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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Australia: George Town

Yet again it all came together late on a Sunday night, in a little room in the Pier Hotel on the north coast of Tasmania. But this time I got the whole song out, and the listeners weren't just punters, they were the performers...

Getting to George Town

Claire (whom I'd met in Cygnet) had offered me a lift from Launceston to George Town on Friday afternoon, so I spent the morning wandering round Cataract Gorge, this amazing river valley just outside the city. That's one of the lovely things about Tassie: the cities are small, and are generally close to stunning scenery, so you can walk out of the centre and, bang! It's all gorgeous gorges and valley vistas.

Sing Along Again

When I eventually got up on Sunday 'morning', everyone else was hanging out somewhere in the festival, so I just wandered about, and eventually ended up having brunch in The Buffalo. What luck: just as I was finishing a divine BLT sandwich, in walked Simpson, Gillespie and Wright to do a singing workshop. These three women are really rather talented, and Claire had been going on about how great they were for days before, so how chuffed was I to join in the workshop? Just a little: it's actually quite a laugh singing these folkie tunes, in the round, in harmony and all the rest. You just have to get over the clothes first...