Japanese scientists have discovered that eating your food quickly makes you three times more likely to be overweight. The research conducted by Professor Hiroyasu Iso and colleagues from Osaka University in Japan, showed that it’s not just eating quickly that has an effect — it’s the modern manner of eating until you’re full that also plays a role in the obesity epidemic.
Researchers believe that it’s this combination of eating fast and until full that may override signals in the brain which would normally encourage more self control when it comes to eating patterns. And, according to the British Medical Journal Online First, the demise of the family meal and it’s replacement with fast food and larger portions are to blame.
Of the 3,200 Japanese men and women surveyed, half the men and 58 per cent of the women said they normally ate until they were full and just under half the men and a third of women said they ate quickly. A higher body mass index (BMI) was recorded in this group than those who didn’t eat too quickly or until full.
It takes around 20 minutes for the stomach to register being full so taking a break in between courses is advised
Experts suggest chewing a mouthful 20 times before swallowing saying that the longer you chew, the fuller you’ll feel
Chewing breaks down food molecules and saliva begins the digestion process
Being preoccupied with TV or reading while you’re eating prevents the signals about the food reaching your brain
Don’t talk and eat at the same time as swallowing air impedes digestion
Professor Iso also said, “If you eat slowly then there is some feedback from the brain that this is enough, and this helps stop you eating before you are full”.
We’ve always been told to chew our food properly, eat slowly and not to watch TV at the dinner table — maybe we should start to listen!
1 Make time First, create an opportunity for inward focus. Getting unstuck isn’t just about moving on: before you can do that, you need to look within and establish who you are and what you want. Schedule an appointment with yourself for some solid ‘thinking time’ – an uninterrupted afternoon is ideal.
2 Get grounded A grounding practice is something you do that helps you re-establish a sense of connection with your feelings and your body, such as having a massage or taking a walk. A physical reality check like this creates perspective and confidence in your thinking.
3 Tune in Sitting quietly with your eyes closed, reflect on your life right now. What is working for you and what is not? What do you want to change? Losing weight, finding a partner and buying a house are some examples. What does your inner voice say? Maybe it’s time to start that real estate course you’ve always wanted to do or find the courage to walk away from a toxic friendship.
4 Cut and paste A collage is a tool used by psychotherapists to help people identify and accomplish their goals. It works on the principle that your subconscious mind understands symbols better than words. Flip through a pile of magazines and clip images that resonate with you. Don’t analyse your choices too much – you might be drawn to a picture of a plane, a puppy or a key. Glue them on a piece of cardboard.
5 State your purpose Most companies have a mission statement – usually it’s something along the lines of committing to make a quality product and provide a high level of service. By the same token, when you have a sense of purpose, it follows that you’ll see things more clearly and be better able to achieve your goals. The trick to making a mission statement is to keep rewriting it until you have clear, concise sentences. Add your statement to the collage, along with any affirmations that inspire you, e.g. “You can do it!” or “Action creates success”. Hang your collage over your desk or on the fridge, somewhere you will see it often.
6 Ask for help We humans are notoriously reluctant to make changes, even if a habit or behaviour is causing us actual physical or emotional damage. List at least four friends or family members whose opinions you value and ask them if they could send you an encouraging e-mail or text message every week to keep you focused on your goals. Having this ongoing support can make a huge difference.
7 Establish a time-frame Without a deadline, the motivation to do any task is removed. Author Stephen King writes 1,500 words every day except on his birthday, Christmas and the 4th of July. If you truly want to achieve your goals, you need to keep going and not give up.
Exclusive extract from How To Break Your Own Heart by Maggie Alderson, the Great Read in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
‘Do you always sleep in separate beds?
Kiki’s question took me so much by surprise that I’d answered her truthfully before I had time to think about it. I hadn’t had any coffee yet, my brain wasn’t in gear.
‘Yes,’ I said and turned the tap on to full blast to fill the kettle.
I wanted to drown out any possible further discussion of the subject.
But Kiki hadn’t finished.
‘Do you think that’s normal for a happy couple in their mid to latethirties?’ she asked brightly, leaning round me over the sink, forcing me to look at her.
I switched the kettle on and deliberately moved away to bustle around with mugs and coffee pots. I really wasn’t in the mood for an in-depth discussion of my marital relationship before nine on a Sunday morning. And especially not after the amount of wine we had consumed at dinner the night before. My head was pounding.
I wasn’t used to getting up so early at the weekend, but Kiki had woken me like a puppy, bouncing up and down on the end of my bed, insisting I go for a walk with her. Which was when she’d discovered that Ed and I slept in separate beds. In separate bedrooms.
I glanced out of the window. It was a perfect March morning, as she’d said. The sky was bright blue with little white clouds scurrying across it and the catkins on my neighbour’s tree were dancing in the breeze. A walk through the fields and woods would probably clear my head, I thought, as long as the conversation didn’t continue in the same vein.
But Kiki wasn’t ready to let it go.
‘Amelia,’ she said, walking over to the dresser where I was pouring milk into a Cornishware jug. She put her hand up to my face and gently turned my chin so I had to look at her. ‘Stop running away from me. This is serious. How long have you and Ed been sleeping separately?’
I sighed deeply and pushed her hand firmly away from my face. ‘It’s none of your bloody business where we sleep, Kiki,’ I said, starting to feel really cross. ‘I’ve had enough of this. You’ve woken me up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to go for a walk, and I’m happy to do that, but not if you are going to give me the third degree about my sleeping arrangements.’
‘OK, OK,’ said Kiki, raising her hands in surrender. ‘I’ll shut up now, but I am going to make you talk about it one day.’
‘Sugar, dear?’ I asked in a deliberately over-bright tone and with a fake smile, as I held a mug of coffee up in front of her, my little finger raised genteelly.
‘Two, thank you, sweetie,’ she said, returning my ironic grin and then sticking her tongue out. I stuck mine out back at her.
Kiki kept her promise and our walk passed very pleasantly, with conversation no more intrusive than a post-mortem of the various hilarities of the night before and what we each had coming up socially in the next week – always a rich vein of conversation with her. There were also frequent diversions as Kiki discovered yet another wonder of the English spring to squeal over.
‘I love all the mud here,’ she said, lifting up each of her brightly striped Paul Smith wellies in turn to admire the thick clods sticking to the soles. ‘We don’t get much mud in Australia, because it’s so dry. I love this oozy mud. Listen to that – a proper squelch.’
I laughed. Kiki had lived in London on and off for years, with stints in New York and back in her native Melbourne, but she still took great delight in all the little details peculiar to England. It was just part of the insatiable enthusiasm for living which made her so popular. With her background and money – she was from an Australian brand-name family – and not forgetting her exquisite gamine looks, she would never have been short of friends, but Kiki’s appeal went way beyond the fiscal or the physical.
As my husband Ed said when we first met her at a dinner party a few months earlier, Kiki didn’t just seize the day, she got it in a half nelson and squeezed it into submission. His other pronouncement on Kiki was that she didn’t so much meet people as recruit them. We’d been enlisted immediately.
We had met her that night, she’d decided we were OK, according to some value system entirely of her own, and we’d seen her at least once a week ever since, whether we liked it or not – and I was a bit more enthusiastic than Ed.
But while Kiki’s bossiness could be overwhelming, I was glad she’d forced me to go for a walk that morning. The woods were heavenly in the early spring sunshine, and we got back to the house an hour later with our heads clearer and our arms full of branches of pussy willow and catkins to take back up to London.
My neighbour was in her garden as we walked past, examining the green shoots that were appearing in her flowerbeds, so I stopped by her gate to say good morning.
We’d only had the cottage a few weeks and I hadn’t had a chance to get to her know her properly yet, but I was quite fascinated by Mrs Hart. She was very old – the man in the village shop had told me she was ninety-five – and seemed to live entirely independently.
She spent a lot of time in her garden and it was lovely, even in winter. There always seemed to be something flowering and I was hoping she might be able to give me some tips for my patch. I had big plans for it.
‘Been for a walk, Amelia?’ she said, smiling, when she made it over to the gate, taking her tiny little steps. ‘I bet it was splendid in the woods this morning.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It was glorious down there.’
Kiki joined me by the gate and I introduced them.
‘G’day, Mrs Hart,’ said Kiki, waving cheerfully. Mrs Hart waved back.
‘Hello, Kiki,’ she said. ‘Lovely to meet you. But you must all call me Hermione. Those are splendid catkins you have there, Amelia.’
She put out an ancient hand and gently touched them. ‘Those are female hazel catkins. You can tell by the red flowers at the tips. They are much more spectacular than my birch ones.’
I was impressed by her knowledge, but as she spoke I was distracted by a small thatch of long white hairs on her chin. They were glinting in the sunshine and they really bothered me.
Mrs Hart – Hermione – had such a marvellous face, fine-boned, with very lively blue eyes, and the bristles were a rotten shame. She was always nicely dressed, but her bright coral lipstick was a bit skewiff, so I could only presume that she couldn’t see them. She certainly wasn’t gaga, so it had to be her eyesight. If I ever got to know her better, I thought, I would say something. It was what I would want someone to do for me.
What do you get the person who has everything? A gift from the garden of course! Jackie French shares her favourite homemade Christmas presents.
Christmas used to be a midwinter feast – a time to brighten up the darkest winter with all the good things from the harvest. And somehow – among all the other reasons to rejoice at Christmas – Christmas has always seemed to me to be a celebration of the good things of the earth too.
Make jam:
This isn’t for the fainthearted – jam-making involves lots of glooping hot stuff and perfect timing and a bit of magical chemistry. But if you have a Women’s Weekly cook-book to guide you, you’ll be fine. And December is a great time for fruit – luxurious tiny pots of home-made cherry jam, lashings of plum jam, or ginger and pineapple jam, lemon curd, apricot jam. Trust me – anyone who loves their food will adore genuine home-made jam for Christmas.
A salad in a box or basket:
Take one giant hanging basket, big pot or even old Styrofoam box with holes in the base so the water can drain out. Plant with mixed greens, the sort that can be cut over and over all summer – parsley, mizuna, baby spinach leaves, red cress – have a look at the packets available and choose your favourites. They’ll be ready for presenting about three weeks from sowing – and ready for the first harvest about three weeks after that. Add instructions to place the box in a sunny spot, to keep it moist and feed with soluble plant food every fortnight – and keep cutting, for the more you take, the more greenery will grow.
A Christmas present for the birds:
This is fun for kids to make – and fun watching the birds eat it.
You will need:
an old ice cream container
1 stitch-holder
wild bird seed
a glue labelled ‘non toxic’ and ‘not soluble in water’
1 metre of string
Fill the ice cream container with bird seed. Mix in the glue then QUICKLY press about 30 cm of the string into the middle. Leave overnight to set. Press it out of the container and hang it up in a tree, out of the reach of bird hungry cats.
Pressed flower gifts:
When I was a kid I pressed flowers every school holidays. I used pressed flowers as bookmarks, sent them in ‘thank you for the Christmas present’ letters to relatives (I reckoned that as long as I added a pressed flower I only needed to write two sentences: I hope you are well. Thank you for the lovely bath salts. Love Jackie).
You will need:
flowers or ferns – choose delicate ones like pansies, small or single roses, little daisies, maidenhair fern or geranium flowers. Bulky flowers won’t press well
big books
brown paper, paper napkins or other non-waxy paper
microwave (optional)
Arrange the flowers between the sheets of paper, then slide them into the middle of the books. Leave for about a week till they are pressed and dried out. (If you put them straight into the books they may leave a faint flowery mark on the paper – which I rather like but lots of book owners and all librarians don’t!)
You can also dry flowers and leaves on a piece of absorbent paper in the microwave. These flowers and leaves are dried but not really pressed so they are bulkier and more three dimensional than traditional pressed flowers.
The finer and flatter the plant and the less moisture it contains, the better this method works. Leave the plants in the microwave on low for no more than one minute at a time, repeating this again and again as necessary. Leave at least ten minutes before you open the door to check your plant, as they will still be drying.
Pressed flower cards
You will need:
pressed flowers
glue
Stick the flowers on in whatever pattern you like – and there you are!
Pressed flower candles:
WARNING: kids need supervision to make these or to use them. Never leave candles lit unattended, and wear gloves and long sleeves and non flammable clothes when working with hot wax.
Use a thin layer of melted candle wax to stick the dried flowers or ferns to the candle, and then smooth another thin coat of wax over them with a blunt knife. They look enchanting as they burn.
Pressed flower soap
Use a bit of moist soap to stick the flowers on bars of soap.
A bowl of dwarf succulents
(Succulents are thick fleshed plants. Cacti are succulents, but there are many others, including much prettier ones. Ask for advice on succulents at your local nursery).
You need:
A shallow earthen ware or pottery bowl
Potting mix
A selection of pretty dwarf succulents from the garden centre
Optional: white pebbles to mulch the surface
Fill pot with potting mix. Remove succulents gently from their pots and arrange in the new pot. Water well and wipe the edges of the pot to clean off excess potting mix. You’ll need to add an instruction card: Place in full sun. Water weekly- if you remember.
A big hanging basket of flowers:
I add water-retaining crystals to my hanging baskets. The crystals retain 200 times their weight in water and last for a year or two – just dig more in around the edges of the basket when you need to replace them. They’re wonderful if you are going on holiday – or just never get round to watering your baskets quite as often as you need to.
(N.B. Follow instructions on the packet – more is not better. If you put in too many crystals your pot will look like an erupting gloop-filled volcano as soon as it rains.)
Now choose some punnets of flowers – spreading petunias, alyssum, geraniums/pelargonium’s – whatever you think your loved one will like. Plant, water and keep moist till Christmas Day.
Physiotherapy is a drug-free therapy and some techniques employed include soft tissue massage, joint mobilization, manipulation, exercise and stretches, traction, ergonomic advice, remedial exercises, postural assessment, correction advice and laser, ultrasound, electrotherapy and heat treatment.
Myofascial trigger points (MTPs), or “knots” as they are often referred to, are not only capable of causing local pain but they also commonly refer pain to distant areas and as a result, are often overlooked. Myotherapists are trained to recognise the symptoms of MTPs and also in the latest methods of deactivating them which relieves pain and returns muscle to normal function. Types of conditions treated include neck pain and stiffness, headache/migraine, back pain/sciatic pain, tennis elbow, tendonitis, leg pain and sports injury.
Many people believe the role an EP can play is only in helping athletes achieve their peak, or rehabilitate from injury. But EP also work with individuals in the community to help them initiate an exercise program and ensure it is safe for them to begin a program. In both situations the exercise physiologist will help to identify strengths and weaknesses that an individual has in response to various fitness tests, and then design an appropriate exercise program to work on these weaknesses.
For athletes this will help improve performance and for the general public, improve health and quality of life. Assessment procedures conducted by an exercise physiologist are used to determine an individual’s aerobic fitness, lung function, and heart function, through an ECG which monitors the electrical activity of the heart — commonly known as a stress test — used to determine if there is any presence of cardiovascular disease and what level of exercise training is safe and effective.
I’m back from an extended holiday in the tropics where I’ve become addicted to skincare infused with coconut oil, mango and papaya. Is anything similar available here?
You must try Pevonia’s delicious new anti-ageing body range, Ligne Tropicale., infused with lush fragrances of papaya, pineapple, mango and passionfruit.
I love the De-Aging Saltmousse, 200ml, $94, to gently exfoliate; the De-Aging Body Balm, 150ml, $257, which replenishes the skin, and the De-Aging Mist spritzer, 200ml, $89, which refreshes and hydrates at the same time.
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Darwin
When Baz Luhrmann came to town to recreate the bombing of Darwin for his movie Australia, some the locals thought the city was under attack again. As the cameras rolled, the sound of huge explosions and WWII aircraft bombing the harbour echoed up the hill and along the CBD’s Esplanade, bringing startled locals to Stokes Hill Wharf in record numbers.
Australia’s number one movie location in Darwin, Stokes Hill Wharf, is also a popular place to come for an evening out at some of the restaurants and bars that overlook the harbour. Like Mindil Beach and its market on the other side of town, the wharf is a great place to meet friends and enjoy the cool evening sea breezes.
Visitors to Australia’s fastest growing city can take a cruise to the wharf on the pearl lugger Anniki, a boat used in several of the film’s scenes. Nicole Kidman spent several days on board portraying the intrepid English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley, on a mission to save a party of children stranded on island. Another scene filmed at the Wharf was Lady Sarah’s arrival in the Territory on board a Catalina seaplane, after inheriting a cattle station.
In his book Hell West and Crooked, Tom Cole described Darwin as “a kaleidoscope of every creed and colour … buffalo hunters rubbed shoulders with pearlers; gold miners swapped yarns with cattlemen”.
Today, the city is just as colourful. The pearl divers have moved on, but cattlemen and gold miners still mingle with many other equally colourful characters.
Hawk Dreaming, Kakadu
It comes as no surprise to see a wedge-tailed eagle soaring above “Big Bill’s Place”. Its other name is, after all, Hawk Dreaming. Bordered by ancient outcrops of red sandstone and a network of lush green billabongs, this enclave is one of the Northern Territory’s best-kept secrets, a gem of a place that gives visitors an insider’s view of this World Heritage-listed national park.
Located on the traditional land of the late “Big Bill” Neidjie, Kakadu’s legendary Gagadju elder, Hawk Dreaming is the base of AAT Kings/Aussie Adventures small-scale tours. With only eight tents, a wash block and a lodge (with dining room and comfortable library/lounge), this is how Big Bill wanted it – small (a maximum of 16 guests), intimate and far from the crowds of “Kakadu central”. Close to Arnhemland, this safari-style camp couldn’t be better placed to visit Kakadu’s highlights. From here, the three-day guided tour takes guests to Barramundi Gorge in the south of the park, the Aboriginal art galleries at Ubirr Rock and the magnificent Jim Jim Falls, where, during the Dry, you can laze on beaches of fine white sand and swim in crystal clear lakes. Then there are the spectacular flood plains around Cannon Hill, a picnic on the leafy banks of the East Alligator River, a visit to a six-metre high cathedral termite mound and a cruise on Yellow Waters at Cooinda.
Just as you think the day is over, there’s the sunset stroll back at Hawk Dreaming, where, on the right day, the waters of the billabong turn gold and crimson as the resident four-metre croc glides by on his last patrol of the day. All in all, this is one of the Top End’s top treats. Affordable at $895 for three days (all meals included), the camp is comfortable and chic, the meals freshly prepared and hearty. Yet most of all, the guests love the camp’s peace and seclusion, just as Big Bill would have wanted.
Visit: www.aussieadventures.com.au
Bamurru Plains, Mary River
This lodge gives adventure seekers a taste of understated luxury and the option of going on an African-style safari Down Under. Located next to Kakadu, Bamurru Plains sits on a peninsula in the middle of a flood plain, a wildlife haven with hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, the world’s largest estuarine crocodiles, Asian buffalo, Indian sambar deer, wild boar, agile wallabies and flocks of flying foxes that fill the sky at sunset. It offers “wild bush luxury” in a region that during the Wet has been compared with Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Built on stilts, the lodge is flanked by silvery-green paperbark forests and billabongs, and is the brainchild of Africa aficionado Charles Carlow, heir to British aristocrat Lord Portarlington.
Elegantly minimalist in design and built with a mix of hardwood and hi-tech industrial materials, the spacious open-plan lodge (with dining area, bar, kitchen and sitting room) has a large deck with an infinity-edge pool overlooking the flood plain, where the animals come to drink.
Several of the lodge walls are made of see-through aluminium mesh that bring the outside in – without the insects. The villas, also on stilts, have stylish bathrooms with treehouse-style interiors.
The service is warm and an on-site chef produces five-star cuisine, including brunch, a light lunch and a three-course dinner each day. The pre-dinner prawns, scallops and crocodile canapés set the scene.
Spend your days in an airboat skimming over the flood plain past countless birds, cruise along crocodile-infested rivers, watch herds of buffalo amble past your villa at dawn, or cool off at day’s end in the infinity pool as inquisitive wallabies look on. Barramundi fishing trips and excursions to Aboriginal rock art sites can be organised on booking.
Visit: www.bamurruplains.com
Peppers Seven Spirit Bay, Coburg Peninsula
Seven Spirit Bay is a place of colour, a remote coast of rainbow cliffs, where sedimentary rocks of turmeric yellow, caramel and chilli red earth rise above the turquoise waters of the Timor Sea. As the tide ebbs, slithers of white sand emerge from the bay. When it returns, shoals of fish leap from the water, their scales flashing silver in the sunlight.
Closer to Singapore than Sydney and just 11° south of the equator, Seven Spirit Bay is a remote outpost that attracts fishermen the world over. They come for the big game fish, flavoursome barra, wholesome jewfish, sweetly fleshed mangrove jack and succulent mud crabs.
It also has the enviable reputation of having Australia’s most northerly fine-dining restaurant, where the resort’s chefs serve exquisite food, as good as you’ll find in a big city. The chefs chief supplier is the sea, but you’ll also find dishes such as Harissa Spiced Lamb and Yogurt Dressing, Beef with Truffled Mash and Green Beans and Sweet Roasted Bangalow Pork Belly on the five-course nightly dinner menu.
Guests eat under the stars on a two-level deck overlooking a palm-shaded swimming pool and there’s also a terrace at the edge of the lawn overlooking the bay that’s perfect for pre-dinner cocktails.
The suites (called habitats) are octagonal in design and have six sides of louvered shutters. Each one is hidden in a hectare of tropical bushland. Each one has its own luxurious bathroom suite. Unfortunately, these are not attached to the sleeping villas but 20 metres along a paved path in bushland.
Nearby attractions include the ruins of Victoria Settlement, an ill-fated colonial outpost established in the 18th century.
Most guests come for the fishing, but those who prefer to stay at the lodge and be pampered can indulge in daily spa treatments and gentle nature walks around the resort.
Visit: www.peppers.com.au
Bullo River Station, Bullo River
Once the home of outback legend Sara Henderson, Bullo is the essence of a Top End cattle station. A place where a herd of 8000 Brahman-cross cattle graze on 250,000 hectares of grassy plain, while huge crocs cruise the large meandering rivers that run through the property.
Now run by Marlee Ranacher (the eldest daughter of the late Sara Henderson) and husband Franz, Bullo has become a legendary destination in its own right. On the north-east frontier of the Northern Territory, near the Western Australian border, the station is closer to the Kimberley and the little frontier town of Kununurra than Darwin, which is 90 minutes away by light plane.
Guests stay in an annexe with comfortable air-conditioned rooms with ensuite bathrooms and are served robust meals three times a day. There’s no such thing as a typical day at Bullo. Guests can visit Aboriginal rock art sites, picnic at pristine swimming holes, learn to crack a bull whip, ride, track wild buffalo or go croc spotting. As outback station experiences go, this is as authentic as it gets.
Visit: www.bulloriver.com
Longitude 131°, Uluru
This tented camp in the dunes around Uluru gives guests a dress-circle view of Australia’s iconic landmark. If you cant be bothered to get up and open the curtains in order to see the Rock at dawn, simply flick a bedside switch and the curtains slide apart. As the sun peers over the horizon, the great monolith begins to glow. Nothing but scrub and desert come between you and this sensational scene – except, maybe, your bank account.
At $1800 a night for a two-man “tent”, it’s a luxurious treat. Airport pick-ups, gourmet meals, fine wine and trips to Uluru are included. Each stylish suite is a self-contained glass and wooden cube suspended under a huge sail – with air-con, of course. From a distance, the 15 suites look like a string of mini Sydney Opera Houses. Beautifully appointed with bathrooms and king-size beds, each suite has a deck facing the Rock. At the main lodge, where meals are served, there’s a swimming pool, perfect for a dip before dinner.
Visit: www.voyages.com.au
One of the Top End’s most spectacular Gorges can be found in the 292,000-hectare Nitmiluk National Park some 310km south of Darwin along the Stuart Highway. In reality, Katherine Gorge consists of several interconnected canyons and can be explored along hiking trails, by hiring a kayak or joining a cruise. Aboriginal-owned Nitmiluk Tours offers superb cruises along two or five of the 13 gorges on comfortable aluminium barges with fascinating commentaries by Aboriginal guides. One of the best cruises sets off in the late afternoon and serves a superb three-course dinner with wine and beer. It includes an easy walk between gorge one and two, plus a visit to a sandy beach and a return in the dark when the gorge walls are beautifully lit by spotlights. Visit: www.nitmiluktours.com.au
Situated in the Gregory National Park between Katherine in the Northern Territory and Kununurra in WA’s Kimberley, the Victoria River ranks among one of world’s last great wild rivers and is chock-a-block with huge crocs. Geoff Pike and his wife, Beverley, have been taking tourists up the river for 12 years to enjoy the iconic Kimberley landscape and to spot those huge six-metre salties. Based at Timber Creek on the Victoria Highway, Geoff and Beverley take their visitors to Big Horse Creek and then along the great river towards the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. “Our cruise is the closest you’ll get to giant crocs in the NT,” says Geoff. “We get the boat to within a few metres of these crocs lying on the mudflats along the river bank.
In fact, you get so close to these monsters you can see rivelets of moisture running from their tear ducts. Geoff’s boat cruises along at 55kph, but its two 200hp engines can reach a top speed of 76kph.
Eighty kilometres north of Darwin in the turquoise waters of the Arafura Sea are the two Tiwi Islands, known as Melville and Bathurst. Just 35 minutes away from Darwin by light plane, these islands support two communities of Tiwi Islanders, several art galleries and freshwater swimming holes, waterfalls and wonderful off-shore fishing. Ideal to visit on a day tour, it’s also possible to stay longer at one of the island resorts, such as the three-star Munupi Wilderness Lodge on Melville island.
Bathurst Island is famous not only for the historic buildings and church established by a Catholic mission in 1911, but also for the Tiwi Island Tea Ladies, who not only serve traditional billy tea and damper, but also lay on traditional dances, with faces painted, and adorned in colourful dresses made from locally printed fabrics.
Visit: www.aussieadventure.com.au
Join one of legendary Sab Lord’s unforgettable safaris. Sab will tailor a 4WD tour to wherever you want to go. You sleep in comfort in a bed under canvas and eat under the stars, or he’ll drive you from lodge to lodge via spectacular sights.
Visit: www.lords-safaris.com
A fisherman’s paradise close to the Aboriginal art town of Maningrida. High on a ridge, it overlooks the floodplain, where the Liverpool River joins the Arafura Sea. Canvas suites on concrete slabs and utilitarian en-suite bathrooms are located in the bush and surround a lodge with a kitchen, dining room and bar. Popular among companies interested in sending their executives on incentive trips. Will only suit keen fisher folk and not those in search of life’s little luxuries and pampering.
Visit: www.barralodge.com.au
Darwin Airport Resort
Set among lush tropical gardens next to a wetland, this hotel/resort is built around beautiful landscaped gardens with swimming pool, spa area, bar and award-winning restaurant. Designed like a Balinese resort, it must be one of Australia’s most spectacular airport properties. And it’s only a seven-minute drive from the Esplanade that overlooks the bay.
Price: Standard room, from $160.
Where: 1 Henry Wrigley Drive, Marrara.
www.darwinairportresort.com.au
Bullo River Station
Welcome to life on an iconic outback cattle station made famous by author, the late Sara Henderson. Run by her daughter and son-in-law Marlee and Franz Ranacher, Bullo offers a purpose-built guest area next to the homestead with 12 double room with aircondition and ensuite facilities. Drinks and informal dinners are held on the terrace or in the homestead’s dining room. Guests can learn how to muster cattle, fish for barramundi, go croc-spotting or visit a pristine water hole and swim. It’s possible to fly in a small charter plane from Darwin or Kununurra as the station has an airstrip on the front lawn!
Price: Rooms and full board, from $750 a night.
Where: Off the Victoria Highway, 800kim from Darwin, NT, and 200km from Kununurra, WA.
Coral Cove Apartments
These swish modern apartments are located on the beach overlooking the Coral Sea in a secluded spot a little out of town. With large balconies facing west (sunset), the one, two and three-bedroom apartments are modern, very stylish and come with large balconies and well-equipped kitchens. A few minutes walk is Horseshoe Bay, Hugh Jackman’s favourite beach when Baz Luhrmann brought the film unit of Australia to town. On the lawn, overlooking the beach, is The Cove International Restaurant that serves three meals a day with Asian fusion cuisine in the evening.
Price: From $210 a night for one-bed apartments
Where: Horseshoe Bay Road, Grays Bay.
www.coralcoveapartments.com.au
Tel: (07) 4791 2000
Big4 Coral Coast Holiday Park
Absolute beachfront villas on a palm-shaded lawn with cabanas on the water’s edge.
Price: Beachfront villas, from, $125 a night.
Where: Queens Bay.
The Kimberley Grande
Easily the grandest place to stay in Kununurra, this property looks as if it is built from sandstone, but in fact, its walls are made from a clever composite material. The stylish, spacious rooms and suites overlook boab trees and a swimming pool. There’s a bar, popular with locals, and a restaurant that serves good quality meals. Owned by Marilynne Paspaley, of the pearling dynasty, the Grande has sister properties in Broome.
Price: Rooms from $187 a night; spa suites, from $336 a night.
Where: 20 Victoria Highway, Kununurra.
El Questro Wilderness Park
Almost two hours west of Kununurra on the Old Gibb River Road, El Questro is located in the spectacular Cockburn Range, a pivotal location in the filming of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, and a remarkable place to get a taste of what Kimberley wilderness has to offer. Guests can either stay at the camp site or air-conditioned villas overlooking the Pentecost River at the Station Homestead, at tented cabins at Emma Gorge (a 45-minute walk from a 30-metre waterfall and huge natural swimming pool) or at the exclusive Homestead, overlooking the Chamberlain Gorge.
What’s on offer: Trekking tours through spectacular wilderness areas, swimming at waterholes, barramundi fishing, 4WD tours, riding, scenic air tours and much more.
Price: Camping from $15 a night; Emma Gorge Tented Cabins, from $256 a night; Homestead from $1900 a night.
Physiotherapy is a drug-free therapy and some techniques employed include soft tissue massage, joint mobilization, manipulation, exercise and stretches, traction, ergonomic advice, remedial exercises, postural assessment, correction advice and laser, ultrasound, electrotherapy and heat treatment.
Myofascial trigger points (MTPs), or “knots” as they are often referred to, are not only capable of causing local pain but they also commonly refer pain to distant areas and as a result, are often overlooked. Myotherapists are trained to recognise the symptoms of MTPs and also in the latest methods of deactivating them which relieves pain and returns muscle to normal function. Types of conditions treated include neck pain and stiffness, headache/migraine, back pain/sciatic pain, tennis elbow, tendonitis, leg pain and sports injury.
Many people believe the role an EP can play is only in helping athletes achieve their peak, or rehabilitate from injury. But EP also work with individuals in the community to help them initiate an exercise program and ensure it is safe for them to begin a program. In both situations the exercise physiologist will help to identify strengths and weaknesses that an individual has in response to various fitness tests, and then design an appropriate exercise program to work on these weaknesses.
For athletes this will help improve performance and for the general public, improve health and quality of life. Assessment procedures conducted by an exercise physiologist are used to determine an individual’s aerobic fitness, lung function, and heart function, through an ECG which monitors the electrical activity of the heart — commonly known as a stress test — used to determine if there is any presence of cardiovascular disease and what level of exercise training is safe and effective.
The study — which spoke to 400 women across the country — revealed that female waistlines are more cause for concern than any other body part. Second at 14% were thighs, followed by arms (7%), hips (5%) and bum (4%).
Learning to love you body is important and the best place to start is focusing on the things you like most — the colour of your eyes, perhaps — not the wobbly bits you’d rather hide away this summer.
But on the other hand understanding your body shape can also make you more aware of your health risks and guide you towards making vital lifestyle changes. An ‘apple’ body shape is often determined by genetic and hormonal make-up, however carrying too much weight around the middle can increase your risk of lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Are you a…
Pear or Spoon or Bell (Triangle upward)
Apple (Triangle downward)
Hourglass shape (Triangles opposing, facing in)
