised sunbather’s urgent calls of “BABY TURTLES!” to form a guard of honour cheering the little fellas into the sea.

It was certainly a more satisfying dilemma than my usual afternoon head-scratcher – which biscuits to have with afternoon tea?

What’s your perfect holiday? For me it matches sunsets, scuba and special times, as far away from London Town as I can possibly afford.

If you’re really trying to get away from it all, the outlying islands of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are about as far from Blighty as you can go without heading to Antarctica.

There you can watch the heavy tropical sun set over the horizon without any interruption from land (most of the GBR is fifty or more kilometres off Australia’s eastern coast), dive on the world’s longest coral reef and marvel at Oz’s stunning biodiversity.

Our journey to Heron from London began with a 23-hour British Airways flight to Sydney, followed by a two-hour Qantas hop north to Brisbane, a bumpy hour on a turboprop up to Gladstone, then twenty unforgettable minutes shipwreck, turtle and shark spotting from a helicopter zipping above the dazzlingly turquoise Coral Sea.

The Capricorn group of islands straddle the Tropic of Cancer, 75km off Australia’s coast. Heron is regarded as one of the best scuba diving locations on the entire reef.

The island’s Heron Bommie – a huge lump of boulder coral that acts as a magnetic for vast numbers of fish – was listed by Jacques Cousteau, a man who knows about such things, as one of the ten best dives in the world.

If heaven looks half as good as the GBR viewed up close from Heron, I can’t wait to get there. Waking up every morning to the sound of breakers over the reef, diving with sharks and rays, gazing at incomprehensible numbers of stars: days don’t get better.

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