In my 33 years of teaching and learning I have been on, and led, many yoga retreats.
The first yoga retreat I attended as a student in 1990 was with Peter Thomson at Tapitallee, a retreat centre in the bush near Nowra that had no electricity. I packed up my yoga mat and blankets and headed for the South Coast. We showered by candlelight and Bill had to light the fire in the morning to ensure the water was hot! A necessity for our aching muscles after long yoga sessions!
I had been hearing about retreats for a long while before taking the step to go on one. My initial reaction was ‘why would anyone do that?’ but after venturing onto my first I soon got the bug.
At Tapitallee, the yoga room and accommodation were two old train carriages joined together, with a pot belly stove in the middle. The bedroom compartments of the train carriages created the perfect venue for Kit’s performance extravaganzas. The kitchen and dining room were in a mud brick cottage, with coloured glass bottles in between the mudbricks. We were off-the-grid, mobile phones had only just been invented, so we were very much on retreat from our daily lives.
I have many fond memories of those early retreats, which started as two day events and grew to three and five days, culminating in a 10 day retreat due to popular demand. Much of the community building that sustained The Glebe Yoga School happened at Tapitallee. We shared many hilarious moments, lots of good food, and the luxury of spending plenty of time doing yoga and not much else.
Here was where I did my first long supported halasana – a transformative experience – and my first attempt at natarajasana – a joyous experience!
Jobs and responsibilities were allocated, and we cooked for ourselves in groups in those days. Myself and other teacher trainees worked out the menus and bought food in bulk, keeping to a tight budget. On our 10 day retreat the (unyogic!) competition between the cooking groups grew so ferocious that one group opted for singing waiters and belly dancers to outperform the rest!
Bushwalk on retreat 30 years ago – John, Judy, Steve, Debbie and Elia.
Keith on the right
Marshall and Judy, with Steve and Rowena at the back
I remember a group of us being sternly spoken too after we’d been on a too exuberant shopping spree – don’t send people shopping when they’ve been doing backbends! Excited at all the delicious fruit and veg, we bought too many mangoes and exotic fruit. Now I understand what that must have done to the budget!
We swam in the Shoalhaven River, overcoming fear to jump off a giant rock. Before jumping I looked down and could literally see my knees shaking. Submersion in the dark river water was exquisite and I swirled down there for a while (to the consternation of some) before resurfacing.
I led my first retreat at Tapitallee, as a novice, with a mostly supportive bunch of lovely students. One challenged me on why I was reading from a Buddhist text when he hadn’t signed up for a Buddhist retreat, but we recovered from that and carried on.
Peter decided to go further afield and I organised his first Bali retreat, where many lifelong friendships were forged.
I left Glebe Yoga School in 2001, started The Yoga Nook and took my first batch of retreaters back to Tapitallee. By this stage it was a shadow of its former self, falling apart at the seams. It no longer exists as a retreat centre, although I see Tapitallee Lodges now appear to be on the same piece of land – not a mudbrick to be seen!
Retreat centres are like good restaurants it seems – they rise and they fall.
Helping my teacher run his retreats, and organising them for him, meant it was a simple step for me to start running my own.
I got sick in Bali (ate an icecream!) and wondered why we couldn’t do retreats in Australia where people wouldn’t have to risk illness. Having family on the beautiful Capricorn Coast, I decided to run an annual retreat there at The Haven – at the time a little-known centre run by the Mary McKillop nuns. Originally built as a vacation and recovery spot for the nuns who had been teaching children of the poor, The Haven is near Yeppoon and overlooks the Pacific Ocean and the Keppel Islands. My niece Melea lives there and minded my son Luke as a teenager and as she grew up started doing the catering, using fresh local produce in delicious and creative ways.
I also took people to Tyraman, a retreat centre purpose built by Bev, one of the Glebe Yoga School students, in the Hunter Valley. Tyraman retreats were a yearly event until enthusiasm seemed to wane for the shared sleeping arrangements and group cooking. I’d happily head back there again if sentiment swings back in favour.
Tessa went on the hunt for alternative places to go and found Yanada, near St Albans in the Hawkesbury. We have been going there for the October long weekend for the past five or so years, excluding Covid of course. I’m very happy that Melea is coming down from Yeppoon to cater for our next one this weekend.
Each retreat is different, the sum of what each person brings to it. The format is generally pranayama in the morning, followed by a short break, then asana for two hours, a hearty brunch, resting time, then inversions and restoratives in the afternoon and dinner. We practice Noble Silence in the morning – no speaking – to allow for contemplation and also not disturb each other.
I love watching a group of people who may not know each other well (or at all) come together over time and find common interests and understanding. I enjoy being able to focus on practice and teaching without needing to think about the practicalities of life like making dinner, knowing that we’re going to be sitting down to food that sustains and supports our yoga practice.
At Yanada we swim in the swimming pool and look at the stars from the spa. There’s no mobile reception there either, so we still have the sense of being removed from our everyday lives, although the modern world seems harder to get away from than it was in the 1990s.
Retreating allows us to step away from our concerns and worries, rest and restore and through yoga, cultivate a positive attitude towards ourselves and others, freeing up energy otherwise trapped in anxiety and negativity.
A yoga retreat can be a re-set that lets us re-emerge ready for whatever comes next in life.
If, as I did, you wonder why anyone would ever go on one, I suggest you give it a try and find out!
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