Each year there's a Rodeo in Tumut, as well as the Festival of the Falling Leaf. Now that Autumn is upon us, a group of friends and I decided that we wanted to see these cowboys in action, and leave our city comforts to experience life in the country. The parents of my friend Sarah own a farm called 'Quidong' near Tumut, about a 6-hour drive from Sydney. So on Friday we left work a bit early and headed South West into the heart of Regional New South Wales.
The CDs we bought for the journey wouldn't play in the car's CD player so we ended up rocking out to Lyle Lovett, which wasn't quite what we'd planned, but we arrived in Quidong at 10pm where I marvelled at the liberal sprinkling of stars in the sky -- much more than you can see in the city!
We started the next day by tromping up one of the huge hills on the farm and building a fire to get rid of some of the dead gumtrees and blackberry bushes.
And then it was Rodeo time! The Rodeo featured many different events, including bull riding, bareback riding and my favourite: the rope and tie. This was where the cowboy had to lassoo a calf, then get off his horse and tie up three of the calf's legs. The best guy did it in less than 5 seconds! Incredible. The champion of the day was Clay Bush. Yes, that was his real name.
The audience were fantastic -- all the country folk were there. I'd say about 95% of the crowd were wearing jeans, checked flanelette shirts, boots and cowboy hats. Even the 3-year-old kids.
But the best thing about the day was definitely the music. The soundtrack was a constant stream of classic country music, peppered with Aussie country tunes. Including 'I love this Bar', 'She's my Whiskey Girl' and many others. We picked up the lyrics quickly and sang along.
Back at the farm we lit a great big bonfire, and toasted some marshmallows while watching out for shooting stars.
On Sunday I helped Sarah's dad Miles with some of his landscaping before we left for Sydney. This was my most exciting moment of the weekend, because I got to drive a yellow digger! Yes, if my career fails I think I have an alternative living to be earned from knocking down trees in a giant yellow digger. What a huge amount of fun.
On the way home the clouds looked like trays of croissants, and we had some new mix CDs so the 6 hours went quickly. We stopped off on the way to visit Nick's auntie, and stopped at the 'Dog on a Tucker Box', and were back in Sydney by 7pm. Isn't it mad? In the UK I would never have 'popped' 6 hours up the motorway for the weekend, and yet it's nothing here in Aus.
Oh well, that was my fun weekend. More pics are here. And I promise I won't leave such a long gap before the next post.
cx
