We walked a couple of kilometres to the Blackall Showground, very well rugged up (even gloves for me) because it gets quite cold once the sun sets out here. We found seats in the grandstand and waited. And waited. And waited. Half an hour after the stated starting time, the announcer came on and announced that they were about to start. He thanked all the sponsors at great length and said they were about to start. He thanked the sponsors again and introduced all the riders, who were in 3 divisions, junior, novice and open. He thanked all the sponsors several times before the first gate (chute) opened and let out a little boy on a big bull- for a few seconds, anyway. He didn't make the five and a half seconds minimum. Neither did the next one, or the next, or the next. Each time we waited ten minutes or more in between rides, with the announcer thanking the sponsors. The boys were probably teenagers, hard to tell as they didn't stay visible for long, they surely ran fast to climb the fence once they fell off the bulls. One of the bulls refused to leave the ring, and it took some time and some antics by the clowns to get him through the exit gate. Probably the most amusing and interesting part of the night.
So the novice comp started. Same story. None of the riders stayed on long enough, most of them falling as soon as they came through the gate.
Finally the open comp began, and somebody actually stayed aboard for the grown-up requisite 8 seconds. Most of them fell off but then another one lasted the distance. They stopped for a break (as far as we could see, they'd been having breaks all night). We left at this stage, after two hours sitting in the freezing cold, feeling sorry for the poor bulls who were so scared. Most of this time we were waiting for something to happen, as the long breaks in between riders continued. Oh, I forgot to mention that all the riders had fancy clothes, with spangles and shiny bits- hardly mattered, with the little time you see of them. Are they supposed to make them rider better?
They're very brave (and stupid) but I kept thinking, "Would I let my son do this? No way!"
Blackall to Charleville was a long leg, just under 300 km. We stopped in the pleasant little town of Tambo for morning tea and Augathella for lunch, meeting up with the same two vans in each place and chatting to the people, who were from Adelaide. They were heading for Roma, we were turning to Charleville. The country changed quite a bit. Blackall was at 900+ metres above sea level but we kept rising so Charleville is higher. It's the biggest town since Mt Isa, which surprised us.
Last night we rugged up again and went to see some bilbies. First we listened to a delightful young man, Lawson, a volunteer, who also volunteers for Red Cross, is doing Year 12 at present and will join the Air Force at the end of the year. We watched a video on the Save the Bilbies appeal before going to meet some of the little critters in the noctarium. No flash allowed so no photos but they are awfully cute with their big ears and their black and white tail which looks like it's been stuck on the wrong animal. They are highly endangered so a big fence has been erected at a national park west of here, the area cleared of foxes and cats, and a colony left to breed there.
Today we've done the washing and will take it easy before heading for Cunnamulla tomorrow. Only about another hundred k's after that, we'll be back in NSW. The weather's getting cooler all the time as we go south- 25 predicted today, but down to about 6 overnight. Lovely during the day, of course.
We've driven in excess of 14,000 kms so far and we still have a long way to go. We expect to be home by the end of the month, which will be 5 months away.
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