Although they’re close to the coast and some distance from the outer reef there are some good dive sites dotted around

Although they’re close to the coast and some distance from the outer reef there are some good dive sites dotted around the very beautiful islands. Even better are the detached reefs 25 to 50 miles north of the Whitsundays. A stream of high-speed catamarans zip out there every day.The Whitsundays have something for everybody from campers (you can be dropped off for a spot of Robinson Crusoeing) and backpackers, via families right up to international jetsetters at the upmarket Hayman Island Resort There’s even a Club Med on Lindeman Island. The island has a host of accommodation possibilities aimed at younger visitors, ranging from a backpacker hostel to a Contiki resort. In contrast Lady Elliot is low-key, cheaper and completely dedicated to scuba diving: you can simply wade out to many dive sites from the shore.Lady Musgrave Island is midway between the two southern resort islands and a popular daytrip from Bundaberg, the coastal jumping-off point for all these locations. It’s one of the few coral cays along the reef with an enclosed lagoon big enough to sail into.

You can also arrange to be dropped off and camp on the island. If there’s a drawback to these Southern Reef islands it’s in the name: they are right at the south of the Great Barrier Reef and in mid-winter (July and August) the water can be distinctly chillier than you’ll find further north.Continue north and Great Keppel Island has excellent dive sites within day-trip distance. Heron is deservedly popular with a comfortable resort, excellent scuba diving and an on-going wildlife show which can make a visit a non-stop nature documentary with birds nesting, turtles laying eggs or baby turtles hatching. Nearby Wilson Island is a new, smaller, more secluded and exclusive resort. Any island can claim to send you out on diving trips, but scuba diving is not a high priority at every island and some of them are a long boat trip away from the nearest dive sites.

Lady Elliot and Heron islands, at the southern end of the reef, are definite exceptions These are real coral cays with the reef just a paddle away. When it comes actually to diving on the reef you’ve got three choices, you can stay on a Barrier Reef Island, you can make day trips to the reef from the coast or from one of the islands, or you can sail out to the reef and stay on a live-aboard dive boat.If you’re planning a scuba diving stay on a Barrier Reef island it’s worth researching the island’s diving credentials. As it marches north it squeezes closer and closer to the coastline, fading to an end 1,000 miles from its starting point as it meets the huge outflow from the Fly River of Papua New Guinea Coral reefs don’t like freshwater. Mention scuba diving and thoughts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef consistently bubble to the surface. The GBR kicks off a bit south of the Tropic of Capricorn, just north of Fraser Island and about 100 miles off the Queensland coast. Coral reefs don’t like freshwater.
Although the outer barrier reef is a more-or-less continuous entity there are countless smaller “detached” reefs sheltered by the outer reef from the open Pacific Ocean.

Of course divers and snorkellers encounter a vast range of marine life on the reefs. But the Great Barrier Reef is also home to pelagic (open water) species as well as visiting whales (moving north from their Antarctic home to breed in the reef waters), turtles (which lay their eggs on island beaches) and enormous populations of seabirds which nest on many of the islands.For many visitors to Australia getting scuba diving certification is part of the fun and dive schools operate in many of the coastal towns and on the islands Certification typically costs £120 to £250. Yehoshua, Israeli (b.1936) Novels: The Death of the Old Man (1962), The Terrible Power of a Minor Guilt (1998). We’ll all go back to at least some of these books to see how these writers hold up now. It’s going to be difficult.”John Carey, the British academic who is chairing the panel which also comprises Manguel and his fellow judge, the writer and academic Azar Nafisi, said the 18 were authors “who combine uniqueness and universality and remind us irresistibly of the joy of reading”.The award will be presented every two years to a living author who writes in English or who is widely available in English translation.The winner will be announced in London in June. He too was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy’s leading contemporary writers who has written over a dozen novels in a career which has spanned 30 years has also been selected.Alberto Manguel, the novelist, editor and one of the three-strong judging panel, said choosing a shortlist from nearly 100 authors had been the most difficult part of the process. Also selected were Gabriel Garc?Marquez, the Colombian master of magical realism whose works include One Hundred Years of Solitude and Memories of My Melancholy Whores and G?r Grass, one of Germany’s most famous writers, who catapulted to fame after the publication of The Tin Drum and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.Among those lesser known to British audiences are the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, the former civil servant whose 1950s trilogy of urban life – Between the Palaces, Palace of Longing and Sugarhouse has made him famous throughout the Arab world.

They are political divisions not literary ones.”Manguel and the other judges will now go back and re-read many of the classic works of the 18 authors.”When you re-read, in a sense it becomes another book. He added that there was no sense that the prize would be a “competition between the Anglo-Saxon world and other languages – or between America and Europe. “I think it will matter less which one of these 18 gets the award,” he said.Manguel said it would not necessarily be the most prolific author who would win. “We had ‘Santana – Abraxas’ written across the fly-screen,” Hook confirms delightedly “I’ve got the photos to prove it … It was only our second favourite album, but we couldn’t spell [preferred Santana landmark] ‘Caravanserai’.”‘Krafty’ by New Order is out on 7 March; ‘Waiting For The Sirens’ Call’ follows on 28 March (both on London Records) The band will be playing the Glastonbury Festival in June.