Camooweal Drovers Festival 22nd to 25th

Have had a great weekend, the weather has been fantastic, if a bit windy sometimes, but nice warm days and some fun things to keep us busy.
                  
                     Friday 22nd


Camooweal Hotel/Motel

     The festivities started late afternoon with a street parade. A tribute to a small town with such a great variety of floats to see, starting with the mounted policeman and pack horses to the racq battery on wheels and the local school and more. The hotel is in the middle of the main street so was the viewing point for most people, the rest on the roadside. There was an Aussie Mail Race after the parade, wasn't that fun to see. The 4 person teams had to push a cart with passenger in from one end of the street, picking up mail at one shop, having a drink at the pub, collecting the name of a drover at the other end of the street and racing back to the pub to deliver the mail to the correct bloke in the pub. A great laugh it was, the photo's tell the story!

End of the Aussie Mail race




waiting for the start of the
parade in main street

The team who came in first, actually came in at second place as the passenger forgot to deliver the mail and the next team in beat him to it. The prize money was donated to a charity of the winner and second place getter's choice, I think the flying doctors and Blind society won on the day.
     That was the start of the weekend.

                                Saturday 23rd

     This morning I spent at the Drovers Camp. There was entertainment all morning, Songs, yarns and poetry, all good stuff. I took a long tome having a gander in the museum, this Mural in one corner of the building was pretty neat.




 I got some-one to take my photo in front of this cart. 
     There were a few stalls with things for sale, I couldn't resist the handmade leather goods and bought a couple of items.
     Also a book of bush ballads and real stories by John Lloyd who I heard yesterday at the camp ground, I was fascinated with a couple of the verses he recited and bought the book so I could read some more.
     In the afternoon the horse races were on and Jim attended this. There were 5 races, he had a ball, a typical bush race day and fun had by all who attended by the sound of it.  The evening presented with a country music spectacular which we never went to but could hear some of the music from the camp ground.

                            Sunday 24th 
     Jim went out to the Drovers Camp to have look-see this morning. He tells of the bush poetry and song competition that went well, the Whip cracking competition with competitors aged about 6-7 to 80 odd years and they all could crack a mean whip! There will be more music entertainment this afternoon then another Camooweal Drovers Festival will be over for another year. I reckon it was a great weekend. We have enjoyed a lovely 9 days in Camooweal relaxing and getting to know some of the locals.

                            Monday 25th
     Moving on today, no hurry, only going about half way to Mount Isa to a rest area we stayed at on the way out. Will continue next day and restock the larder etc on Tuesday.