We first glimpsed the atolls from five miles high: Turquoise patches stitched onto a green sheet, and the even darker green of the rain forest and mangrove swamps.

Cairns is a thriving city with a population of about 145 000, spread out without congestion across a strip of plain between dense tropical forest and the Pacific Coast of…

If this was not in fact the highest point in Dublin, it certainly felt like it. After climbing the 198 steps to the top of Glasnevin Cemetery's Daniel O’Connell Tower (below) -  Ireland's highest round tower - I was able to gaze over the entire city, laid out…

With its deep water harbour and a population of a bit over 5,200, the town of Kinsale in County Cork has been an important sea port for more than 1,500 years. St Multose founded a monastery here in the 6th century, and the early Celtic settlement that grew up around the estuary was later supplanted by a Viking trading post. The Normans…

When the car’s front tyre burst, I thought events could get no worse.

Things had looked ominous as our plane landed at Alice Springs, and we were handed umbrellas for the short walk to the terminal building. We had arrived at the driest part of the continent and it was pouring with rain. The problem was that three tropical…