She's asleep upstairs which gives me some time to write this. I wanted to put down some thoughts about Louise that i have had since the wedding.

As most of you reading this will know Louise had a tough time last year getting sick and getting better. There have been a few times on this trip when the vision of my girl in the Sydney hospital bed has flashed before my eyes. It has done so because that gown clad girl with glasses on her face and drip in her arm won. She beat cancer so well it is as if she is now just rubbing it in!

The same girl that couldn't walk to the shops and back eight months ago is now crashing at speed through the central African jungle behind a group of wild mountain gorillas. The girl that spent weeks curled up on the couch as radiation did it's worst is now careering down a potholed Ethiopian road on a clapped out bicycle weaving through herds of cattle. The girl that showed no fear in the face of major surgery is now relaxed enough to say that being chased by a Hippo in the Nile scared the crap out of her!

These contrasting experiences are what make the images of my beautiful girl in a hospital bed come to mind. It says everything about who she is and why i love her. Her strength, her beauty and her uncompromising quest to get the most out of an experience.

I write this because so many of you saw the girl in the hospital bed or the girl that couldn't walk to the shops and I know that you will be as proud of her as i am.

For me, seeing her walk down the aisle at Ayers House, it was difficult to believe that i could feel more for her than at that moment . That feeling, though great, now runs second to the sight of my beaming wife, covered in leaves and sweat, pointing excitedly (as only she can) to the wild gorillas ten feet away.

The hospital bed, the radiation and the anxiety were gone.

They were faded memories of a battle won.

And i have never loved her more.