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G’day Mates!
How you going mates? Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of our 2nd week in Australia! We had a looooong but safe journey to the other side of the world and were certainly happy to reunite with each other after having separate flights to Sydney. We’ve played 2 fabulous festivals so far in Port Fairy & the Blue Mountains. We also played two intimate private concerts in the countryside, at Cadgee & Terara. The audiences here make us feel so welcome and appreciated. It’s a really special experience. Just like home, each one is different. Sometimes they are quietly polite and other times boisterous and dancing…we love them all!
It never fails to amaze us how huge this country is. So far we’ve only made stops in VIC & NSW and we are racking up the hours & kilometers on this gold kia carnival rental…and Cody is a pro at driving on the “other side” of the road! The scenery is breathtaking and always changing. Computer work in the back seat is also more challenging with many windy passages!
We are traveling the same festival circuit as a lot of other “musos” as they call us here, including some friends from Canada and the US. We are especially excited to share the concert bill with our Canadian buddies “Dry Bones” next week, and our Ozzie bluegrass buddies “The Davidson Brothers” the week after! It’s fun to keep seeing the same bands each weekend and getting to know each other a little bit better through stories and jams! The music has been great and inspiring (yep – a few new song ideas!)
We are happy to report that our wildlife sightings have been much better this time around – including ‘roos and koalas! Spider sightings have remained…errrr…constant. Food and wine is delicious even if we don’t always know exactly what we might be getting! The accent and dialect is pretty great and we are catching on…sometimes slowly as it is ever changing. We have been told that people don’t speak English they speak Australian and in some parts it seems more obvious that that is indeed the case!
In amongst our drives to gigs we’ve made time to stop at some lovely beaches, a wildlife sanctuary, and the 12 apostles park. We’ve stayed with some lovely folks (some friends from last time and some new friends too) and met up with our wonderful agent, Jim MacQuarrie and his lovely wife Ros a couple of times. Everywhere we go we feel very lucky, very welcome and very blessed. And…we still love each other.
Next up…Brunswick Festival and Yackandandah…then we head to SA (Southern Australia). We hope to find time to try lawn bowling again soon. And eventually maybe see the Sydney Opera House. We’ll do our best to keep you posted. We are posting pictures regularly on our Facebook page (April Verch & April Verch Band) if you want the extra scoop! Take care and thanks for reading!
Cheers!
The AVB
Once again, we want to sincerely thank the Ontario Arts Council for their support of this tour!
This tour is made possible in part by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council’s National and International Touring program. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario