champion of champions

Just so you know. Just so it's officially recorded for some digital approximation of posterity...

Christina was the winner of the backgammon tour-nement.

She beat me by two rounds.
I'll get her next time.

photos from the trip

For those of you who like looking at pictures, here is a link to a slideshow of my photos from our month away. Not many human interest ones, I'm afraid - but lots of rocks and trees!

Just click on the picture below:

home again, home again, jiggety jig

Flew in this morning early from Darwin. Very early. All the flights seem to leave Darwin around 1am. One local told us "that's because the planes sleep in Darwin". Our host rather philosophically explained it thus: "Nothing flies out that hasn't flown in". Kind of a what-goes-up-must-come-down thing.

Glad to be back in our own homes, but sad to see another Touchwood adventure come to a close.

Now on to planning our UK trip for this time next year...

litchfield national park

Today we drove out in our little air-conditioned (yay!) hire car to Litchfield National Park, an hour or so out of Darwin. When I was last there 14 years ago, it was all dirt roads, and the reward for driving on the corrugated surfaces and traipsing along the dusty paths was a series of idyllic swimming holes populated by only a handful of other dedicated folks.
Sadly (or happily, depending on your perspective), the roads are now all sealed right up to the waterholes. Wangi Falls was full of people for whom the wilderness seems a little too confronting. I witnessed one pair of blokes walk down the pebblecreted path - holding the handy stainless-steel handrail all the way - right into the cool fresh water, only to complain about the roughness of the stones on the floor of the waterhole ("Gee, you'd think they could have shipped in some sand!" - I kid you not).
Still, the entire park remains a magnificent place to go to escape the relentless tropical heat of Darwin, and Buley Rockhole has to be one of the all-time greatest swimming experiences. Here are Christina and Terry doing their very best mermaid impressions sitting in the rapids of Buley Rockhole.

doo wah diddy

Kate being a doo wop girl in an all-Aussie dinky di entertainment segment at Kings Canyon. Dig those dreads! For her trouble she won $20 (Monopoly money) and a certificate to show that she is now certified. Wacky, zany fun.

the birds (a film re-enactment)

When we arrived in Kings Canyon caravan park yesterday, it was to find our campsite infested by Native Mynahs.
These fellas have no fear, and snatched food from our hands (en route to our hungry mouths). Christina had to take refuge in the campervan - here she is eyeing off one bird who was threatening to jump up into the cab with her.



Today we went on a big walk up to the top of the canyon and around the rim of it - magnificent. To reward ourselves for such uncharacteristic exertion, we took ourselves off to Kathleen Springs for a quiet picninc out in the bush.
Our lunch companion was a crow the size of a small pony. He was so peeved at our refusal to share our hard-earned ham sandwiches with him, that he proceeded to scvenge around underneath our campervan. We imagined him to be picking off squashed bugs from under the front bumper, but it turned out he was maliciousl removing the foam insulation from around the radiator. How to explain this to the hire company?!
(Oh, and then he shat on the window too.)

we miss you jasmine!

Look - here we are on Jasmine's photo gallery - just as we were about to drive away from her home to travel across her homeland (The Mallee - didn't you know Jasmine's A Mallee Girl?) towards Adelaide.

more alice weirdness

Last night produced some more evidence for the case that Alice Springs is built on a point of confluence of powerful universal forces (like wow, man)...

It rained heavily in Alice for the first time in a year
This had to happen on the night we were booked to play in the open air on a restaurant rooftop. The sound system had to be turned off, so we huddled under the awning with the audience and played them a few songs from behind the bar. We did every song we know that mentions rain - Raining On Our Parade was a particular hit. Everyone ended up having a lot of fun.

NoKTuRNL played support for us
If you don't know who these guys are, you need to either listen to more triplej or visit their website. These guys are serious famous. and normally Very Loud. They were playing last night under an assumed name so as not to alert their minders and fans to the fact that they were playing a nice little acoustic gig in their home town

Another duo featured a local Lutheran minister on lead vocals
The Super Raelene Brothers are actually siblings, unlike the Flying Burrito Brothers. Two fine local musos with political yet funky songs - they even sang Leon Rosselson's World Turned Upside Down. One of them works for the Greens, and we had met him earlier in the day at the Bob Brown thing. The other turns out to be a Lutheran minister. I want to be in his church!

I met a friend from high school...
... and we both recognised eachother. Turns out Astri has been living and working in the centre for 10 years or so.
Then to add freakiness to weirdness- after another two or three hours, Christina says "Oh - I know HER!" Turns out they worked together on a project a little while back, but only ever talked on the phone.

We met two women who had never heard of Senator Bob Brown
Of course, they both work at Pine Gap, so I guess they don't move in those circles. But how weird is it that we have fans from Pine Gap?

We got offered a free trip to Uluru next time we visit
The owner of a tour company was at the gig, and was impressed by how unflappable we were in the face of inevitable electrocution.

Today we go on another explore around town, before another gig at The Lane tonight - lets see what adventures this one holds...

smile for the camera!

The sign said "We like having our photo taken".
They didn't lie - this emu stood posing for us at the Alice Springs Desert Park for absolutely ages.

a place of freaky connections

There we were at the Alice Springs Desert Park attending a session about the local Indigenous language when the presenter asked for our names for a session of "Go Fish" in Arrente.

I say my name. She says "I used to live next door to you in Newcastle". The penny drops from on high. Thought she looked familiar, but NEVER would have twigged unless she had.

Jodie and her partner Daniel were post-earthquake neighbours of myself and my two former Newcastle flatmates in Council St Cooks Hill. When they moved from Newcastle they moved here and stayed. They love it and won't be going back. We talked about cats - both now sadly deceased. A feeling of weirdness descends.

sir bob brown

We've just got back to the yoof hostel after having a refreshing morning cuppa with Senator Bob Brown (National-Treasure-in-waiting).
(sigh)

He claimed to remember having seen us sing Old Blevins in the cabaret at Cygnet Festival last year, but I'm sure he was just being nice.

He's such an able media performer for someone who is so authentic and a fundamentally decent bloke - it must be so hard for him to spend so much time toe-to-toe with dissemblers and fraudsters in parliament. He arrived here from Darwin this morning, and this afternoon heads off to Melbourne and Hobart before filming Meet The Press in Sydney on Saturday. All the guy wants to do is go home to the Liffey to see his horses, poor bastard.

alice springs update

Greetings from the Red Centre.
This is our fourth day in Alice, and it still feels strangely like another planet.
We hired a car on Tuesday and drove out along the Western McDonnell ranges - Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm, Ellery Big Hole (gotta love that name), Serpentine Gorge and Glen Helen - alien landscapes of giant red gorges rising out of the desert with icy pools of water at the base. Little oases of ghost gums and prehistoric cycads. We saw a black-footed rock wallaby at a distance, and lots of English tourists at close range.

Yesterday we ran a harmony singing workshop at the Cultural Precinct, a wonderful arts complex just out of town. We met some folks who used to sing with the Adelaide Trade Union Choir - and are trying to work out how to help them get a solid community chopir of some sort happening out here. It's difficult, given the largely transient nature of the population here.

Back at the ranch (the Pioneer YHA), we were winding down with a couple of games of backgammon when we met up with some brave souls from Nowra who are leading a tour of their school concert band. 37 high-school kids for 6 days!!!
They were disappointed that they hadn't been able to squeeze one of our workshops here into their busy schedule, so we're organised to give them a custom-built version at Uluru on Sunday.
The people you meet!

Off to be tourists...

We're in Adelaide, still

We met James' lovely tortoise-shell cats today, as well as his guinea pig "Bitey" and one of her offspring. We also got to hear some of his recordings featuring sampled sounds of cats purring and guinea pigs squeaking. And then we sang through some old (old, old, old) songs with he and Laura while Terry played lute and James playes bass viol.

Just look at those three sentences, willya? I have never had reason to utter them before and am fairly sure I never will again!

And to top it off, a great exchange between Kate and the taxi driver who brought us back to the YHA:
Kate: We're going to the big backpackers' place on Light Square please.
Cabbie: Oh - is that the place where all the backpackers hang out?
Kate: ... ... ... yes ...
Cabbie: which way do you want me to go?
Kate: We're from out of town - that's why we're going to the youth hostel. We don't know our way around at all.
From the back seat: sound of stifled giggles as Terry and I attempt to maintain decorum ...

Off to Alice Springs tomorrow.

Old Blevins live

Last Thursday we stopped in at ABC Radio Ballarat for an interview with Kathy Bedford for the Statewide Drive program in Victoria. We've now been posted to the ABC site in streaming audio (you need Real Player to hear us). Click here

spooky events in adelaide

When touring performers come home and tell the tales of their adventures, they (we) can make the most dismal of gigs sound like a huge event only ever before seen in the likes of Wembley Stadium.

We're going to be honest here.

We played at the SA Folk Centre tonight, and Six People Turned Up. Six. S - I - X.
There were another five or so staff, and the three of us as well, so that's Almost A Crowd.
Nevertheless, we had a great time. Let me tell you why...

The guy who does the food at the Folk Centre - a young gentleman called James - was evidently sent to us through a portal to a parallel universe. One in which people (apart from Terry) can tell the difference between a Renaissance guitar and a vihuela. James knew the bass part (and all the other parts as well) to some of our early music repertoire, so we got him up on stage to sing with us.
This does not happen every day. Sure, people sing along with us to Hard Times or Old Blevins, but we're talking about a 1528 Parisien chanson here.


The new lineup.

James sings (and plays) in a three piece called Wol (read your Winnie The Pooh). Two girls with shortish hair and one guy with long hair. They sing three part arrangements ranging from early music to pop. Sound familiar?
The final piece in the freak-puzzle dropped when we realised he knew many of the African songs we used to sing in the Solidarity Choir.
So we ended the evening sitting around singing four-part harmony with the cook, and then helping him with his neglected washing up (come on, there were six people, that's not much washing up).

And tomorrow night we're going to Do Stuff. Hang Out. Sing Siyahamba.

and now adelaide...

It's getting late here in Adelaide, but after spending eight hours in the car today driving here from shiny Newstead, we're tired of being still and loath to go to bed.

We drove North from Newstead and then West across the Mallee. So very dry. Travelling across this country, you realise that Fred Williams was a photorealist painter after all - hours and hours of shimmering golden brown plains with occasional outcrops of dark scrub. We watched the setting sun turn the clouds into a rainbow of feathers across the horizon.

God bless iPods. We listened to the collected works of the Finn brothers, a bit of Tom Waits, and our driving favourite - Steve Nieve.

Our other pastime today was making up tourist board slogans for each tiny town we drove through. Example: "Welcome to Boinka. You don't have to be boinkas to live here, but it helps." Sherlock was even better.

Tell your friends about our gig tomorrow night at the South Australian Folk Centre!

Day Four

Jasmine has a heart like a rainbow. We're staying in her house just outside of Newstead in Victoria, except that this is not a house, it's an artwork in progress. I think of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (without the height, devotion or mosaics). We are surrounded by mudbrick, quilted walls, books, and we've been told there are phascogales at night. This is the kind of place I want to live in when I grow up. Through the top window I can see Terry collecting wood for the fires downstairs. Above the computer (my mobile is dead but the broadband struggles bravely on) there is a jumble of books. I picked one up and opened a page at an Emily Dickinson poem:

I died for Beauty - but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room -

He questioned softly "Why I failed?"
"For Beauty," I replied -
"And I - for Truth - Themself are One -
We Bretheren, are," He said -

And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night -
We talked between the Rooms -
Until the Moss had reached our lips -
And covered up - our names -

We've had so many adventures already - and it's only Day Four: being shown around the Mercy and Justice Centre in Bathurst I came across an old brown stairway I see in dreams ... in Jindera we have the WHOLE audience making bears' paws at us during "Waltzing With Bears" ... sitting around Jane and James' table sharing songs - they sing Cath Tait songs for us and I can't wait to hear them play more as a duo ... hearing the wonderful Sweet Monas fill the hall with their harmonies ...

Off to investigate what my pals are up to.