Well, after  5500 kms and more than one or two great gigs, the Huckleberry Swedes have planted  our boots back into home soil, are washing our travelling pants, re-fuelling  the van, changing strings, slowly weaning ourselves off of bacon and egg rolls  and planning the next trip. Meanwhile, there’s a few great things happening  locally too. More about those later though.

 
  Prologue – Barossa Valley Gourmet Weekend
 
  A fantastic  weekend had by all…………. 2 days of great music, fine wines and some fantastic  support from friends and fans who made the effort to come and join us. We  stayed with good friends Jamie and Vicki from Very Jane, who were playing at  another winery down the road and still managed to feed and entertain us on the  Saturday night.

After  Sunday’s gig, we squeezed as many amps and instruments into the van as we could  and drove back to home for our last night in our own beds for a while, ready to  make some tracks on Monday morning.

Day 1a
  Adelaide – Nowhere
“Lets head  north” was the decision as we drove out of town. With all of the recent trips  we’d had, no-one in the band had travelled on the barrier highway for some  time, so we filled up and settled in for a long day’s drive to Cobar 970km. At  Broken Hill, we decided to keep on moving as we could fill up in Wilcannia and  save a refill stop…….Oops.
As we drove  around Wilcannia at dusk without being able to find a servo open, there was a  little concern but we figured there was just enough petrol to see us through to  Emmdale Roadhouse which, being a “roadhouse”, would of course be open until at  least 10pm, right?. As the roos started making their way onto the road we could  tell that the last couple of hundred k’s to Cobar were going to be pretty long.  We’d rung ahead and organised a cabin to sleep us all (we couldn’t fit all the  swags in on this trip), so we weren’t to worried about getting there late in  the evening except for all the blooming roo’s that seemed to be getting quite  interested in the road. As the fuel light lit up on the dash, the 5km sign for  Emmdale Roadhouse came out of the darkness, which was well received. The dark,  obviously closed Roadhouse wasn’t received so well…. Actually, it was us who  weren’t received so well.
Thinking  that someone who sells petrol in the middle of nowhere would be used to  stranded travellers needing his service (and willing to pay extra for it as we  were), we were very surprised (and more than a little irritated)  that the response from the “gentleman” sitting  , watching tv responded to Troy’s polite, gradually increasing doorbell  ringing, window tapping was………..
………….”F##K  OFF”

This  response (and the fact that we had to be in Tamworth the next night) helped us make up  our minds that there was no way we were going to buy fuel from this A##HOLE and  we would do anything we could to keep moving. Luckily, there was a phone booth  outside. Of course it was a card only phone (WHY, TELSTRA????), so we knocked  on the Roadhouse door to see if he would open up to sell us a phone card. After  threats of dogs, violence and violence with dogs, we decided to try reverse  charges to the RAA. Of course, we were in NSW so the NRMA were required, but  naturally the RAA weren’t able to transfer us to them (???)

Day 1b
    Nowhere - Cobar
Finally, we  were woken at 3am by the Broken Hill NRMA guy who had come out on a 600km  round trip to deliver 40litres of unleaded….unreal.

Now the  next task was to get through roo-land to Cobar…… A very hazy few hours was  spent at 80km/hr with frequent stops for crossing wildlife through the busiest  deserted road I had ever travelled. Every few hundred metres are blood stains  from some poor beast that has more than likely been obliterated by one of the  trucks thundering through there every night. We eventually managed to hitch a  ride behind one for the last 50k’s getting us into Cobar at about 6am. It felt like we had a 20 tonne Roo  bar.
 
   
    Day 2
    Cobar – Tamworth
  Feeling refreshed  after our 2hr sleep, it’s time to hit the road again…Only 7hrs today.. After  the road warrior’s breakfast of choice, it’s off to Tamworth.
Sam  couldn’t make it to Tamworth so Richard took care of the bass on the Hammond this night. What a talent………Great  turnout for a Tuesday night, especially with Pete Murray playing around the  corner.

Day 3
    Tamworth – Byron Bay
  Another 7hr  day in the van…….A beautiful trip winding through the ranges, on a road still  feels like it may have just after it’s construction. There are always scenes  travelling through this amazing country that force you to admire the European  explorers for their courage and determination as they forged their way inland,  only to meet folk who had done it 40,000 years before and had managed to not  only survive in it, but understand, nurture and co-exist with it. There are  lessons to be learnt on every step you travel here.

Met an East  Coast thunder storm….wow.

Picked up  Sam from Ballina and made our way to Byron for the night’s gig at the Great  Northern. Hooked up with Paul Green, his tour manager Mel and Andrew Morris.  Sound Checked and then had a little rest before the gig.

Cool room  ……….in the genre of the classic aussie rock venues.  Great to have Sam on stage  again even though Richard did such a good job  with his Hammond bass the night before. Cool little song sharing session on  the balcony upstairs afterwards with Andrew and Paul. The full time residents  there must hear some amazing jams because it’s a great space for a get  together. There may have been one or two song elicitting drinks imbibed too.

Day 3
    Brisbane – The Troubadour
  Arrive in Brissy to be greeted by  the coolest  load in in the country…….NOT (See below)

.............................................................More soon