Category Archives: Travel & Experiences

Writing travel reviews – It’s nice to be nice

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Pantheon, Rome.

In early 2008, we were planning a European holiday, and I was trying to work out the best way to do it. We had a travel agent, but I wanted to do some research of my own. High on my list of priorities was my desire to follow a few stages of the Tour de France. Bluntly, I wanted to ‘Yell for Cadel’! We’d never had an Aussie winner, and I thought this was his year. It wasn’t, but he came close.

I was discussing our plans with friends, my bike riding buddy and his wife,  over dinner. They were much better travelled than we were, and I knew that my bike-riding buddy’s wife did all their travel planning and bookings herself. She pointed me towards TripAdvisor, which at the time I had never heard of.

That conversation changed my whole approach to travel. Continue reading →

Australian Wine: The story is in the bottle

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A good bottle of Australian wine is about more than just what’s in the bottle. It’s about the people who made it, the vineyard itself, the wine region, often the family behind it, and often the stories we, as drinkers, bring to the wine. 

In a non-academic sense, this was the basis of my PhD, where I looked at what lay behind the wine, particularly the emotional connection that Australian wine families had with their land, their winery, and the wine they produced. I could bore you with a detailed academic explanation of socioemotional wealth, but instead here is a link to my PhD.

My research showed that for these families there was so much more to the wine than its economic value. There was a deep emotional connection to the land itself, a sense of place and so much more.  Often these family members reflected that their own family’s story was being told through the bottle. They saw the wine as a continuation of their own family story.

The story is in the bottle

A couple of anecdotes always spring to mind for me here.

One is of a family member who loved bringing out a bottle of the family wine at dinner. Their branch of the family was quite distant from the family members who ran the winery, but the wine was their connection to a family story that had a more than 100-year history.  Their story was in the bottle, as a member of the family working in the wine business said.

Another is a family member who works overseas and is delighted that the family’s wine is often used at Board Room events. That bottle of wine lets them enjoy the family’s story, even though they are thousands of kilometres from the winery. Continue reading →

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 – as relaxed as you want it to be

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This is our third visit to Port Douglas. With each visit we have stayed longer and arranged less activities. This time we visited in June with a trip planned in a couple of months for nearby Palm Cove.

On our first visit we had a day on the Barrier Reef, and visited the Daintree. Last year it was a day trip to Cooktown, an afternoon boat trip up the estuary to look for crocodiles, and a sunset cruise. This time it’s just been a sunset cruise, which was curtailed by the rough seas. In fact, on this trip it hasn’t been all blue sky days, rather,  it has been quite cloudy and windy, although still warm and we have had some rain. Definitely not what the ads say, but it’s been no less enjoyable than our previous stays.

I have generally been up early to watch the sunrise. We chose accommodation overlooking Four Mile Beach, which means seeing sunrise is just a walk to the balcony. 

Most mornings have started with a walk along Four Mile Beach or the coastal path, and sometimes both. The beach always offers something different. Because the weather has been less than perfect, the beach hasn’t been crowded, a few swimmers and a small number lying the beach. There is always quite a few people strolling along Four Mile Beach, which, as the name implies is a long stretch of sand. We walked the full length on one of the sunny days. 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 →