Just 50 minutes before, leaving the bustling tourism hub of Cairns – blue ocean using one side and cool rainforest clad mountains on one other – I had no idea my world as I knew it had been soon going to blend beautifully with 35,000 head of prized Brahman cattle and 1.5 million acres of dust.
Wrotham Park is referred to as a relationship between a lavish, stylish resort and the dusty reality of an operating cattle station. The very first part with this I loved the sound of, the 2nd part I wasn’t so sure about.
I knew my first reaction would be to hide, to stay within my comfort zone – however the neatly rolled, chilled and fragrant soft towel offered if you ask me by the driver when I stepped from the plane gave me Dutch courage and I started to wonder why it took so long for anyone to come up with a notion like this. I felt somewhat like the lady that Paul Hogan married in Crocodile Dundee.
A few minutes later and the 4WD stopped facing the Homestead – very Queensland, very Outback and very inviting. The beautiful lounge chairs, the airconditioned bar and sitting room are made to get you to feel like you’re in your own home. You’re encouraged in the future and go as you please. Wrothank Park has been carefully created to match perfectly into Far North Queensland’s tropical savannah offering maximum comfort but nevertheless with a really distinctive outback feel.
Back outside there is a cool breeze, a dazzling wet edge pool, day beds around a 5* campfire (the perfect area for the apperetifs and star gazing) and I recently knew my bedroom accommodation would be stockman’s quarters meets luxurious comfort. It was. Crisp linen, overstuffed leather armchairs, designer bathrooms, CD player with a personalised choice of compact discs – these guest Quarters are visually spectacular, boasting a large deck for the ultimate enjoyment of the outback views.
Early morning. The smell of dew on the grass. A wonderful breakfast already cooked to order and finished. We drive around 30 minutes to Mouth Organ Yard to acquire a glimpse to the lifestyle on a distant Australian cattle station. A group of outback stockmen arrive and their job today is to separate the weaners from the remaining portion of the herd. It’s a hard, sweaty job – and a dangerous one. Not every animal co-operates – this really is no guaranteed “show” for tourists. Lodge visitors are invited to watch, but there is no scheduled performance.
That evening, lying on one of the daybeds near the pool, sunlight has recently dipped below the horizon. There’s an odor of a remote bushfire and somewhere a kookaburra starts the final laugh of the day. This is the moment to close your eyes, smell, listen, smile – redo the lipstick – understand and appreciate.
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