www.petelashley.com
'Baby' World Tour - Part 7
The 'Baby' World Tour (Part 7)
The great 'Great Ocean Road'
Sat 7th April (Robe, South Australia)
Perform on the main street running through the small fishing village of Robe during the day. I have a new straw hat, which is good for chucking money into. Nice and deep! I'm lucky as it's the Easter holidays and lots of families from Adelaide and Melbourne are here. Little kids ask their Mums and Dads if they can throw money in. They are all smiling and enjoying ice creams. No one seems in a rush. I make more money in one hour than on my worst day in Sydney. A big contrast here to Sydney! People relaxed and having a good time as opposed to Sydney's office workers who storm past at 100mph, fag in hand, pale faced, miserable, no time for anyone (including themselves).
A lot of the houses that line the 200 metre main street that runs through Robe are built of the local aesthetically pleasing Limestone. The limestone gives the houses a 19th century robust English country house feel as opposed to the equally attractive but more typical antipodean wooden framed houses.
Do a gig at the Guichen Bay restaurant on Robe's main street in the evening. It's great because Murray, a big bearded chap with a grey beard and the owner of The Guichen Bay Restaurant, has asked me to play Sunday as well. He has also kindly offered to feed me for the two nights and pay $100 each night. I am very lucky. I had got the gig just by turning up with the 'Baby' and playing him and the rest of the Guichen Bay staff a song or two.
Before the evening gig I have Snapper, a splendid tasting fish, fresh from the cool southern Ocean waters.
Initially I play in the corner while people in the main room enjoy the food. I feel a tad isolated. What is wonderful about this gig is that everyone from the hostel (John from Canada, Adam, Brian, Cat from Adelaide, Johan and friends from Germany), has turned up for the gig, including Garth and Saskia who run Robe YHA. Fortunately they all beckon me into the main room to play. I am now in amongst it. The atmosphere immediately lifts. Requests start flying in, including Irish songs from an Irish couple on the table at the back. I have a go at 'Dirty Old Town'. I then get requested to play some of my own stuff.
'To Give Again', 'Garden Tiger', 'Cactus Wine', 'Parochial Blues', 'Down On The Avenue', 'Somewhere In This New World' all comes out. They feel refreshing to play not least 'cause I've been playing other stuff and have somewhat neglected them recently.
After the gig we all pile down to a pub called the Caledonian, further down Robe's main street nearer the beach. There is a band playing, a three piece out in the beer garden. It's dark but the beer garden is lit up. There are lots of people pissed. The band is loud but half decent and there are a few people dancing near the stage. A lovely English lass from Norfolk called Susan staying at the hostel buys me a double Gin and tonic with ice and a slice.
After last orders we are all in good spirits. Locals and holidaymakers alike make their way home along Robe's main street under the stars. We head back to the YHA hostel. What a perfect moment to get the Baby Guitar out. At times like these the Baby comes into its own. It's so small you can whip it out in an instant, so to speak. I play John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' under the stars as we head home off into the country. It is a perfect moment. There is a procession of us all singing along. Occasionally the headlights of a car can be seen so we move to the sides of the road, let it pass, and then move back into the centre and start singing again. It all feels very euphoric. Will remember Robe and this night for a very long time. A top night !!
Sun 8th April
After the frivolities of last night wake up knackered. Go for swim in the ocean around 10 am. Swim to the floating platform, which is courageous for a scaredy like me as it's out of my depth and I'm always thinking about the sharks. I know some statistician has stated that you've more chance of being killed by a falling coconut than being eaten by a shark, but that doesn't mean jack shit when you're out in the brine. Let's face it; you'd have to be incredibly unlucky to be killed by falling coconut swimming in the Southern Ocean. Where do they get these statistics from anyway??
In afternoon go to the cinema to watch 'Miss Potter', a film about Beatrix Potter with the girl from Bridget Jones in it and Ewan McGregor. Really enjoyed it. Makes me feel very homesick. Can feel it in the pit of my stomach when I see the Lake District Fells. Good old Blighty.
In the evening perform at The Guichen Bay for the 2nd night in a row. I stay in the corner for the whole evening this time. It goes down well. All very relaxed. Get talking with a farmer and his wife from Mount Gambier. We get talking about the drought, and the difficulties of farming full stop. They are a nice couple. The chap (forgive me, I didn't note his name) is honest enough to admit that he likes to have a whinge. "Us farmers, we're never happy. There's always something to complain about" he admits, fair play to him
Monday 9th April
Good early morning busking session. $60 quickly falls into the straw hat including a few notes. The fresh sea air makes me feel glad to be alive. Seems to be strengthening the ole voice, all that sea air. Love it!
Get an early night. Before I retire to bed I get chatting in the hostel's beautiful old creaking wooden floored reading room (which smells of old books incidentally) with a middle aged bearded chap called Jerry. Turns out, Jerry is a Professor of Finance at Melbourne University and has come to Robe for a few days to unwind. Jerry is quite a character and has a few tales to tell. He went trekking through India and up into the Himalayas when he was younger. He tells me he climbed peaks with his mates and his girlfriend (now wife) up in the Himalayas. The conversation then shifts to the splendour of Oz and its miles and miles and miles and miles...... and miles of coastline, the quality of its beaches and how it would take a life time to see anywhere near all of it. This is Jerry's next mission, to get a camper van and to see it all.
Jerry outlines an example of how dearly loved the Oz beaches are to Australian themselves by telling me about an experience he had up in the Himalayas. About 25 years ago Jerry set off early morning to climb a Himalayan peak somewhere up in North East India. He wanted to get there early to see the sun rise over the majestic Himalayan landscape. He gets to the top expecting complete isolation only to find another Oz climber sitting on the summit. "What took ya?" the Oz climber quipped. Having never met the climber before Jerry expected to share in paying homage to the overwhelming scenery all around. Instead the guy remarked on how the scenery was no match for the beaches back home. Jerry admitted he could only sit there with him and agree.
The conversation moves onto cricket. I tell him that as a youngster I used to go watch Somerset play with Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner.
Jerry tells me that he played in the same team as Ian Botham when playing for Melbourne Universities. Apparently the University league in Australia is extremely competitive and Botham came over in his late teens/early twenties to play for Melbourne university to get some Oz experience before returning to Somerset.
Jerry described 'Boff' as an animal on and off the field but particularly at the bar.
Tuesday 10th April
7 in the morning Get a text from my good mate Elvis back in Bristol who informs me that Sunderland are top of the league after beating Southampton away. I punch the air in delight.
Sadly say goodbye to Robe and its brilliant YHA and its great people. Catch mid day coach to Mount Gambier.
Stay in Aspen Motel, my first night in a motel. Hey Hey!! Television with Sky.
The room is good value for $55. After I check in I go busk in evening outside 'Coles' Supermarket in Mt Gambier. I'm glad I do as I make $60 in an hour. One very generous lady chucks $10 into my hat. It's a shame I've run out of CDs as I'd have given her an album for that. When I get back to the motel I get watching the cricket after I have a swim in the motel's excellent indoor pool. It's strange to be in a motel after the hostels. It's nice to have a room to myself but I couldn't do this for very long. It's a bit too isolating.
Wed 11th April
Catch 7.50 am coach from Mount Gambier info centre to a fishing village/resort called Port Fairy. On the 2 hr journey the fields look much greener as we pass into Victoria and adjust our watches forward half an hour. There are paddocks with their old corrugated shacks and solitary horses standing in the early morning mist which rolls in from the sea. Many of the fields have these old style wooden wind wheels propped up on 3-4ft wooden legs. These are used to pump water in the fields. We also pass the occasional corrugated aluminium water storage tank. The landscape is rolling here. Very English apart from the Eucalyptus/gum trees that are never far away. There are coniferous plantations dotted around as well.
Get to Port Fairy in afternoon. Check into yet another lovely old country house style Limestone YHA and immediately hit the streets of Port Fairy after a quick haircut by Jenny, a friendly Port Fairyian. I ask for a half. Jenny looks at me as if I'm a nut case. She thought I was requesting half my head to be left uncut (which is kind of how it is these days). The music is well received. I'm helped yet again by the fact that people are here on holiday and in the holiday mood.
In the evening get chatting to Jerry, an Irish chap who teaches singing and music in Melbourne. The lounge of the youth hostel is warm and friendly with a pool table in an adjoining room. Port Fairy is a lovely place. According to this visitor's guide brochure I'm reading, the first regular European visitors to Port Fairy were Bass Strait sealers on seasonal hunting expeditions from Tasmania in the early 1800s. By the 1830's some of these early seamen crossed the river and began to clear and cultivate the rich volcanic soils. They brought sheep and cattle across from Tasmania. At its peak in the 1850's the port was the second busiest in Oz with a population of just over 2000. Wool, wheat and gold were loaded onto great sailing ships bound for England. The coastline off Port Fairy is treacherous and there have been many shipwrecks. Scottish stonemasons built a lighthouse in 1859, south westerly gales send huge seas crashing in so it has always been badly needed. The keepers' cottages were demolished in the 1950s but the lighthouse still operates on wind and solar power. The light is visible 19km out to sea.
The beauty of this coastline can't be underestimated. It's wild and rugged, but with very friendly ports like Robe and Port Fairy.
Port Fairy has a lovely sheltered harbour, which runs up river with houses and restaurants either side of the river.
Thursday 12th April
Take an early morning walk around Griffiths Island, a headland originally inhabited by Aboriginal tribe, which juts out into the sea next to Port Fairy's harbour. I walk to the lighthouse. The sea is pounding in. Big surf waves breaking on hard volcanic rock. Interspersed are beautiful sand dunes and long sweeping beaches in the distance.
The weird thing is i can see the huge waves crashing in yet can hardly hear them. Must be a trick of distance and perspective. The lighthouse looks right out into the Bass Strait. What it must be like during a winter's storm? Must be amazing, especially as in winter you can watch from here the Southern Right Whales coming near to the coast to mate and calve.
The headland is full of burrows of Manx Shearwater birds that fly colossal distances.
This whole area is known as the crags and is part of the traditional homelands of Aboriginal people called the Peek Wurrung speakers. The crags coastal reserve was inhabited over thousands of years as a gathering, ceremonial and feasting place.
In the afternoon I go for a swim. It feels good to swim in the waves though I don't go out of my depth. The rip tides are legendary in Oz. Don't fancy competing with one of them. Then there are the sharks and the Jellyfish and the poisonous octopus and the deadly stonefish and the crocs (only joking).
Busk late afternoon outside a newsagent. A group of 6 kids all brothers and sisters aged from about 6 -12 sit on a bench right in front of me. They look funny 'cause they're all enjoying an ice cream. Some are making more mess than others. I play a very dodgy version of 'Old Macdonald Had A Farm', they sing along and clap but I have to give up by the second verse when I try and do the cow impersonation. I stick to what i know by going straight into the tried and trusted 'Postman Pat'. Must learn 'Bob The Builder'. Broaden my repertoire.
In evening get chatting to Greg and Andy who live in Sydney, Andy's from up on the east coast of Scotland and Greg's from good ole Barrow-In-Furness. They both seem settled in Sydney. They are up here for one of their mate's weddings and have incorporated a few rounds of golf on the local course into their stay. Greg talks of the great surfing to be had in Sydney. Greg works as a Support Analyst on the 44th floor of one of the huge high-rises overlooking Sydney harbour. Greg says it's an amazing view. However, the tragedy of it is that with the amazing views he also gets views of the less picturesque brownish smog that cloaks the higher atmosphere of the city.
We get talking about the paradox that is Sydney. You have the beaches and the wholesome outdoor life. Then you have the office workers chasing what Greg terms an "impossible materialistic dream". The irony of it all is it's not making many of them any happier. For example, It's ok owning your own gas guzzling car but how happy can this make you sitting in traffic jams for most of your working life, contributing to the smog?
Friday 13th April
Catch early morning bus from Port Fairy to a town called Warrnambool where get another coach to a seaside resort called Apollo Bay. The coach goes past the stunning London Bridge limestone rock formation. This was left stranded in 1991 when a slab of limestone connecting the 'Bridge' with the coastal cliffs dropped into the sea stranding two people on the rock left standing. Fortunately the people were OK and were presumably air lifted off.
After 'London Bridge' we drive to the '12 Apostles', full of tourists but a beautiful thing to see, a whole line of stacks standing firm against the surging waters.
On arrival at Apollo Bay I check into YHA. Go out and busk outside Estate Agents. Can hear the workers inside the shop applauding after I finish each song. People seem to like the music. Money starts to drop in the hat. Even get a note or two dropping in to the hat.
YHA is spotless. Sleep in a mixed dorm. Two Dutch lasses Saskia and Ann are in the same room. They had stayed in Port Fairy YHA and had got the same bus as me to here.
In evening go for a swim in Apollo Bay. Beautiful beach with English looking hills falling straight into the sea. Go for walk along the harbour wall. Watch people fishing. One lad has caught a crab with his Dad. Another lady has caught a small fish and quickly throws it back in the sea after unhooking its mouth. I like looking into the deep clear still waters of the harbour just yards from the crashing surf on the other side of the harbour wall.
Bump into a Dutch lad called Martin who I had met at Robe YHA. He is working for 'Phillips Electronics' and is studying law. He loves travelling. We get talking football as we walk along Apollo Bay's outstanding sandy beach.
Sat 14th April
Get up early and head down to Apollo Bay's Saturday market. I find a seat. Begin to play. The temporary stall next to me is run by Judi, a lovely middle aged woman who, with her husband Ken, sells home grown herbs, perennials, coastal plants, salvias and roses. All the stalls near me seem to appreciate the music. It's always difficult at markets 'cause you don't know how the stallholders will react to the music, but here everyone has a smile in the morning sun. The straw hat begins to fill up, $70 in an hour and a half.
I take a rest from singing in the afternoon. I hire a bike from the hostel and cycle up into the Otway hills inland from Apollo Bay. The 12 km ride to Mariner's Falls is outstanding. It's lovely to be cycling in the fresh Southern air. Cows are in the field. The road then leads into forest. Eucalyptus and towering gum tree line the roadside.
Wow, I see a Kookaburra perched on a telegraph line. I'm well chuffed with that. Then I see two parrots the colours of which are spellbinding. They have vivid green and yellow backs and startling red and blue colours under their wings.
I lock the bike up at Mariner's Falls. A well-defined path leads me through temperate rainforest much like New Zealand. In fact it feels very English here especially as it starts to rain. The walk reminds me of Hardcastle Crags, near Hebden Bridge for some reason. I think it's the shape of the valley and the fields and the river running through the valley.
At Mariner's Falls, an enclosed waterfall is no more than a trickle. There are other walkers here; a nettle stings one lad. His Dad finds a dock leaf and rubs it on his leg. Also here are Saskia and Ann from the hostel. I reassure them that I am not stalking them.
Go to bed tired but very happy on what I've seen today.
Sun 15th April
Get up early and check Sunderland score on their website. They have beaten QPR 2-1 at home overnight. I'm well happy. They are heading for promotion if they keep it up. Keane has worked his magic on the club. The attendances are picking up at The Stadium Of Light, nearly 40,000 this week. Happy days are back!!
Go for early morning dip to celebrate in Apollo Bay.
Later on I take a surf lesson. Saskia and Ann are on the lesson also. They must think I'm stalking them now!! The surfing is good fun if a bit bruising. There is only the three of us on the lesson run by an amiable Oz called Mark. He gives us wet suits to squeeze into. He then has us practicing on the beginners' boards and shows us the techniques before taking to the water. He stands in the water and guides us onto the waves.
It's so easy to go arse over tit when you catch a wave. When you do, you feel like you're in some kind of washing machine. You don't know which way's up or down. I do manage to stand up once and feel very happy about it.
Early evening catch the coach from Apollo Bay heading one-hour east along the Great Ocean Road to the coastal resort of 'Lorne'. On the way spot a Koala in a tree. A group who have left their car is photographing it.
This stretch of road hugs the steep cliffs. I sit on the coach and look out. To my left dense Eucalyptus Bush, to my right pounding surf sometimes hundred feet or more below. A lone figure fishes from the beach.
Check into Lorne YHA just as it's getting dark. Sleep on a top bunk.
Mon 16th April
In the morning i realise that Lorne YHA is set in beautiful gardens. The colours of autumn are appearing, gold and copper leaves on the trees.
I immediately start busking early morning outside the shops. I am looking out to sea. I can't see Lorne's splendid beach from where i am but i can view the sea. Although there are not too many people around early morning there is still enough for the hat to slowly fill up with change. Two children come up dancing away. They are incredibly enthusiastic. They are with their Mum and Grandma whose name is Eleanor. I get talking to the lovely Eleanor. She asks me where I'm from. I tell her my background. She explains that her father came from the northeast. He was a coalminer and moved over here to work in the coalmines of Victoria in the 1920's. Eleanor tells me that when her father and his family moved out here he brought his racing pigeons with him and continued to grow leaks, a home from home.
Catch the 1.50 pm coach to Geelong railway station. Then catch 3.30pm train from Geelong to Melbourne.
Arrive Melbourne rush hour!!
After two weeks away from the city this comes as quite a shock. A bit like arriving in London from the Lake District. Like in Sydney, there are thousands rushing around in business suits. I am directly in the firing line as I've decided to busk at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station during evening rush hour. The acoustics are quite good in the underpass of the station. I feel a bit hyper from the travelling. I feel like I'm playing at 100mph to match the ridiculous mad rush of the hour and the noise of the trains above sound like rolling thunder. Echoing is the train announcer's voice.
I keep playing as people fly past. Many have ipods on and look very serious. Others are on their mobiles. I sing 'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees. I begin to feel hysterical. This begins to work in my favour as the adrenalin makes me feel happy. I start to laugh and people begin to smile back.
I make $20 and then walk up Melbourne's main street to Backpack Hostel where i check in for the night. I stay in a 4-bed dorm. I am absolutely cream crackered.
A young lad called Chris from Christchurch is in the dorm. We get chatting. He is in Oz for the warm weather and better wages. He is a supermarket stock controller and is looking for work over here.
Tues 17th April
Check out of Hotel Bakpak. Catch up with diary entry on Internet, gets the ole' brain going. Later on I start to busk on the main street running down Melbourne towards Flinders St Station. Get chatting to a lovely girl called Suzi studying geology in Newcastle, New South Wales, up the coast north of Sydney. She has also been based in Melbourne.
She says she will probably find work after her studies in Western Australia where many of the mines are. I give her a card with my website and contact details
There is a busker in the underpass so cross Melbourne's River Yarra and busk on a bench near the cafes lining the river. Bit of a struggle but money begins to steadily fill in the straw hat.
8.00pm, catch overnight train to Sydney. It takes 12 hours!! The train is busy but luckily i have two seats for myself so I stretch my legs out. Keep waking up in odd positions.
Can't see a thing outside apart from occasional distant lights and the nearby railway sidings whistling by. In front of me are a couple with their 3 girls. They behave impeccably the whole journey. Hope my restless leg stretching and guffs from one of the buffet carriage's splendid meat pies didn't wake them at all !
Get into Sydney 8.00am. Feel in a daze, bit of a mammoth overnight trip. Start to busk outside Sydney Central station. The overnight tramps have left a load of fag ends under the benches. There are empty cans of Jack Daniels and Coke rolling around.
Other than that, i would say Sydney Central station is a fine old building.
Make $20 in the hour.
Later in the morning it begins to get hot as the sun comes out. The temperature reaches early 30s Celsius, bloody hot for this time of year.
I walk down to Sydney Harbour and catch the ferry to Manly. It is a glorious hour long journey. The views of the harbour bridge and opera house make you want to weep! The ferry is packed. I am tired and don't really want to be in the crowds but feel Manly, what with its surf beach and sheltered harbour, might offer good busking potential.
When I get to Manly i realise it's not going to be easy. The shops are packed. There are people walking around in Union Jack shorts like in the Costa Del Sol. The surf beach is packed but is nonetheless magnificent, golden sands and rolling surf.
I set up outside a shop front. Almost immediately I get told to move on by a uniformed security chap. Because I'm tired and irritable I protest that I'm not doing any harm. I even exclaim, "it's not as if i'm a terrorist!!". This causes a few by passers to briefly stop in their tracks. I realise I've lost the plot a bit so I go for a swim to cool down in the bay near Manly harbour side.
When I get out I feel cooler and calmer. I play near Manly Pier. Make $40 in the hour.
6.30pm catch train out of Sydney. I am heading 2 hours north back up to the Hunter Valley to see my Uncle Harry, Aunty Heather and my cousins Kelly and Stef and their families.
Meet Harry at Morriset station 8.30pm.
Takes 45 minutes to drive to Harry and Heather's place. It's great to see them again after 3 weeks.
Harry wakes me at 4.00am to watch West Ham V Chelsea. We cheer when Carlos Teves equalises but have to admire the quality of Wright-Phillips' goals.
Tues 13th March
After a day of busking back at Rosemere Hostel I get jamming with a lad from Argentina on bongos and a lad called Carrick from Oldham who plays guitar. This all happens on the drinking deck where it's great to have a chat with Ken.
Wednesday 18th April - Sunday 22nd April
Have a great time seeing all my cousins and their families. During the time i was away on the Great Ocean Road, Kelly has had twins, Freya and Luca. They all look well.
Haven't got time to elaborate on this period for now but definitely will at a later date when i have more internet time, as there is much to tell. My relatives and their families and friends have many fascinating tales to tell alright of life down under. For example there's Dave, Kelly's husband. He was sharing a yarn with me only this morning of his motorbike adventures up in Queensland and the Northern Territory. He was telling me of the deafening silence you get out in the outback. He said the silence is so loud it begins to freak you out especially when you have been used to the roar of the motorbike engine and then all of a sudden you turn the engine off and hear nothing. Dave said "it's almost as if you've died".
Later on he told me that on the same journey he had forded a crocodile infested river with his bike and his mate on a tin boat and him in the soup guiding the boat as there was no room for anyone else. Because there was 12 of them this somewhat daunting trip had to be done 12 times before all the bikes were on the other side.
Just to say that it felt a privilege to stay with such close relatives and their wonderful families in such spectacular surroundings, I was treated like a king and feel extremely lucky to have experienced their hospitality and friendship for the second time in 7 years!!!
Monday 23rd April (Reflections of Oz)
Here I am, last day in Australia. I am typing this email from 'footprints' backpackers hostel in Pitt Street. Would you believe it, it has been torrential rain all day. I did some busking earlier on but the rain put an early end to proceedings.
I am heading to San Francisco tomorrow via Auckland.
So what of Oz?
What a wondrous place. A land surrounded by glorious pristine blue oceans, wonderful beaches, colourful/hilarious/terrifying wildlife. Perhaps its only drawback is the vast areas of nothing between points of interest. I know I said in my last entry I would mention something of the aborigines. Well, I set myself up somewhat there as I am certainly not qualified to do this as I spent no time in areas where aborigine communities are prevalent. All I can say is that in the cities the majority of the few aborigines I did see were unfortunately homeless looking or under the influence of alcohol. I'm sure away from the cities there are many who feel a prouder part of communities. In reality I saw only a tiny little corner of a vast continent. I had toyed with the idea of Perth. Then my plans changed to Tasmania. I ended up doing neither. However I still felt incredibly privileged to see what I did, and also to meet the people I did. If the USA is half as interesting I'll be happy
Excerpt from Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands p30-32
Reconciliation has been a powerful concept in contemporary Australia. Though initially viewed by some Indigenous people with scepticism, it's been one positive element in the climate of racism which developed following the election of the Howard Government in 1996. Pauline Hanson's 'One Nation Party' which attracted support from some voters because of its race-based policies also appeared during the first term in office of the Howard Government. The party faltered in the 1998 federal election because of its own ineptness - not necessarily because its policies were rejected as anti-Aboriginal.
In many ways contemporary Australia is a nation of contradictions - combining idealism and generosity with regressive attitudes towards Aborigines.
The 2000 Sydney Olympics was a celebration of the positive spirit of Australia. In an important symbolic gesture, aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic torch. In the same year hundreds of thousands of settler Australians marched in support of Reconciliation with Aborigines. In many ways it was the largest protest vote Australia's history. Many of those marching were fed up with Prime Minister John Howard and right-wing organisations, presenting their narrow views as those of 'ordinary Australians'.
On most of the indices that measure quality of life, Aborigines still fall below the standards of many Third World nations. Yet there is also a spirit of optimism and an obvious commitment from many in settler and Aboriginal communities to rectify the wrongs of the past.
