I'm afraid of the ocean. It seems ridiculous for someone spending time in Australia, but I really don't like swimming in the sea and snorkelling is even worse. How can anyone not have a panic attack when they hear themselves breathing like that?

While Sydney has dozens of beautiful beaches, the one that draws me back time after time consists not of sand but concrete. Of course, it's not Clovelly's Brutalist terraces and walkways – reminiscent of a 1970s housing estate – that are the appeal of this narrow, sheltered inlet. It's what they enclose: a giant rock pool, with exceptionally clear water full of marine life.

Our selection of the best for foodies

I'm dusty, I'm dirty and I'm tired. I'm fossicking. It sounds terrible, but it's not, it's addictive. Sapphire and Rubyvale are two towns in the gemfields of Queensland, where people come to find their fortune or just to have a hunt around in the dirt for sapphires. The local shops sell the usual bread, milk and Mrs Mac's pies, but there are also piles of sieves, picks and buckets, and tacked outside on the noticeboards are claims for sale and mining equipment in need of a new home.