Queensland Sojourn – The Thala Beach Lodge – Part 2

The Thala Beach Lodge is said, in some publications, to be a five star hotel.  Lisa and I wouldn’t quite give it that many stars, but did like it very much.   Instead of rooms connected to one another where you can hear what channel on the television another guest is watching — which seemed like most of the other resorts our transportation stopped at—at Thala, each guest gets their own little bungalow.

After check-in, Lisa and I got to walk up stairs (Lisa’s eyes rolled) where we were able to gaze out at the Coral Sea and sip our complementary fruit punch with grenadine.  Then we were led down a steep path where we learned that walking down hill is especially painful with a hamstring tear.  The staff of the hotel took note of this and anytime Lisa wanted to go somewhere, they would dispatch a golf cart to ferry us.  Alas, the golf carts could not take us all the way to the beaches. A soft sand hike or worse was required.

<Ed. Note: No more writing about injuries for the rest of this series on our Queensland holiday>

Back to the Bungalows

Many of them, like ours, are located on a steep hill sides.  The entry is a short walk from a paved path with the rest of the structure being up on sturdy telephone-type poles or stilts so that you were either in or above the trees.  The lodge has three types of rooms and we booked the middle type which was the Corel Sea view.  We were in lucky number 36. The view from our bungalow was beautiful.  in the morning, we drank our breakfast caffeine of choice (coffee e Lisa; Diet Coke e Douglas) while sitting on our private patio.  At night, we watched the moon rise from the east while drinking some fine Australia Shiraz.  The bungalow did have air conditioning, but you really didn’t need to run it much if at all.  The carefully placed trees between the bungalows protected them from direct sunlight.  The weather was pleasant and we saw a couple of showers every day.  A shower in Sydney is just a plain drag, rain falling on metal, rain falling on roads, on bridges, on cars, on water, oh, you get the picture.

A shower when you are living in the middle of a deep, green, tropical forest in a tree house is an entirely different thing.  It is like life.  Watching a shower start in the distant sea and move on land and to your balcony is a beautiful thing; seeing a rainbow on a distant mountainside rainforest.  Everything slows as you watch a yellow-bellied humming bird from from flower to flower three feet in front of you.  It reminds you that all the steel and concrete are just molds that we are forced into. Cookie cutter existences.

<Ed Note: Getting a bit out of hand here—having the Bilby slap the author>

Our first night at the lodge, we ate in their restaurant, but came away not being very impressed with the kitchen creativity. So the next couple of nights we ate cheese, humus, salami on crackers with wine on the covered balcony. The stars are still there if you can just get far enough away from all the light pollution.

There are two beaches at Thala, the Pebbly Beach and the Oak Beach. The later one is the one you would want to hang out on.  Alas, November through May is when the dreaded Box Jellyfish may be in the waters.  The hotel had fliers in the room to let people know they shouldn’t swim, except in the hotel’s two pools.  You can swim when there are jellyfish out there, you just need to wear a Stinger suit.  The suit is something like a Lycra or stocking suit that somehow the stingers can’t get to your flesh.  If I would have known that, I would have bought one in Sydney and brought it with me. You would have thought a 5 star hotel would have had ones for guests hung up right along side of the terry clothe robes in the closet. This was not the case.  I walked on the beach in knee deep water and didn’t see any stringers and of course there was a vinegar station a path leading to the beach. Vinegar Station? You ask?  When you get stung, you pour vinegar on the contact point(s) to stop from being killed.  You still get to enjoy the pain.

<Ed. Note: Insert some thought about chemical reactions and base >

Other Creatures

Besides stingers, there are crocodiles, but they make for nice belts:

If I were a crocodile, first I would hide in a place like the channel in the left picture and then I would wait until someone wearing those ugly Crocs shoes comes buy and I’d bite them.

Inside a Bungalow

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