Thursday, April 22, 2004
Here I am back in Sydney again, it seems like a whole lifetime has passed in-between now and when I last wrote. I guess I’ll have to start at the beginning by taking you back 3 weeks. Back to the sunshine of Cairns, the tearful farewells and one last cuddle for Muffy the ‘pink eared wonder dog’.
Flynn an I headed off in true clichéd backpacker style, cruisin’ in a VW kombi van with the two guitars in the back, not more that a couple of dollars between us and a ticket to the Byron Bay Blues Festival in our back pockets.
Our first stop off on the route was Townsville, where we were treated to good old-fashioned ‘Bondi’ hospitality when we called in on my old neighbours, Hash and Janette. They have a nice little set up there with a free apartment, as it seems, a lot of backpackers in the medical profession enjoy.
It was great to catch up and hear of Hash’s recently acquired status as a ‘Celebrity Backpacker Dentist’ by appearing on a local T.V. news feature. Next Morning we packed up early and had a quick tour round Townsville before heading off for our next rendezvous in Posserpine, near Airlie Beach.
In Posserpine we caught up with Matt and Lincoln, Flynns old class-mates, and they encouraged us to stick around for a couple of days. Matt and Lincoln are the sort of characters you read about in great novels, full of life and energy and ideas. They reminded me of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity the way they stayed awake all night just because they got caught up in a buzz of conversation and forgot to sleep. They are on the brink of setting up their diving business in Airlie and from talking to them you get the feeling that some day they may just take over the world (or at least a small diving portion of it). Spending time at Lincolns place in the rainforest with the Green frogs and the rock wallabies was the epitome of chillaxation but alas we could not stay forever.
James Brown was waiting for us down in Byron and I had only a few days to become ‘Blues Hag’ the Guitar Legend. I knew I was only a few chords and the bottleneck (possibly from a bottle of real harsh whiskey, broken off after downing the lot to achieve that Joplinesque husky voice) away from my dream!
The long drive down the coast consisted of mainly bleak empty bushland, the image of Australia I had always imagined, miles and miles of nothingness. I began to get some feeling of how utterly huge this country is. A couple of day’s later after encountering the Gladstone Harbour Festival and giving my first ‘Blues Hag’ concert to a group of attentive children, we arrived safely to the warmth of the Flynn Family home near Byron Bay.
Byron Bay Blues Festival, Easter Weekend
The Blues festival was amazing, one of those festivals that redefined my understanding of music. It had me thinking of ways I could spend the next year in total isolation so I could practice and become a blues musician. The first act we saw blew us away, it was a guy called Kellar Williams, he was like a one man symphony, he could do things with a guitar that I (and i'm sure many others) never thought possible. He had the whole crowd completely involved, all dancing like nobody was watching and 'feeling' the music. We went on to see 'the Waifs' and 'John Butler Trio' before the climax of James Brown 'the hardest working man in showbusiness'. I think I can see where he gets the name from, he's the most energetic 70somethin yr old I've ever seen.
I had a week or so of chillin out by the beach in Kingscliffe, a few good bush treks and a great weekend with Claire who came up from Coffs harbour for the weekend of the blues festival. I even tried surfing in Kingscliffe and was hopeless at it, didn't even manage to stand up.
After an unsucessfull trip to the ATM I was suddenly faced with the harsh realisation that I was down to my last $20 and knew it was time to start earning money again. The E-learning crew in Sydney were more than happy to welcome back their prodical daughter for a week anyway. I picked a good weeke to arrive, there were 2 birthdays, which translates to 2 cakes and a trip to the cinema.
Now I'm doing some temping, breakfast temping (i.e. you don't know if you have a job until after breakfast) which has me in some government office fielding calls and checking my e-mails. It's a far cry from life on the Great Barrier reef but it's nice to be back in a familiar city. Every street corner has a memory and it's been great to catch up with some friends and bump into familiar faces.
I've put up a few more photos too, and there should be a few more to come soon.
Flynn an I headed off in true clichéd backpacker style, cruisin’ in a VW kombi van with the two guitars in the back, not more that a couple of dollars between us and a ticket to the Byron Bay Blues Festival in our back pockets.
Our first stop off on the route was Townsville, where we were treated to good old-fashioned ‘Bondi’ hospitality when we called in on my old neighbours, Hash and Janette. They have a nice little set up there with a free apartment, as it seems, a lot of backpackers in the medical profession enjoy.
It was great to catch up and hear of Hash’s recently acquired status as a ‘Celebrity Backpacker Dentist’ by appearing on a local T.V. news feature. Next Morning we packed up early and had a quick tour round Townsville before heading off for our next rendezvous in Posserpine, near Airlie Beach.
In Posserpine we caught up with Matt and Lincoln, Flynns old class-mates, and they encouraged us to stick around for a couple of days. Matt and Lincoln are the sort of characters you read about in great novels, full of life and energy and ideas. They reminded me of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity the way they stayed awake all night just because they got caught up in a buzz of conversation and forgot to sleep. They are on the brink of setting up their diving business in Airlie and from talking to them you get the feeling that some day they may just take over the world (or at least a small diving portion of it). Spending time at Lincolns place in the rainforest with the Green frogs and the rock wallabies was the epitome of chillaxation but alas we could not stay forever.
James Brown was waiting for us down in Byron and I had only a few days to become ‘Blues Hag’ the Guitar Legend. I knew I was only a few chords and the bottleneck (possibly from a bottle of real harsh whiskey, broken off after downing the lot to achieve that Joplinesque husky voice) away from my dream!
The long drive down the coast consisted of mainly bleak empty bushland, the image of Australia I had always imagined, miles and miles of nothingness. I began to get some feeling of how utterly huge this country is. A couple of day’s later after encountering the Gladstone Harbour Festival and giving my first ‘Blues Hag’ concert to a group of attentive children, we arrived safely to the warmth of the Flynn Family home near Byron Bay.
Byron Bay Blues Festival, Easter Weekend
The Blues festival was amazing, one of those festivals that redefined my understanding of music. It had me thinking of ways I could spend the next year in total isolation so I could practice and become a blues musician. The first act we saw blew us away, it was a guy called Kellar Williams, he was like a one man symphony, he could do things with a guitar that I (and i'm sure many others) never thought possible. He had the whole crowd completely involved, all dancing like nobody was watching and 'feeling' the music. We went on to see 'the Waifs' and 'John Butler Trio' before the climax of James Brown 'the hardest working man in showbusiness'. I think I can see where he gets the name from, he's the most energetic 70somethin yr old I've ever seen.
I had a week or so of chillin out by the beach in Kingscliffe, a few good bush treks and a great weekend with Claire who came up from Coffs harbour for the weekend of the blues festival. I even tried surfing in Kingscliffe and was hopeless at it, didn't even manage to stand up.
After an unsucessfull trip to the ATM I was suddenly faced with the harsh realisation that I was down to my last $20 and knew it was time to start earning money again. The E-learning crew in Sydney were more than happy to welcome back their prodical daughter for a week anyway. I picked a good weeke to arrive, there were 2 birthdays, which translates to 2 cakes and a trip to the cinema.
Now I'm doing some temping, breakfast temping (i.e. you don't know if you have a job until after breakfast) which has me in some government office fielding calls and checking my e-mails. It's a far cry from life on the Great Barrier reef but it's nice to be back in a familiar city. Every street corner has a memory and it's been great to catch up with some friends and bump into familiar faces.
I've put up a few more photos too, and there should be a few more to come soon.
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Once again it's time to pack up my life into my big green rucksack, I've accumulated a lot of stuff here in Cairns, my guitar and music books, dive mask, snorkel, dive books, and loads of other things that just won't fit in. It's really sad to be leaving here, Steve, Pete and Cheryl who run the hostel have become like surrogate parents for all of us backpackers. There has been the same tight knit bunch of friends in the hostel for the past few weeks, it'll be sad to leave this place.
I had my last trip on the boat yesterday, a beautiful day with nice rough seas on the way home to make the sail more interesting. When it's like that the best thing to do is to sit at the 'Titanic' seat at the front of the boat to feel the warm breeze and the salty splashes in your face. I had my last dive for a while, at least until I get enough cash to pay for one or another job that gives me free dives. Working on the 'Seahorse' has been the most fun and lowest paid job I've ever had, I'll look back in years to come in disbelief at how I've spent the past 3 months.
I've become accustomed to the heat here in Cairns and don't know how I'm going to cope with less than 30' temps as I travel down the coast towards the autumnal conditions of Byron Bay. I'm trying to learn some blues guitar as we'll be going to the Blues and roots festival in Byron, hopefully I'll be able to hook up with a few of the original Cairns crowd and the Sydney Posse. I had a farewell feast in Yanni's, the Greek Taverna where I worked, there were about 30 of us there between the boat crew, the hostel crowd and all the locals I've met here, It was a nice change to be eating out rather than serving people and good to get to say goodbye to everyone.
I'll get back to packing everything (including my guitar and a now very extensive repetoir of travel songs) into Flynns Kombi van in preparation for our imminent departure from yet another place I've come to call home. It's time to start a new adventure!
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I had my last trip on the boat yesterday, a beautiful day with nice rough seas on the way home to make the sail more interesting. When it's like that the best thing to do is to sit at the 'Titanic' seat at the front of the boat to feel the warm breeze and the salty splashes in your face. I had my last dive for a while, at least until I get enough cash to pay for one or another job that gives me free dives. Working on the 'Seahorse' has been the most fun and lowest paid job I've ever had, I'll look back in years to come in disbelief at how I've spent the past 3 months.
I've become accustomed to the heat here in Cairns and don't know how I'm going to cope with less than 30' temps as I travel down the coast towards the autumnal conditions of Byron Bay. I'm trying to learn some blues guitar as we'll be going to the Blues and roots festival in Byron, hopefully I'll be able to hook up with a few of the original Cairns crowd and the Sydney Posse. I had a farewell feast in Yanni's, the Greek Taverna where I worked, there were about 30 of us there between the boat crew, the hostel crowd and all the locals I've met here, It was a nice change to be eating out rather than serving people and good to get to say goodbye to everyone.
I'll get back to packing everything (including my guitar and a now very extensive repetoir of travel songs) into Flynns Kombi van in preparation for our imminent departure from yet another place I've come to call home. It's time to start a new adventure!
