Belle Miners

Port Macquarie was a great spot! We rolled in and dropped off our gear at The Pier, a pub near the seaside. We were greeted enthusiastically by Adam, the bar manager, and instantly knew it would be a good night.  This place had great vibes with a wall made of VHS tapes and drums hanging from the ceiling as light fixtures!

Marina heard these drums calling her name

 Before the gig we had time to head to our caravan park, where we were staying in a cabin!  Yay bunk beds!  We got to reunite with our lovely friend Jane and she had surprises for us!First of all, there was A POWFUL OWL CAKE!!   Jane actually made up this design, baked it and decorated it herself!  Then, GET THIS..... POWFUL OWL SHIRTS!  We were beyond words.  What a great friend!

Marina in heaven.

We proceeded to have a Jagermeister toast in her honour... and then it was off to the gig! The bartender, Austin, started things off with free drinks for all of us (Jane included). Then, after we played our cover of "Whiskey Bar" by the Doors (and talked about our partiality for the drink) and he gave us more of that top shelf Tasmanian whiskey!  It was a great night. Jane ("the Dolphin whisperer") lead us to Dolphins at the harbour, and we shared a lot of laughs.

Note the shirt!

So hard to see a powerful owl caged!

We walked home singing in the streets, at this point the three part harmonies were becoming an addiction. Around this time, one of us (I can't tell us apart anymore) said "we should form a super group!" and another chimed in "let's call ourselves the Bell Miners! Like the birds!".  This suggestion was greeted with great enthusiasm. Marina piped up: "Oh man, can we spell it with an 'e'!?  Then we can be mining for beauty!". We all agreed this was a worthy name for our new band.  So the Belle Miners were born!  "We should really make this an annual thing" said one of us. The others assented,  two summers a year is FAR better than one.  And seeing as we'll be coming back over for Jaime's wedding next year, well, it just might happen!  We got back to the cabin and dug into the powful owl cake with much gusto.  The next day was all like this:

We spent the day lounging around and eating more cake. Then we went to the Koala hospital!

We saw so many cute koalas, it was ridiculous.  Koalas are funny, they spend most of their time asleep because they're all high off of eucalyptus leaves (which are quite toxic, but also their main food source). Their eyes are all bloodshot and they don't do much, but Jaime says their poop smells GREAT.  Hey here's a video! 
That night we got to play another venue right next to the pier called the Fig!  We also got treated very well there, with delicious food and drinks!  I ate barramundi fish for the first time, which is a type of bass.  It was very yummy! Marina opened the night and it turned into a little kid's dance party.  Awww

Next day was Australia day!  There were lots of BBQs and markets going on. We played a market (Cassegrains artist market) in the morning and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Playing outdoors with clear sound mingling with the swelling cacophony of cicadas, we felt a profound sense of well being.  Nothing better than singing out into the forest!  We got a great crowd too.  Such a good time. 

After our market gig, we had another one at the Fig that afternoon. We set up and got going but there was a stage with music, speeches and a dance competition going on right outside at the same time!  We had to laugh as our soft folky music melded with pounding bass and drums, to make a dissonant and unintentional remix.  Oh well, at least they gave us a jug of Pimm's cup full of fresh fruit! That helped a lot.

Then we packed up our ute (which we have become very efficient with) and were on the road.  We have become very proficient at this.  We drove back to Newcastle and got to see Jane's family again!  FUN!  Jane took us to her favourite beach (where the powerful waves threw us around like the puny mortals we are) and cafe and we had "cafe frios" (espresso drizzled over vanilla ice cream).  Saying goodbye to Jane was hard - we hope she'll come to Canada!

After we left Newcastle we were on route to Melbourne.  We had a lot of ground to cover! Two long days of hot driving.  Lucky us, Jane sent us off with some beer and cider for the road.  I always get stuck in the back bench seat because I'm the smallest and don't get car sick or claustrophobic. Thankfully in Australia it's legal to drink in a car as long as you're not driving. That came in verrrrry handy! One beer and it was 90s music remixed Felicia style time.  Weeeeeelll I tellyawhatIwannntwhatIreallyreallywant... We got as far as we could the first day and ended up tenting in a little town called Yass... which became the butt of many jokes ;). We thought of maybe driving into a little wildlife reserve on the side of the road and stealth camping... but after driving in and getting distinct Blair-witch forest vibes, we decided against it.

We found a caravan park and set up camp in the dark (classic) passing out to the sound of a pounding drum somewhere in the distance.  I've gotten in the habit of going to sleep with my trusty ear plugs and eye-mask. Very little can disturb me once I'm asleep and I don't tend to have much trouble, this has always been one of my skills.  Some of us are not so lucky!  At around 6am I got woken by a sudden loud shout - Marina was exchanging some sharp words with the morning birds (as has become customary). Apparently some baby Galah parrots had been left alone in the nest and were getting hungry!  I was told later that this conversation also involved Jaime but I was blissfully asleep after the first battle-cry.  "Terrible parents!" Marina exclaimed "that experience made me re-think having children" she muttered.  To add insult to injury, turns out we were parked over an ants nest (most ants bite in Oz) so packing up was a bit frantic.

The next day we drove across the great dividing range and the landscape (and weather) changed dramatically.  Suddenly things became distinctly desert-like.  This is how I had imagined Australia to be. We drove for 5 hours and every time we stopped for a break, hot air blasted at us like a blow dryer! Thank god for AC!  We couldn't even get it cold enough in the ute. We arrived in Melbourne in the late afternoon and we conceded it was the hottest day we'd experienced so far (at 40)!  Marina likened it to standing in front of a bonfire but you couldn't step away.  We were very grateful to arrive at Michael's (Jane's Brother) and all went straight for the shower: heaven!

We had a gig that night at a The Prince of Wales.  Our host, Nicolette Forte, was exuberant and welcomed us warmly.  We were very well received and lucky for us (or rather, for Marina) our bartender Justin, was a Canadian!  He said he cried during our set! That was pretty sweet to hear, poor guy misses home! We were fast friends.  We slept very well that night and the next day we got to explore Melbourne!  Marina went to go meet her friend Jen and left Jaime and I alone for 31 hours...  It was a sad and confusing time.  We have become Siamese triplets.

Saying goodbye for 31 hours!  So hard!

Did you know that raw chocolate is an aphrodisiac?  Now you know!

Jaime and I tried out some busking spots and checked out Brunswick st.  Most people we've met have told us Melbourne is their favourite place and we were not disappointed.  There were lots of great cafes and op shops (opportunity shops, aka thrift stores).  We also found our favourite raw chocolate (pana) at a great price! If you can find this stuff, buy it. Pay the money, it is DIVINE. Plus it's mentally stimulating and has tons of health benefits. It's basically health food. VITALITY!
Plus we found Matcha!  Needless to say, I was jazzed. We also experimented with night busking and BAM - success! It was hilarious and lucrative. We got as much of a show (or more) than we gave and we got good money AND gifts. Like one guy gave me a pink guitar pick (his "last plectrum"!) which was very nice because I really needed one. Some hippies danced by and gave us more gifts. We all fell in love instantly with Melbs. It feels like home!  The weather is also like home: extremely bi-polar and windy.  One day it might be 40 and you can't get naked enough... the next day it might be cold and raining and you're in jeans and a jumper.

We reunited the next eve and played the Elwood lounge (which was not particularly note worthy, though I did try my first Aussie burger!  Egg, pickled beets and pineapple being the standout features.  It was HUGE.

We tried for a night busk in the busier entertainment district but things did NOT go as planned. There was a night festival going on, which was pretty cool!  Fie dancers, drum circles, droves of people... We tried busking outside of it but the drums were too loud, and everywhere we went it seemed we were either competing with music from bars or unruly crowds. We did run into our Canadian friend Justin and his girlfriend, it was nice to talk to them! After that I got the mother of all painful specks of death (aka sand) in my eye and we decided to call it a night.  We went back to Michael's and were thinking about trying to write a song but we just ended up drinking the rest of our Jagermeister.  I've developed a toothache, as I lost a filling back in Berry, so I was alternating clove oil (which is quite spicy but numbing) and Jager to wash it down.  This was a good method... the toothache DID go away.  However, I quickly lost the ability to walk in a straight line ;)  BEDTIME!
 

Next morning we were off to Callista to visit Nigel's friend (and fellow wildlife biologist) Simon and his wife Fiona.  They were awesome and their two kids, Charlie and Sadie, were talented little musicians! Sadie sings and plays ukelele and Charlie plays a little drum called bodhrán. They had friendly little bearded dragon's for us to play with!

My new headdress

Billy on the Barbie

It was lots of fun and we had a delicious BBQ dinner to get us ready for the next round!

That night we set off to play a house concert at their friends Ray and Jenny's place.  It was a really nice, rustic open concept house and they had a little potluck going on.  The whole family is musical and they had a great PA set up with the sound dialed in perfectly.  What a great crowd! 

Sadie (9) opened for us with her friend  Hanna, a stripped down version of their band The Patch Tags.  They're great songwriters!  I told them they need to come to Canada and become famous.Love those harmonies.

 

The house concert really rejuvenated us - everybody was so supportive and even the children were quiet and listened with full attention (except for the ONE little guy, who shouted "I need to go toilet!" during Sadie's set). Wellll, if you gotta go... 
Simon wrote us a great review on his website Wild Diaries!  He is an awesome filmmaker and you should really check out his stuff. Amazing shorts about Australian Wildlife! He also filmed a new Belle Miners song!

Cockatoo

Tree hugging

The next day we got to sleep in and then we went off to see some local wildlife!  There were some beautiful big trees and LOTS of beautiful parrots for us to feast our eyes on.  We enjoyed playing with the exotic birds!  Got some much needed nature rejuvenation which helped us recharge our batteries. 






                                                                 















There were so many Cockatoos and Crimson Rosellas!  We also got to see a very special King Parrot, which is more rare.

There it was nice and cool in the forest and we left feeling quite refreshed!  I can't believe it's already this point in the tour! It's been a month! We still have many adventures ahead of us before we are through.  The end of the tour we have a show (or two!) nearly every day!

Can't wait to go back to Melbourne and visit Sydney!