As usual, we did the long weekend pilgrimage to Nelson bay to the north. It involved some sand driving (as usual) , a trip to the hunter valley for some wine tasting, great food and good company.
We finished the weekend off with a awesome dolphin and whale watching trip – Please have a look at the photos.
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Put my hand up for a visit to one of our regional offices in Albury. It’s about 600 km south, south west of Sydney.
What a beautiful country. We have had 2 weeks of rain and you can see the difference it has made. I have not seen a grey patch since I left Sydney.
The country side is a endless green lanscape only broken by the weatherd old grey trees and small hills covered with what looks like a endless golf course.
It’s freezing cold – I am only 300 km from Melbourne and drove past the road that takes you to Adelaide – I was tempted.
I think the cheap flights around Australia has a lot to do with people not seeing the country side anymore – we fly from city to city and have no idea about the rest of Australia in the middle.
This, very scenic drive, is well worth it – I’d love to drive all the way to Melbourne and even cut through the middle and see whats on the way to Adelaide. Here’s a few pics. I’ll take some more on the way back.
I woke up to a very chilli 5 deg Albury this morning and spent most of the day driving back to Sydney in the rain – It was awesome.
As promised – Here are a few pics from our weekend in the mountains. Thanks everyone – it was awesome.
We had the Saturday night roast in front of the fire, a nice 7 km walk in the fresh Blue mountains air, international rugby over the radio in front of the fire with lots of wine and the odd bourbon and the now customary Blue mountain painting that everyone contributes to over the weekend.
Anne and I both worked from home on Thursday, our flight to the Gold Coast left at 4 pm and we arrived without any plans on how to get to Byron at around 6pm. Our exploring spirit didn’t let us down and we easily got a lift with Lorrie on the Byron Express bus that took almost an hour and a half ( Looked like everyone in Oz decided to go to the festival.)
The sides of the highway was scattered with the cars and people that gave up and decided to wait out the traffic. Some un-packed bongo drums and bbq’s other sat around playing guitar.
We arrived at the Beachcomber in Byron, happy with our little studio apartment, popped a bottle of bubbly ( Anne’s Favourite ) and drank the whole bottle on the balcony – unpacked the basics and head straight for town ( about 5 min walk from the hotel ). We did some basic shopping ( some Breezers, a few beers … ).
Friday was the start of our Festival tickets. We head to the festival by bus ( $3 pp ) about 10 min. out of town. On Day 1 we saw Gomez, Joss Stone – Dad you would have loved Joss’s show. We head back to town for a brilliant seafood feast and then back to the festival to see Lee Perry and then Ziggy Marley – My, now, fav CD Ziggy Marley – Love is my religion.
Day 2 – I realised that a 4 day music festival, while in your 30′s is something that can only be done in comfort. It rained everyday during the festival and I looked at all the 20 something year old festive goers camping in the rain and I knew the money we spent on the hotel was worth every cent. We started every morning with a sleep in ( There was no waves 
) and a nice brekkie in town. Our festival on day 2 started with ( Dad you have to buy this CD ) Amos Lee, Bella Fleck, Fat Freddie’s drop and Fishbone – Amos Lee the clear winner.
Day 3 – Our last was excellent – We knew we had a long night ahead so we greased-up with a hearty breakfast and then I had about 10 beers 
. We saw Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers, Xavier Rudd and the John Butler Trio – Brilliant ! As you can see below I got a new hat. As Anne calls it, my “Fanie” hat which is a Anne-a-lism for something of bad taste, typically clothes – But there are times in your life you just have to be who you are no matter what people think of you ..
Regardless of all the rain Byron was beautiful and fun. We had enough rest to make us feel as if we had a holiday and as much fun as you want out of a Blues festival.
Some bands we missed on Monday or during the festival : Bo Diddley, pitty I am sure it would have been awesome but we had to choose and Nibs van der Spuy, a South African was only playing on Monday – but I baught the CD in support – Sounds like Cat Stevens. We also missed the famous Rodriguez – but he is playing in Sydney soon and hopefully well catch him there.
For all the Google Earth Fans here are the GPS coordinates to our Hotel in Byron :
S 28 38.426 E 153 36.635
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