28/05/12

It was on to Cooktown today.
A couple of people questioned why I would want to go there, but apart from the standard response of, "Why not?", a part of me just wanted to go as far north as Freda could take me so, here we are!

Why do they call it Black Mountain?

When I got to town I went to the tourist info place which had free and super-fast wifi... I think I'll be making use of that tomorrow.
Most of the walking tracks that I wanted to do were closed so I did a couple of lamer ones until I saw a snake and I back-tracked like >insert topical political quote here< (I've been out of the loop as to what's happening in the world so you're gonna have to fill in the blanks there).

Moments before I saw the snake...and was attacked by a horde of Orcs...

I took the track down to the bay, hoping again for turqoise water but I now concede that won't happen until I hit the west coast.

Finch Bay, Cooktown

If the water isn't gonna be blue, I'll take photos of the sand!

Oh, how's my wildlife photography? eh? eh?

Yellow butterfly....booyah!

I did get a photo of a snake when I got back to the botanic gardens:

The common "Green Nylex" snake..found in most backyards across Australia...

I then had some lunch and went to down town Cooktown for a look around.

The bay at Cooktown

Why do they call it Cooktown?

In the park there was a rad little thing called the "Musical Ship" which had little instruments that could bang and hit and make out tunes on.

The Musical Ship - very cool!

After belting out a superb rendition of "Lean on me" I was then off to have fun with a Chinese statue, as you do.

Oh Mr Chinaman, I bet you say that to all the tourists...

Day one in Cooktown complete and if you're reading this then you can rightfully assume I surived the night too.

27/05/12

Well this morning it was time to say goodbye to Eva.
She'd had enough of the rain (or me) and the general dampness of North Qld and decided to head back to Port Douglas.
So that was the end of that little story.
I was still determined to make it to Cooktown so after some brekky Freda and I hit the road solo again.
Once we made it out of Mossman, the weather began to get better, the air was drier and my spirits lifted.
I was quite surprised with the journey north both with the excellent condition of the road and some of the scenery along the way.
After spending a few days in the RAINforrest, it was great to see some different, drier landscapes.

Good to get back to a more arid landscape...

Once I got to the camping spot on the top of a lookout about an hour south of Cooktown, I opened Freda up for a good airing and drying session which I'm sure she appreciated.

Freda spreads her arms wide to dry out those moist little armpits of hers...

The views from up here were beautiful.
Insert pic of me in front of view.
And they just got better as the sun set.

This was the view from the lookout where I stayed the night

...and it just got better as the sun set

Check out that sky....beautiful

This view wasn't so good though...

mmmmmm underwear....

Before the sun set and the reality that I was alone on top of this hill for the night set in, Ashley and Jo (I think) from Brisbane arrived and set up camp for the night.
They're from Brisbane and in their 40's or 50's and taking a year off to travel. We had a nice little chat before I headed to bed for the night.
It was a bit strange not having my crazy little German buddy her van beside me but I think I'm getting better at transitioning between travelling solo and travelling with or seeing others. Having said that, it's still not easy and something I won't entirely get used to I don't think.
Go! Solo Steve! Go!

25/05/12 - 26/05/12

Well it rained ALL night last night. Heavy, soaking rain the entire night.
Due to the shitty weather, it was a pretty lazy day today, just hanging out, doing a bit of writing and not much else.
I've managed to tee up a gig here tomorrow so despite the weather, I'll be here for at least another night.
After dinner, Eva and I played some pool and got chatting with Nick and Sheona (I hope I have her name right) from Melbourne.
They had just travelled up from Melbourne today and will continue through to Cooktown tomorrow on the Bloomfield track.
They were both really nice and fun people and shouted us drinks for most of the night which was not expected but we all had fun.
The next day I woke up to, yes, more rain. I know we're in a rainforrest but it's getting a bit ridiculous now.
When the rain finally eased after lunch I went for a drive around to Cape Trib Beach, hoping for the picturesque landscape and blue water that I thought existed up here but I was again disappointed.

Cape Trib beach..bit disappointing really

That afternoon I set up for the gig and while loading my gear out of the car, managed to capture both sides of the beauty scale in the animal kingdom.

Beauty...

...and the beast!

That night it was gig time and what a fun gig it was.

TK's Jungle Playground - the place of one of my most favourite gigs...

My set list was pretty well appreciated with a few sing-a-longs ensuing, especially from a group of three young blokes, Josh, Cade and Greedy who were all really nice lads and kept Eva and I entertained. I normally hate playing "Mustang Sally" but it was the perfect closer to my set with  an excellent crowd participation - really fun!!!
I managed to sell a couple of cds, which is always great, and got a free feed and free drinks all night so it was a bright shining light on what has been a miserable few days of weather.

24/05/12

This morning we were about to leave when I ran into Betina whom I got to know at the Wintermoon Festival.
She's heading further north too with her son Rory and it was good to see a familiar face again and just goes to show what a small world it really is.
We caught the ferry over the Daintree River into the Daintree National Park - the weather has been pretty shitty and rainy and that trend was set to to continue for most of the day and all of the night.

Waiting for the ferry to take us across the Daintree River and into the forest

We stopped at various boardwalks along the way and took a few photos, but again, it really does't capture the feeling of being in the Daintree Rainforrest.

Daintree Rainforest

We then headed further on up towards Cape Tribulations and PK's Jungle Park to stay for the night.

Dude on a beach

I can't remember the last time I used the gas cooker but pumpkin and sweet potato soup was on the menu tonight - as Timon would say, "Slimy yet satisfying".

Preparing dinner..soup's up!

23/05/12

The next morning we were off to see Mossman Gorge.
I'll post a couple of photos but they really don't do the place justice as they don't really capture what it's like to be in the rainforrest with the sights, sounds and smells.

Mossman Gorge

This bridge was "gorge"ous

We then had lunch at a pretty cool little cafe in Mossman then it was off to Wonga Beach to seek out a place to camp for the night.
The place at Wonga Beach was pretty ordinary so we continued on around to Daintree Village which was beside the river and a much better spot.

Eva's van is called "Sam" and has been around the traps compared to Freda

We met the caretaker Phillip whose Mum lives in Wagga Wagga - everyone has some sort of link to Wagga - probably a song in that...

There's an awkward pose if ever I saw one..the river just behind our camp spot

The mozzies were a bit bad as we were so close to the river but all in all it was a nice place to stop for the night.
Oh! I have to mention this as I found it hilarious. Eva's English is pretty good but I gave her an iced vovo as an afternoon snack and later she tried to recall what the biscuit was called and said, "Is it called a 'frozen wawa'?" LOL!! No, they're not called that, but they are now! haha

22/05/12

Time to leave Cairns behind today.
The destination was Port Douglas but I stopped at Trinity Beach on the way up, just to see what it was like, but evidently it was just another beach...
The road to Port Douglas goes right along the coastline which is nice but the water looks brown. I'm not sure whether that's because of the cyclone that came through or whether that's just how it is up here?

Not a bad little view...

I met up with Eva at a backpackers at Port Douglas and we went for a walk down the main street and to the beach.
Before I go on, I must correct my previous post which said Eva was from Belgium, she is in fact from Germany...and she reads my blog so I have to be careful as to what I say about her! :)
She didn't want to spend any more time in Port Douglas so we drove on to Mossman for the night.
I had to teach her in the stealthy art of free camping which I've honed to a fine art since taking off in January. So we made our plans for the spot to park in for the night and to do and what not to do. I.e. Lights on after dark are a no-no as is the slamming of car doors. Eva had never free camped and thought it was all a delightfully fun adventure!
So anyways, to kill some time before bed we went to the Mossman Bowls Club which was another eye-opener for Eva.
She marvelled at the "signing in" process, the dress code (sleeved shirt required so I had to borrow one - oops) and the lovely interior decor of the place which looked like something straight from 70's or 80's as any self-respecting Bowls Club should look like!

This was the sexy shirt I was given at the door. It smelt as good as it looked, ladies ;)

Steve from Wagga & Eva from Germany

18/05/12 - 21/05/12

On Saturday I had my gig at Salthouse in Cairns.
The girl, well, now woman I guess, who books bands at Salthouse, Olivia White, is a family friend whom I hadn't seen for probably about 20 years.

Salthouse, Cairns

When I was a young fella, a group of Dad's mates and their families would get together once a year for the "family reunion".
Each year we'd take in turns on where it would be held but I mostly remember the weekends at the Great Aussie Resort near Albury and at a place in Bright.
Anyway, the point of my story is Olivia is the daughter of Kevin and Deb and Kevin is one of Dad's mates.
Far out! I don't think I'm explaining this well...has my brain gone to mush?? Egh...
Ok, I did a gig at Salthouse which was booked by a family friend and it was a good night playing some tunes and catching up with Olivia, Brigid, Kevin and Deb after all these years down the track.

Kevin, Steve, Olivia, Brigid & Deb

I didn't sell any cds but a bloke identifying himself as "Downsy" came up to me after the gig and said how much he enjoyed it. He said the songs I played just took him back to campfire jams that he used to have and he reckoned I'd go down well in some of the pubs further west of here.
He gave me the number of a mate of his who runs the pub at Mt Garnett so I'll probably give him a call on my way back from up north.
It just goes to show though that when you're playing it pays to assume that people are listening even though it may appear that no one is paying attention. For the life of me I had no idea they were listening let alone enjoying it so I've learned another little lesson there...
I got an email from an "Eva" from Belgium saying she has a van too and wants to travel up to Cooktown and to Central Oz which is also my plan so I'm meeting up with her in Port Douglas on Tuesday.
I recently got a text from Eva saying she'll be picking up "Martha" in the Daintree and she will be joining us too.
I have no idea what Eva and Martha look like but I keep chuckling to myself when I think of the prospect of Steve and two European hotties possibly travelling around Australia together. hahaha! Maybe some of that good Karma I've been cultivating is finally paying off??
I texted my mate Bill about it as I had to brag to someone and he said "Mate, it could be what dreams are made of.." Or nightmares, so we'll just take it one day at a time.
But all jokes aside, even though I doubt the girls will be of much use if we run into any trouble on the road, I think it will be far better than facing it alone...which I guess could be a possibility still if we fail to get along...
Who knows what will happen...

13/05/12 - 17/05/12

The next few days were just spent chilling out be it swimming at the lagoon, jogging along the esplanade, reading at the library, or being a mall rat at Cairns Central.

Boardwalk along the Esplanade...nice place for an early morning jog I think...

Cairns Esplanade

Lagoon area

Yep, that's right, minimum of 20 degrees overnight....brrrrrrr

I hadn't been around the lagoon area around mid-afternoon until one day when I went there for lunch and almost literally stopped in my tracks to see a carpet of lithe, tanned and all together goergeous backpackers sunning themselves in the balmy Cairns sun - they were EVERYWHERE. I didn't take any photos as that would have been a bit purvey, but fair dinkum, it looked exactly like a scene out of the music video for Kylie Minogue's "Slow" - haha!

I dropped my Cd off to ABC radio Far North and got a call saying Kier Shorey, the breakfast presenter wanted me to come in and have a chat and play a song live to air. His audience is more than 10,000 so it was a good little promo opportunity for my cd and upcoming gigs in Cairns.
We had a brief chat and then I played "Ballad of Joe" live to air. I think it went over pretty well and once they have posted it on their website I'll let you know the link if you're interested in having a listen. I'm always interested to listen back to interviews just see what I said and hope that it wasn't too embarrassing!

Steve plays "Ballad of Joe" live to air

See how early I had to get up??

Having a chat with brekky presenter Kier Shorey

At ABC Far North (sorry, my internet is running our so no time for witty captions now!)

On Thursday I did a gig at Grill'd which went ok. Owner David was a nice dude and his assisant manager Mikey was also very friendly. I managed to sell a couple of cds and got a free feed so not a bad little night out.

View from behind the mic...

Ollie hamming it up for the camera...dude in green bought a cd, legend.

Singing for my supper

12/05/12

Cairns city offers free exercise programs to locals and visitors at the lagoon area 6 days a week which is pretty cool.
Today they were meant to have yoga meditation which I got up especially early for but no one showed up so I had to satisfy myself with a run along the Esplanade - life's tough, hey?
It was Cairn's Blues Festival day today with gates opening at 10am and music going on until 10pm.
It was a really well organised affair with two stages in operation so there was no downtime between bands.
The mix of bands was pretty good with the dirty blues of "Two Rivers Blues" to the smooth operator that is Ray Beadle.
Main act Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges was pretty good and had a very appreciative crowd watch him do his thang.
I managed to take a few nice snaps during the day, some of which appear here:

11/05/12

Today it was time to get my vollie on again for the Cairns Blues Festival.
The good thing about volunteering in the lead up is that it leaves you free to enjoy the Festival when it starts.
I got to Fogarty Park at 9am and met Pauline, Dan and Garry who are some of the main organisers.

Fogarty Park..getting all ready for the Cairns Blues Fest

The day was pretty much spent putting up marquees and moving stuff around the site.

"How the f*&k are we gonna get this bastard up??"

Snowy and Ray trying to look busy...

Main act Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges also turned up to do some pre-festival promo for the cameras:

How can a man that size possibly "Hideaway"? Maybe it's an irony thing...but i thought  Yanks didn't got irony?

By mid afternoon the cans of XXXX were brought out and work began to slow down markedly but who am I to question the North Qld way?

Vollie extraordinaire

Brimming with confidence after my songwriting win I managed to secure an extra gig at Grill'd next Thursday and possibly one at Havana Music Cafe next Wednesday. Cool!