Gismo Queen and her King

Every second person here today was wearing the “uniform” of hat, checked shirt, blingy belt, studded jeans and cowboy boots. Most of those were also handling horses and cattle. It was a very eventful day under hot sunny skies - and we loved it!

The campdraft started at 6:30am so horses were moving around pretty early as the camp came to life. Our first check of Neill and Jude’s movements saw they had been on the road since 6am. We enjoyed our cuppa in bed as the sun rose and the PA announced new competitors.

Our first walk around the site highlighted the food vendors, the market stalls, the craft pavilion, the bar, the campdraft arena and the rodeo arena. We took seats here to watch bull riding, calf roping and kids riding poddy calves! One kid - he couldn’t have been more than 9 years old - lasted the requisite 6 seconds on the back, jumped off and then revved the crowd up to cheer for him! He was a real showman! The sun was getting quite hot so we went back to the van for hats and I did some reconnaissance for possible campsites for Neill and Jude. But it was very crowded in our section, as there apparently wasn’t enough room in the competitors section for them to camp so lots were in with us.

Meanwhile Neill and Jude had arrived and parked out on the road as they were told people would leave our area early enough so they would be able to come in here. So we met up for lunch, watched some campdrafting, checked out the craft pavilion (which included a category of painted cow skulls! They looked quite decorative but when someone tried to sell me one, I said I had plenty of blank canvas' at home!) and watched some more rodeo action. The horses and cattle were all all quite hot, as some of the steers slipped in the arena trying to avoid being rounded up. This was the only place it was dusty as the rest of the site had lots of green grass, which was quite a relief in the warmth. It got so hot that we all came back to our van for cold beers.

 The competitions wound up at about 4pm which meant some of the horsey people left, making room for Neill and Jude to get their van in. As the sun set, we took our chairs up to the stage for some live music by a local country band. For dinner we chose the Hungarian langos which was actually pretty good. As it cooled off, we came back to our van for tea and showers but it may be some time before we get to sleep - there’s lots of mini parties happening around the place!!!