- ODO 4314km
- Location Bagkonak
- Weather 15-25 Strong head wind
I spent another day following the winding D330 highway as I picked across the plateaus and turned south to skirt the banks of a deep blue lake. The banks sitting at 1000m above sea level themselves. The road climbing and descending gradually with the features of rock plunging into them.
When left to its own devices the mind sometimes jumps to moments of embarrassment, fear or high stress from the past. This pictures I’d love to forget but will which, I’m sure, will stick with me throughout life. Long since those others involved have passed even.
One that’s come back to mind today was the moment I nearly killed my entire family. I was driving the tour bus with my dad, step mother and sister between gigs. You see my dad trained me as a funk drummer, I assume, to play with him in his bands once I grew older. Just as I gained the age and experience to join him my interests moved to Drum and Bass and I move to London and the first step of my career in music.
When I was 24 I got the chance to get the family band together. Heading for a month across Europe to fulfil that dream. My step mum lead vocals, my dad on MPC, keys and sax and my step sister along with my girlfriend at the time on backing vocals. After a passport mishap and some successful gigs I was at the wheel of our tour van on some winding road in German or Austria and we were stuck behind a long logging truck. In my youthful impatience I went to overtake on a long upward bend. The engine straining. The silence and tightened grips of anxious passengers. I regretted it instantly. Making it just as the bend revealed oncoming traffic I pulled hard across in front of the lorry. The wing mirror of the retail can striking some warning sign I was not heeding. We changed over at the next stop, inspecting the damage to the car and to our nerves. That moment of emotion will forever jump back into my mind at the strangest intervals. I don’t even know if anyone else remembers it.