Auzzy Adventure - The Roundhouse

I can't have pictures of my Australian holiday without having a whole section dedicated to the Rainforest Hideaway. It was certainly an experience to stay in a place that allowed us to get so close to nature.

Situated about 1km up the mountain away from the coast, the hand built, naturally made cottages were set back from the road. The site was very secluded, and you could really hear all the jungle birds and insects.

Ang had rung up a few days earlier to try and stay in one of the normaly cottages but they were all booked up. Instead, they offered us somthing called the Roundhouse, a special "room" that wasn't advertised on their website - the only way we could find out about it was to go to a special link.

Seeing the pictures on the internet, did not quite prepare us for how secluded we would be. The glorified tree house was approx 150m away from the other two cottages, and we had to walk through the dense forrest to get there.

Once up the stairs we were very impressed by the Roundhouse - it was immaculately created by hand by the guy who owned the resort. We really felt in the middle of the jungle.

There were no mosquito nets, or windows to close - instead the Roundhouse was open plan, with views across the jungle canopy.

We had basic cooking facilities and a few lights. Trouble was - if you kept the lights on after dark, it attracted all the local insects!! Needless to say, we weren't reading in bed with the torch!! We even had the occasional bat flying through the round house to catch one of those tasty moths.

Even when going to the toilet there was no escaping the fact that we were in the jungle - with giants leaves trying to invade the space. There were even green bottomed giant ants climbing along the "window" ledge!

The sleeping area was up a ladder to the 2nd floor of the roundhouse - up in the ceiling. Again, we had a window - but no way to shut out the insects - or the noise!! For the 2 nights we we stayed at the round house, Angela was absolutely petrified of the insects and slept with her socks pulled up over her jeans, and with a long sleeved jumper on.... in the tropics!!! She must have been so hot!

We had a great time at the Roundhouse - but it wasn't quite as relaxing as we'd expected. The noise at night was so LOUD!! All those insects trying to compete to see how noisy they could be! There was also the fear of spiders - we saw a giant on up in the roof, and there were webs everywhere - a little scary considering that 9 out of the 10 world's most poisenous spiders live in Australia!! I was especially scared of the Cassowary that was said to rome around the resort - 2 of them! - I didn't see one, but did see fresh droppings. Freaky birds!!

It was a great experience, but we were quite glad when we left for the comfort of our hotel in Cairns...