BrookLodge Thermal Suite at Macreddin Village.

Last night I had the pleasure of staying with four friends in BrookLodge at Macreddin Village. It’s a truly wonderful experience to stay here. From the moment we arrived we felt like we were really being pampered and looked after. Two of the girls had a late lunch in the lounge, while I had a latte and a huge bowl of fresh fruit salad.

We had booked the Thermal Suite for 4pm. We made our way down the back stairs from our bedrooms to the suite, dressed in our white robes and slippers and almost made a wrong turn into the foyer. What a sight that would have been! After we signed ourselves into the spa, we put on black sandals and were advised to keep these on at all times whilst walking around as apparently the floors can be slippy.

We passed through the peaceful dimly lit therapy waiting area and into the pool area. The five of us headed straight for the Jacuzzi. It was bliss. We spent ages in there chatting. Then I went for a swim, followed by 10 minutes in the Hydrotherapy area of the pool. I spotted that the outdoor Jacuzzi was free so we went out into the cold air. It wasn’t long before we heated up again. The steam passing up between us didn’t stop our chatter. We had forgotten how long we were in there for. Eventually we made our way back inside.

Next we tried the aroma steam room; however there wasn’t much of an aroma. Two of us went into the sauna, which I preferred over the steam room. Then it was time to lie quietly on a mosaic lounger for half an hour before heading back up to our rooms to get ready for dinner. We went to dinner totally relaxed and de-stressed after our afternoon in the Thermal Suite.

Dragon’s Flight.

The Allure of the Seas pulled into the cruise port of Labadee in Haiti. Labadee is reserved exclusively for Royal Caribbean International guests and I was so excited as this was my first port stop.

I had booked two shore excursions for that day. One of those was the Dragon’s Flight Zipline, which is the world’s longest flight line over water. As I hadn’t done ziplining before I was required to do a training session on a small zipline. This was fun!

Then our group was driven up the mountain, to a height of 500 feet, to prepare for our ‘flight’. We were told the zipline was 2,600 feet long. We were in groups of five and I watched as the people ahead disappeared off into the distance.

Finally it was my turn; WEEEE, I was off! I’m not sure what speed I went down at but it took less than a minute before I had my feet firmly on the beach below. My favourite part was just before landing as my feet almost touched the waves underneath. It was a dream flight.

Under the Jacaranda Tree.

Jacaranda Tree.

I arrived in Sydney in the Spring time. One sunny morning I went to the Domain, one of the city’s urban parks. I saw the most beautiful tree ever. It was a Jacaranda tree.

It was wide and full of beautiful blue flowers. I lay on the grass with the sun just visible through the thick covering of flowers. I knew from the width of the tree that I would be in the shade for a while. That way I could lie comfortably without having to worry about sunburn.

After about 10 minutes I became aware of the warm sunshine on my face. I looked up and saw the sun was out from behind the tree and was above me now. I was baffled. It took me a long time to realise that the sun was moving from east to west via the north. I was used to the sun moving via the south. This was one of many strange things I learned while living in Australia!

Ayers Rock in The Dark.

Ayers Rock

I’m not sure whose idea it was to climb Ayers Rock (Urulu) in the dark. But that’s what we did. We climbed it in the dark to watch the sunrise from the top.

We got up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am. Travelling from the Outback Pioneer Hotel the outline of the rock became visible. As we drove closer it’s gigantic shape loomed out of the darkness at us. I never imagined it to be so big.

The first 20 minutes of the climb were really tough. It was so steep. A metal chain handrail helped me to pull myself up. I made it to Chicken’s Rock! Where the chain ended there were white lines to mark the way along the undulations.

As I came near the top the sky was a beautiful orange colour as the dawn was beginning to break. Once I saw that sky I knew I had to get all the way up before the sun came up.

I was the third to the top that morning, with plenty of time to spare before the sunrise. It took me 35 minutes. Watching the sky brighten over the vast nothingness of Australia all around us was a sight to behold. The sun broke up from the horizon and the whole rock turned red. What a beautiful sight it was to watch. I’m so glad I got to see the sunrise from the top of Ayers Rock.