June 6th, we packed up this morning and drove to
Coonamble. We booked into
the Riverside Caravan Park, in Coonamble, for 3 nights. The Park was booked out
and vans were virtually 2 to a site (one powered and one not powered) as this
was a long weekend and their annual Rodeo and Campdraft Competition was on for
the 3 days. Val took me out to the local Bowling Club to celebrate my 74th
Birthday. We had a nice meal at the Bistro and found that they were having a
meat and vegie raffle at 8pm. So, Val bought some tickets and we went home with
3 meat trays, priced at $30 each (How good is that?)
June7th, We went down to the Rodeo around 11am and made our
way to the main arena. There was a good crowd there but no problem to find a
seat with the sun at our backs. It was awesome to watch these cowboys and cowgirls
risk their necks to compete in these Rodeo Events. We saw bull riding, horse
riding (with and without a saddle), Steer wrestling, Rope and tie, Lifting the
colour (coloured ribbon on the back of a running steer, a cowgirls event), team
events and of course, The Clown who was always amusing the crowd or the kids. We
saw some of the Cowboys get hurt (not surprising) but the worst incident was a
bucking horse that bucked violently into a steel fence and dropped dead from a
broken neck. The rider was thrown onto the fence but was able to walk away. We
took the time to take a walk around the various stalls, which were all selling
products aimed at the Rodeo population.
June 8th, We had an early lunch and went down to
the Rodeo and decided to go to Campdraft area first. This event involves the
rider selecting a steer from a group of 7 that are put into the yard, then
controling its movement to separate it from the group before the steer is
released from the yard. The rider must drive the steer in a figure eight
pattern around 2 markers, then through the end markers. It was broken up into
men’s, ladies and aged groups. The youngest rider started from 7 years old and
we were amazed at how the young riders could ride, control their horses and
complete the course. Not all the
contestants finished the full course and we could see how difficult an event it
was. Some of the steers had a mind of their own, so went where they wanted to
go. It was very interesting to watch, so after a couple of hours we went back
to the main area and finished off the day watching the bucking horses and
bulls. We have really enjoyed going to the Rodeo, it was interesting and
educational as we had not been to one before. Tomorrow we move on to Dubbo,
continuing on our way back to Sydney.
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