Valerie Taylor AM sat on the top deck of the Seven Seas, an Indonesian liveaboard boat owned by her nephew, as the sun set over the Indonesian island of Komodo. Anchored in a small bay, nestled between uninhabited beaches, she watched plastic bottles and food wrappers float by in the fading light, like fishermen returning to a port.
“Plastic,” said Valerie, gravely. “Even when I’m diving now, I see so much of it. Here in Komodo, where there is nobody living, plastic. Right up north in Australia, the beach is covered in plastic. You go for a snorkel in Sydney Harbour, plastic.”
I had spent the first 26 years of my life listening to Valerie tell stories of exotic adventures and celebrity encounters, but this felt different – like a…
