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.

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.

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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