Thanks to the Shoal Bay resort (www.shoalbayresort.com), which is at the edge of Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, I’ve just had the most fantastic of arrivals and recovery periods as well as reunions with my partner and daughters. We had a plush two bedroom apartment in their Breakwater Tower, his and hers ninety minute massages in their spa, a delicious dinner in their a la carte restaurant “Catch”, a plentiful breakfast and finally a swim in one of several heated pools around the resort on a warm, if breezy winter morning.
The resort, which features several styles of accommodation, including romantically luxurious and villas well suited to a group (of women) on a weekend break, is the sort of place you could easily not leave for the whole of your stay. There is everything you need on site including kitchen facilities in the apartments, a choice of restaurants and a huge games room on the ground floor of the Breakwater Tower. It’s just a shame that the family didn’t get to stay for a few days instead of a little under twenty-four hours. However, the excellent massages by therapist Zoe (through which I mostly slept, sadly), the superb food at Catch which for me included lobster as an entree and spatchcock as a main followed by a tasting plate of desserts and the feel of everything we needed being nearby meant this was a relaxing and fulfilling stay.
However, even in this short time, there was a bit of Daddy T drama, which readers of this blog are getting used to. After washing some clothes in preparation for PNG I’d just put them in the wall-mounted drying machine and having started it, closed the door to the laundry, when there was an almighty bang. The dryer had thrown itself off the wall, smashed into the washing machine below, somersaulted and landed upside down and blocking the door. Luckily, nobody was in the vicinity when it happened and the resort were kind enough to realise it wasn’t our fault. This morning, maintenance were busy checking the whole resort for other suicidal dryers!
The flight back from London was bearable, flying World Traveller Plus with British Airways, which is their equivalent of Premium Economy. You get two inches more leg room but really it’s the same awful constricting seat which is guaranteed to give you lumbago or a hernia and results in back and neck ache in whatever position you try to sleep. Thankfully, I’ve recently discovered dozile – a sleep aid you can buy over the counter at pharmacies – and found it did knock me out (without any alcohol) for one period of about eight hours and another of about two on the flight. That’s got to be a good result on such a long flight in economy, even if it is not so named. To be honest the only other advantage of the Premium Economy cabin on BA is that on 747-400’s it’s situated between First and Business class and means you can get off the plane early. It’s a small cabin too, with only about thirty seats or so and that helps, especially if it is virtually empty, as it was on the second leg from Bangkok. But would I pay the hundreds of dollars extra to sit there? Probably not.
So tomorrow another new country, my ninety-ninth I think, beckons. I’m not one for tallying up countries really but 100 is a bit of a milestone in a travel writer’s career. I know that one of my fellow travellers on this press trip, the erstwhile musical brain of the universe, Glenn A Baker, notched up his 100 some time ago so I’ll be in esteemed company.
What’s in store for us over there? A colourful mask festival, some sailing and a bit of diving in some opulent tropical waters and a day in Port Moresby. I’m really looking forward to it all but I have to say that after nearly six weeks of constant travel and living out of a suitcase, I am also really looking forward to reaching home, doing some gardening, spending some unrushed time with the family and writing like a maniac to cover all the amazing experiences I’ve been having.
Hope to check-in again soon from Papua New Guinea.
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