From rock magic to magical rocks
August 2017

Steve in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge

Melbourne show, Palais Theatre

Steve on Hanging Rock

Having flown from Brisbane to Sydney, we took the opportunity to take a look at the amazing Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, as well as the exotic botanical gardens. It is a beautiful city. The crowd went wild at the show and we were on such a high!

Then our final tour stop, Melbourne. The two band shows there had an entirely different set to each other, and Roger, Rob and I separately played an acoustic show with Q&A. It was all quite a challenge, but everything went off like a rocket, with fantastic audience response. A fabulous vibe! A big thank you to David Williams, Charney Marshall, Brian Coles and all the team... It's been a terrific tour and I hope to return soon!

Jo and I stayed on for a few days to see more of wonderful Australia. From Melbourne we visited Hanging Rock (made famous by the film). It's extraordinarily mysterious as you walk upwards through trees followed by a stairway into the rocks which brought to mind The Lord of the Rings stairs of Cirith Ungol. The ascent soon becomes more erie. Faces appear to loom over you, between are dark fissures and the stairs become more uneven, ultimately giving way to high crags. We briefly saw a wallaroo and heard the screech of a bird of prey. Beyond that was a silence through which you could almost hear the drumming of an Aboriginal ceremony from the trees below in the distant past...

Our next stop, Uluru (Ayres Rock). It was the most incredible sight... The gigantic red rock rising high above a wild semi desert landscape. From a close perspective it becomes even more extraordinary. It's not just a huge monolith... Around its base are gorges, waterfalls, pools of water, strange shapes in the surface, caves and Aboriginal cave paintings. Our guide Lachlan told us some of the enchanting Aboriginal stories which link closely to the rockscape as well as their lives, which were intrinsically linked to it for many thousands of years. We then experienced the magic of watching the rock change colour as the sun went down. An amazing moment to remember always...

On the last day we visited Kata Tjuta, an incredible series of high domes. Both this place and Uluru were created around six hundred million years ago at the time of Australia's beginnings. It's awesome to enter the imposing Walpa Gorge and to look up at clouds moving between the two massive rock faces. Inside myself I felt music moving through the wind, impossibly deep and sonorous...

Australia has been an incredible place to visit... Friendly, open people, fantastic audiences, wonderful vibrant cities and breathtaking scenery... We very much hope to return as soon as possible!