The closest I had to a "retreat" was, a good friend of mine had 120 acres of "hilly" rainforest with a rudimentary hut in the middle in a smallish clearing, I'll never forget the wonderful hours observing the wildlife, the birdlife especially, I got up to 82 species in my notebook, but the owner and his wife had more than 100, but of course they were there a lot more often...He's since sold it though, the state energy commission were putting through a new powerline and it was planned to go though one edge of the property, he reckoned it would spoil the whole appeal of the place, so it's now part of the State Forest for continued Cassowary conservation...Speaking of Cassowarys, their fairly large chooks, they quite often came right up to the hut for a visit, the male bird bringing his latest progeny for us too have a look at as well.
Greg
ps Dogs and cats were banned from his property, that was a stroke of genius I think.
