Category Archives: Travel

Did I really go bird watching and butterfly spotting -Thala Nature Reserve Resort, Port Douglas

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At the conclusion of our first trip to Far North Queensland this year, we decided to treat ourselves to a few days at Thala Beach Nature Reserve Resort. The resort is about 15 minutes the Cairns side of Port Douglas. It is privately owned and doesn’t have the feel of a large commercial resort. That said, it has all the trimmings. 
It is not cheap, but it is delightful, and quite different to the style of accommodation we have stayed in before. 

There are stunning views from the Restaurant along the coast to the Daintree, while from the   Bar, there are coastal views looking back towards Cairns. The restaurant and bar are open-air, with wooden ceilings and no windows. It was breezy and gave the feel of a big tree house.
The accommodation is set in the woodland and is secluded, hut-style accommodation. All in all, it is quite a destination.

The question is, what do you do in such a place? You can eat and drink if that’s your fancy. It is certainly one of mine and one we didn’t pass up the opportunity to enjoy. However, as the name suggests, it’s also a place to take in the natural environment.


After we had settled into our room, we took a walk along one of the secluded beaches. There was not another person or, thankfully, crocodile in sight.

A duck!

Thala Beach offers several organised opportunities to enjoy the location. I decided to book myself on the morning birdwatching tour. I’m not sure that when I contemplated ‘What’s Next’, birdwatching was on the list of things I’d try, in fact, I’m sure it wasn’t! Continue reading →

Port Douglas, Lost Luggage and Lesson Learned

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Dawn, 4 Mile Beach, Port Douglas

As is  becoming something of a tradition, we’ve returned to Port Douglas for a couple of weeks of warmth and relaxation, and thankfully, so has our luggage. Eventually.

Getting to Port Douglas from Adelaide involved approximately 4.5 hours of flying, across 2 flights. A direct flight other than by a budget carrier wasn’t available.

From Cairns airport it’s an hour’s drive north, along the picturesque coast to Port Douglas. It’s nearly 3,000 kilometres by road, a solid 32-hour drive—long enough to remind you just how vast  Australia really is. To put it in perspective: a flight of the same duration from London would land you in Athens, Corfu, Venice or Lisbon. For us, it’s simply a journey to another state that shares a border with, our home state, South Australia—albeit at the far end of it.

That’s part of the charm of Australia. It’s huge, and every corner is different. Adelaide was a chilly 7C when we arrived at the airport for our early morning flight; Port Douglas greeted us a half a day later with a humid 28C. No wonder Far North Queensland is such a draw card during the winter months. Continue reading →

Tasmania and 45 years

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Ships anchor – Narrinya

A very long time ago and seemingly a world ago, my favourite person and I had our honeymoon in Tasmania. A few months ago, we decided that as my favourite person hadn’t been back since, we would have a week in Hobart to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We spent a few days in Melbourne on the way over as there are no direct flights from Adelaide to Hobart, and we had some family matters to attend to. I quite like Melbourne, but my favourite person isn’t so keen on the place. She finds it dreary and dark, however, she finds the shopping to her taste and the food good.

The former was a bonus, as when she opened her case in Melbourne she found she had left her more formal attire at home!

” Well played”, was the comment my daughter made.

It certainly opened up the opportunity for some new purchases in one of Australia’s best shopping locations. A dress from Scanlon and Theodore and another from Jac and Jack fixed the matter.

A bonus of one of the purchases was a complimentary pass to The LUME, a digital art experience around Van Gogh. It was magical. Set to music was a kaleidoscope of moving pictures telling the story of Van Gogh’s art. Just fabulous.

Van Gogh’s bedroom with a couple of additions, LUME

Melbourne’s food scene is also excellent and we had a couple of dinners. I’ll Barco was spectacular, and the Punch Lane Wine Bar was an opportunity to have great food and lovely wine.

Melbourne’s weather is famously changeable, as our experience once again confirmed. Fortunately, we had stopped for a drink on Southbank.

From Melbourne it was off to Hobart. Continue reading →

A weekend in Maryborough, Victoria

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Maryborough Railway Station – its as impressive as Mark Twain says!

An opportunity to hear a relative’s daughter in the Victorian Goldfield town of Maryborough was too good to pass up. It’s about 45 minutes from Ballarat and a couple hours from Melbourne, however, for us it was a six and a half hour drive, which with a couple of stops made it about an hour longer. Easy to do in a day from Adelaide.

We set off early on the Friday, taking the well worn path through Tailem Bend, stopping for a late brekkie in Keith at Henry and Rose. It’s been a go to for us in our recent trips. The coffee is always good, the service is friendly, and it has a good menu whether for brekkie or lunch.

I’ve lost count of the number of trips we have done on this road. Tailem Bend is about 70 minutes from Adelaide, and I always think it’s not until you drive past it you are actually on a road trip.

The recent addition of a world class motor sport park aptly named The Bend has increased activity in the region.

The towns on the drive are all ones we generally zip through. In the past, I have stopped at Cook Plains, but these days, it’s off the main road, so, these days, it’s a window view. Even though the towns whizz by, you can’t but love some of the town names, such as Coomandook and KiKi. We’ve occasionally stopped for a coffee and to ‘powder our nose’ in Coonalpyn. Like many of the towns along the road, it has a silo for the grain trains to stop at.

Once past Keith, it’s on through Bordertown across the border and into Victoria. We have often stopped in the nearby town of Mundulla if we’ve left late and need an overnight stay.

We made another stop at the quintessential Australian town of Dimboola. We couldn’t get over how much it had changed since our last visit 3 or so years earlier. On our previous visit, the town was all but a ghost town. Today it’s buzzing with lots of new shops. We revisited the Dimboola Imaginarium, which was being renovated when we last visited.  The Forbidden Forest looks a great spot for kids and The Dimboola Store is great for coffee.

Dimboola Imaginerium

From there, it was back on the road, through Horsham and Stawell, all places we were familiar with, before turning off to Maryborough. We weren’t familiar with this road, but the countryside is pretty typical of the region—paddocks with a few sheep and not much else. The dams were all pretty dry, which was no surprise given that it’s been a hot, dry summer. The final part of the drive took us through the Pyrenees wine region and Avoca before arriving in Maryborough.

Continue reading →

Crocodiles – a day in the Daintree

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Our week in Port Douglas was very much about relaxing and taking it easy, So rather than hiring a car, we selected a couple of tours. One of those was a small group tour to the Daintree Rainforest. Initially I’d planned to hire a car and do a self dive tour, I’m glad we abandoned that idea as this way I got to see everything and our tour guide was in charge of deciding where we should go – I’d have had no real idea!

The downside was that it was an early start, with a 7.20am pick up. As we have found with this type of tour, the other tour guests are usually pleasant, and across the day there is a chance to strike up conversations, usually about where people are from and what experiences they have had while they’ve been travelling. We picked up a couple,of restaurant recommendations and a some tour hints that we can store away for subsequent visits. Continue reading →