Monday, March 12, 2007
 | Where did Monday go? Australia is a bloody long way away. So long, in fact, that I will never have a Monday 5th March 2007! (Well except for a couple of hours in Singapore airport, which might as well have been any airport in the world at anytime of any day). Still, I make up for it by having a Tuesday 20th March, which will last about 36 hours, which is great because I'm fulfilling the Michael J. Fox dream by doing so much time traveling. For people who don't know why I have come to Adelaide check out www.stanscafe.co.uk and seek out a show called 'Of All The People In All The World'. We were performing at the WOMADelaide music festival, which was great because we beat all attendance records for the show - 3000 in one day and nearly 6000 over the 2 1/2 day weekend. Fucking hot though. 37c on Saturday. Tough work in a big tent in the middle of the of a field humping 1.3 tonnes of rice around for 8hrs at a time wearing a shirt and tie and heavy brown dust jacket and suffering from jet lag. Even tougher when you have to clear up the mess left by a 7 year old girl who had decided it was ok to walk along the top of the pile representing all the millionaires in the world (nearly 9 million by the way). Her name was Grace (Grace's Mother: "Grace! GRACE! Oh Jesus Grace! Get here now. Grace! Grace! Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace" exits quickly - embarrassed). It's fair to say she might have been more graceful in her engagement with the rice. Just a bit of housekeeping. There will be no photos on this blog since I left my brand new camera in a taxi on Thursday night. I've been punching walls ever since, fucking Screw- up that I am. WOMAD is a funny festival. All a bit yoghurt weaving for my taste. What is it with people at festivals that makes them think it is a good idea to buy an over priced silly hat that they will only wear for one weekend in their life? Some cool stuff though. Some French street theatre and some bands and artists who I have already forgotten the name of and, of course, we were pretty popular. (Note Mum and Sally: That Mariza women was there. Thought of you both when she was on. Sorry. Can't see what the fuss is about. Not my cup of tea) We're staying at the Hilton. The luxury of which made us all cry after 24hrs in the air. As WOMAD artists we have executive entitlement, which means free access to the pool (and gym - but I prefer to have a sit down and a bag of crisps) and the roof top tennis court. One match so far. Jake beat me 6 2, 6 2. One tennis ball was lost, nearly causing a multi-car pile up on Sir Donald Bradman Road and factor 60 was applied at every change of ends. A day off on the beach today with a book and a bottle of factor 60. I pick up my campervan on Wednesday for a week along the great ocean road to Melbourne with my Ben Folds CD and, unfortunately, a disposable camera. Will keep you posted. |
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
| I'm going to be found out. Jake and Heather left this morning so they have gotten away with it. All of us were given executive access to the hotel, which means we can use the pool etc and use the club lounge. We seem to be only WOMAD artist with access to it. That can't be right. We were tucked away in the visual arts section of the WOMAD programme. We think our privileges were meant for a head line act. But in the words of Basil Faulty, "I think I mentioned it once but got awy with it." The club lounge, by the way, is the breakfast room on the 16th floor with a great view out west back towards the ocean. When breakfast is cleared it becomes the brunch room then the elevenses room and so on right up until 8pm when it is the having an early evening drink while watching the sunset room. There is basically an opportunity to eat and/or drink at any point throughout the day. Quite handy really. This Morning I was reflecting on the contrast between the last week at the Hilton and my next week in a van. Of course I was doing this whilst jumping between the sauna, Jacuzzi, and rooftop pool. It's very nice having all these things but I can't help thinking whether I'm just using the facilities because of they are there and it is a way of feeling decadent. Do genuine executives with executive privileges really make use of this stuff? I mean, how enjoyable is sitting in wood-paneled cupboard on the third floor with the heating turned up? I've spent my week moving between air conditioned buildings in to blood boiling heat as a matter of necessity and survival and here I am doing it as a leisure activity. How will I cope with a solar powered camping shower and a rented sleeping bag next week? There are a few faces at the hotel. As well as all the WOMAD artists staying there, Murray Walker of Motor Racing fame was there when we first arrived. The Australian under 23 Olympic soccer team arrived this morning ready for a warm up game at the Hindmarsh stadium tomorrow night. And a team from China with an impossibly long name that gets shortened to Shandong were there earlier in the week. They were playing Adelaide United last week in the Asian Champions League. Jake and I went to watch it. It was a pretty bad match. Shandong were a bunch of dirty bastards but we decided not mention it at breakfast. Adelaide lost 1-0 to an own goal but the sunset on the terraces washed down with Coopers Pale Ale made it almost as good as a wintery goalless draw at the Albion. Perhaps West Brom could organise a ground share with Adelaide and then Harry wouldn't need to wrap up with 6 layers of former Baggies shirts. |
Thursday, March 15, 2007
| After feeding myself up with masses of Hilton bacon and eggs it was down to the hire place for me. After the guy behind the counter had raped me for money to cover hidden extras and extra insurance (it turns out that buying the full whack insurance option to reduce the deposit it still doesn't cover the roof or the undercarriage!) and an over complicated guided tour of the vans fixtures and fittings it was just me, The Shins, Ben Folds, Nickel Creek and the open road. Up over the Adelaide Hills and down the Princes Highway stopping for petrol at Naracoorte 'Australia's Tidiest Town'. The welcome to Naracoorte sign had a list of every year they had won this prestigious title. I thought the place could do with roughing up a bit. South Australia is flat. East Anglia is mountainous in comparison. Vineyards followed plains followed vineyards. I might stop for a tasting on the way back to Adelaide. And the dusty landscape was dotted with those very Australian trees with the sun-bleached trunks and branches some of which are dead and hollowed out and are apparently protected by law for some sort of Indigenous spiritual importance. I let out a small cheer as an emu crossed the road in front of me - my first sighting of an exotic animal (apart from a dead roo on the Prince's Highway). A long drive into Victoria crossing a time zone and stopping to stock up on beer for when I finally camped up for the night (camped up as in camping with a caravan not as in John Inman RIP - Is it too soon?) followed by a short pre-sunset detour to the lighthouse at Cape Nelson near Portland. Cape Nelson Lighthouse is the perfect lighthouse. Ask a small child to draw one and he/she will draw this one. A roadside truckers rest stop (free of truckers) would be camp number 1. I say it was roadside. It was quite a long dust track to get to the picnic table and BBQ stove that denotes every trucker's rest stop here. As the sun set the crickets sounded and a terrifying rustling came from the undergrowth. After a while the rustling had move to the treetops - Possums! Phew! Eaten alive by dingoes or giant snakes or... stingrays wasn't part of the plan. A Pot Noodle and a beer while scanning the atlas for tomorrows route was just enough to send me to sleep. Only to be woken of news that West Brom had lost to Crystal Palace. Boo!!!! This Morning I am writing from a place called Port Fairy having just driven the 50km or so along the coast taking the famous Crags, an impressive formation of rocks sticking out from the surf viewable from a platform on the cliffs above. Going to have some Brekkie now as my internet time is just about to run ou..... |
Friday, March 16, 2007
| I thought I saw my first wild penguin yesterday on a little rocky outcrop just off the beach at warrnambool (a place name unpronounceable except in an Aussie accent). It was definitely a penguin... until it flew off. Then I really did see one. Too far away to photograph but there was an unmistakable penguin waddle. Overnight in a caravan park in Warrnambool. I am beginning to feel very attached to the van. I imagine I would have a similar feeling if I was doing this journey on a horse. I have stopped short of giving it a name though. I could live in one of these vans. They're very comfortable and well fitted. I think I would need a bigger one for permanent dwelling but it would be great. The one draw back is the type of clientele at caravan parks. "Oh I see you've got the voyager 3000. What's the fuel consumption on that thing? Does it have satellite TV? That's a good looking barbie you got there - does it plug into the 12 volt or have you got a socket on the outside of the van?" Anyway. It pissed it down last night so I was glad to be in a van and not in a tent like some of the poor souls out there. I've made half way along the Great Ocean Road today (It is lunch time as I write). Lots of photos - a geologist's wet dream. Too much to write about on this installment because I have limited internet time. Will reveal all in Part 5. I'm at Port Campbell and will head Further East a bit before heading in-land to set up camp in the rainforests of the Otway National Park (hopefully). |
Sunday, March 18, 2007
| Madness took hold of me last night. At 4pm, just as I completed the last stretch of the Great Ocean Road, I turned right at the sign saying 'Australian Skydiving Centre' and by 5pm I had booked a 9am jump for the next morning. This morning at 9am I got in a plane and at 9000 feet I threw myself out of it. Luckily I was attached to someone who knew what they were doing (not that it showed though). The same thing happened when I learned to Scuba. A serious person makes you sign all the waivers that say skydiving can kill you (and WILL kill you study every bit of small print for to long). Then follows a sequence of encounters with people who simply aren't taking it seriously enough. My diver for the day was Mark. As Mark strapped me into the (soon to be internal harness) he parroted off the instructions for what we do when we 'leave' the plane cracking jokes and bantering with the rest of the lunatic (or whatever the collective noun for sky divers is). It doesn't make me less nervous to be made to laugh. I am laughing BECAUSE I am nervous NOT because you are being funny. I am also not made to feel less nervous when handed the steering cords shortly after pulling the chute. Needless to say I landed us safely and we are both alive to tell the tale. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!! Going back a couple of days. Just when you start thinking the Great Ocean Road is just another road it changes or shows you something breathtaking. The Bay of Islands stands out as the first of many geological encounters along the 12 Apostles National Marine Park. Then the road takes you inland through the middle of the Great Otway Forest National Park with its undulating alpine horseshoe twists and turns. Followed by a perilous cliff-side section with sheer cliffs up and down on both sides of the road. At one point I thought that me and my little van would be re-enacting the last scene of the Italian Job. The night before last I stayed in a camping ground with a compost toilet at Blanket Bay on Cape Otway. A 6km dirt track showed the way across numerous creeks and streams, through 2 gates and past several signs saying four wheel-drive vehicles only in wet weather. I prayed for it not to rain over night in my little section of dense forest by the sea and under rustling possums. It stayed dry and first thing in the morning I went to Cape Otway Light Station. The $12 entrance fee included the telegraph station, the keepers cottages, a WW2 radar bunker and of course the lighthouse. At the top of the lighthouse sat Pat, a friendly guide and former lighthouse keeper who was worth the $12 on his own. He told me that the light, lenses and mechanism were made in Birmingham - Smethwick in fact!!!! The lenses were made in the 1840s at the Chance Bros works in Smethwick and shipped to Oz in time for it to become operational in 1848 (2 people drowned getting the gear off the ship and through the surf at Cape Otway. In turn I told him everything I know about Smethwick and played up its involvement in the birth of the industrial revolution and told him to get in touch with the historians at the Black Country Museum for help with information on the Chance Bros works. It turns out that every light on every lighthouse in the world was made by the Chance Bros. (A fact I think I already knew but had forgotten). Now I am in a town called Beaufort (North West of Ballarat and Melbourne) on my way to the Grampians (by nightfall I hope) making me well placed to get back to Adelaide via the Prince's Highway by Monday Night. |
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