Talking Drum

Day penultimate.

Well, our house is full of stuff. We head out tomorrow for 3 months on tour, and the house looks like it! There is everything from luggage through to the new camera and video camera, and all the various bits and pieces for Rosie who is coming on the trip with us. (Rosie is 22 months old, so there is a lot of gear!)

There are so many things we still need to do, and it is a little stressful. However, the trailer is packed well, with virtually all of the instruments in there, which is a very good start!

Me and the boys will get on our way early tomorrow (I hope) with the big drive to Meekatharra.

Day 1

Perth to Meekatharra. 760 kms

Well, the tour began today with me and the boys driving the long haul to Meekatharra, with a view to making it to Tom Price for our first show as quickly as possible.

The drive was fun, with all of us getting used to the bus and trailer haul, and all of us starting the day a little tired. Everyone got a good sleep in the back on their break though, with cute photos resulting. It was also interesting to have the driver’s choice IPod selection happening. We will all be listening to each other’s music for the next few months, so we’ll wait and see how this goes!

Most unexpected part of the day was the rain we were getting, which got worse the further north we went. We parked the van in what through the night became a large puddle!

Day 2

Meekatharra to Tom Price. 694 kms

Today saw us drive to our final (first) destination- Tom Price.

Tom Price is a lovely little town located in the middle of the Hamersley Ranges in the Pilbara region of WA. It has the distinction of being right next to one of Australia’s natural jewels- Karajini National Park- and of being the highest altitude town in WA at 747metres above sea level.

Its biggest distinction though is being the place where I was born! J My parents were early settlers in the region, and all of my siblings and I were born there.

The day started with me doing a radio interview on the phone at 7am. This was organised via Skype the night before as my mobile phone didn’t work. The worst bit about it was the fact that the ABC seems to have again lost our CD from the library, and the only audio the guy had was from a random youtube posted from a camera phone filming us in Manila a few years back. The sound was awful!

The drive was very interesting. It became apparent very soon that we had definitely left the farmland of the south behind us, as the landscape became more and more rough and rocky. The sight of the ubiquitous red dirt and the growing landscape of the Hamersley’s coming into view was truly awe-inspiring.

The Pilbara Region of WA contains what I believe to be some of the most unique and beautiful country, and it was a pleasure to introduce the 2 boys to it for the first time.

The other feature of this part of the country is that the roadtrains get larger and larger. Overtaking our first 4-trailer truck was a little scary. These things have to be seen to be believed! Most seemed to be carrying explosives as well, so obviously business in the Pilbara is booming!

Most fun in this aspect was the houses we kept passing. We had a convoy of trucks driving up prefab homes which we had had to pass yesterday, and which reappeared about 4 hours and 400 or so kms into the days today. This time I had finally read the instructions on how to use our 2-way radios, and this helped with the process. However, the number of trucks required several passes before we finally cleared them. I hope the people who will live in them enjoy them!

We stopped at Newman for lunch, and I finally had access to an ANZ bank (I’d left all my money sitting on the bench at home), and mobile phone signal. There were lots of messages to deal with on the phone, and I finally thought to change my voicemail message.

The final part of the drive had us going through the spectacular country of Karijini, and I tell you, this is the way to finish a long drive! Vista after stunning vista greeted us around every bend of the road, and finally the sky had cleared and little and we were under a brilliant blue sky. I love this country!

How could the day get better? A good feed followed by some Articulate. Those who have played this game know its powers.

Day 3

Tom Price and Concert no. 1.

Why Tom Price?! Rio Tinto has just injected a large amount of sponsorship into the Musica Viva in Schools Program, the group who we do the bulk of our school shows with. To celebrate this new relationship MVIS and Rio Tinto wanted to do a public concert in town. So here we are!

Louise joined us in the morning after her flight from Perth and we had a pretty quiet day getting ready for the show.

We played in the community centre, which is a very nice little space with a nice lighting rig and PA. Noone to operate them, and it appears not enough people using the space for shows. Thankfully we had Pier from Musica Viva to help us out and to do some lighting. So the show looked great. We might pop up some video from our brand new HD camera on you tube soon. The difference in the quality of the video from my old High 8 camera is quite incredible. We were lucky to have it though, me having already left the camera behind at lunch in Newman the day before. Thanks Josh for noticing and picking it up!

Lovely concert with a really happy and boisterous audience, so such a great way to kick the tour off.

Day 4

School show at Paraburdoo Primary School.

Paraburdoo is about 80 kms down the road from Tom Price, and the school there was lovely. Great bunch of kids and really good teachers. You can tell the quality of the teaching and the spirit of the school by how the kids react as an audience, and these kids were wonderful. Such a positive way to start a tour.

It was cool as well to run into some people who had been at last night’s concert.

We finished our day by being driven up by Peter, a teacher from Tom Price, to the top of Mt Nameless for the sunset. LOTS of photos taken up here. This is an amazing place to stand and look at the world. The most impressive, and slightly depressing in some ways, story about this town is the mine itself. Tom Price used to have 2 large masses near it, Nameless and Mt Tom Price. Mt Tom Price is the iron ore mine, or was. The mountain no longer exists. Sitting on Nameless, which apparently used to be smaller, and looking at the little of the mountain that remains is an awe-inspiring demonstration of humanity’s capacities. The mine is near the end of its natural life, which is understandable considering the mountain basically doesn’t exist anymore! However, they have found another ore body nearby. The sheer scale of work around mining is difficult to grasp. Saw our first 2km long ore train today. I gave up counting carriages around 50 or so. They do have well over 200…

We then went back to Peter’s house and cuddled the kangaroo joey they had adopted. Not what I thought I’d be doing when I woke up this morning.

Day 5

Tom Price to Karratha 580 kms.

Today started nice and early with a bit of trailer reversing practice. We should all get better at this as the tour goes along, but this was a little bit ‘Austin Powers in Dr Evil’s Lair’!

We stopped off to visit the wonders of Karajini. Fortescue Falls and a few gorge lookouts provided us with some beautiful moments, and a couple of short hikes.

We couldn’t stay for long with the huge drive in front of us unfortunately.

So back on the road through the Pilbara. Again the best way to truly grasp the vastness and size of this country is to travel through it.

We arrived safe and sound in Karratha just after sunset, staying in digs just behind the Walkington Theatre.

More updates about the next few days coming soon!