6/6/12

I put an ad on Gumtree asking whether I could use a spare room in someone's house to record a couple of demos for a few hours in return for some gardening or household duties.
Fortunately Naomi from Machan Beach answered the call so I drove around and weeded her lawn for her then recorded demos of a couple of songs I've written since being on the road.
Naomi was interested in what I'm doing as she also writes her own songs so after I recorded my stuff, I recorded Naomi and her daughter singing and will email her the results. I think she was pretty stoked to get the first bit of recording experience under her belt and she said it has inspired her to go further with it down the track. Cool!

Makeshift recording studio at Naomi's place - schweet!

Naomi

Steve (and Angel the dog)

4/6/12 - 5/6/12

Today was service day for Freda and fortunately she passed with flying colours.
They did recommend I replace the front tyres so I got that done and fingers crossed she will be a faithful companion for another 10,000kms.
But in a little twist, after having her internals all cleared, that night Freda's exterior copped a bit of punishment thanks to a drunken tool with a shopping trolley and a chip on his shoulder.
At about 4am I was rudely awoken to a massive bang on the passenger side of the car.
After checking my undies for shrapnel I looked out to see a long haired bloke (can't trust those long hairs) stumbling and storming off to find his next target.
Surpisingly I wasn't all that shaken though the initial shock was a bit full on. I think once I realised it was just a random letting off steam and not someone trying to break in, I relaxed and went straight back to sleep! haha
The next morning I got up to assess the damage and yep, he didn't miss.

Ouch

Ow!

Little green bastard

I got a quote for the damage and it will cost at least $560 to repair which doesn't include the decals. So as it's just exterior damage and the door still works fine, I'll leave it for now and reassess whether I get it fixed at Xmas time. To be honest, this could be nothing compared to what Freda may face as I head to NT and WA so we'll just play it by ear I think.
With the confidence and bravery that comes with the daylight hours, I wondered whether I should have approached the bloke who did it at the time but not being 100% confident in my abilities should a bru-ha-ha develop, I'm thinking it's best to just have a dented car door and not a dented face to go with it.
Yeah it sucks but he'll get his come uppence at some stage. Yeah.

3/6/12

Back in Cairns again today and it felt a little like a homecoming after the week and a half spent here before heading north.
It was good to be back in semi-familiar surroundings and seeing some familiar faces.
The plan is to get Freda serviced tomorrow (hard to believe I've done 10,000km since January!) and have some chill out time and getting my other stuff in order before taking off along the Savannah Way next week.
In the afternoon I answered a local classified ad from Veronica who is a drummer and was looking for people to jam with.
We had a lovely afternoon playing some music, sipping tea and chatting about all things music. I think I managed to convince her that a trip to Bluesfest at Byron Bay next year would be very worthwhile.
She's found it difficult to get musos together and I definitely feel her frustration as I've been there many a time but she said our get together has definitely inspired her to keep on the hunt for musos and keep up her drumming, which is good.

Veronica & Steve jamming it out

30/05/12 - 2/6/12

The next few days were fairly uneventful as I made my way back south.
First night I again stayed at the Lookout, a bit creepier this time as I had it all to myself (as far as I know!) but all good.
Spent some time playing the guitar and working on some lyrics that had really been bugging me.
The next night I stayed at a free camp spot at Mt Molloy where guess what, it pissed down rain most of the time.
To quote my diary entry from this day: "F&ck thing F#cking rain. I'm F*cking over it!".
Yeah, life's not fun when you're living out of a van and there's little respite from the weather but hey, such is life.

Well, whadayaknow? A rainsoaked camp ground - Mt Molloy

On my way back to Cairns I stopped in at Kuranda to have a look at the Barron Falls and the Kuranda township.
Needless to say, it rained most of the time but I was determined for it not to deter me from my mission.

Nice view from the lookout

The Barron Falls were pretty impressive.

Don't go chasing 'em

Breathtaking...the falls are alright too..lolz

There is also a chairlift and and train that runs with views of the falls.

This pic was taken with the dodgy camera I bought on Ebay..who'd have thunk?

In Kuranda itself there were markets and what not which are ok if you're into that sort of thing. I imagine back in the day, the markets would have been a bit more authentic but the set up and products of the majority of the stalls looked very commercialised and aimed at the Japanese dollar.

Michael Jackson is alive and working as a bee keeper in Kuranda

And this next photo gave me a laugh (almost a "lol" but i managed to contain it) - boys will be boys... :)

Box of agates, anyone?

29/05/12

Well no one told me about the Cooktown winds!
Blow me down, they were strong last night. At times it felt like they were gonna roll Freda and I right over but thankfully that didn't happen.
The winds continued during the day so I decided to just chill out at the cafe at the Botanic Gardens, sipping tea, doing some writing and generally "slothing it up".

Rekindling my taste for tea...

I spent the late afternoon "Sitting on the dock of the bay" and took in the pretty special Cooktown sunset.

Cooktown sunset...ooooooh, ahhhhhhhh

The windy weather is bumming me out a bit and there's not much more to do here so I think I'll head back south again tomorrow.