Sorry I’ve taken so long to get this post up – it’s been a rough few weeks and I couldn’t work up enough motivation to post about it all. And then we were without internet access for over a week, picked it up again for half a day in Cloncurry (but the computer had no battery in it that day!), and then back out into the bush for another several days. We've come into Cloncurry to fill up our water containers today, so I’m taking the opportunity to post this while I can.
The Pumpkin Festival on May 27 was a disaster.We’d been out to Goomeri to set up our fencing the day before and I was shocked at how disorganized it was. We had been told they couldn’t afford to pay us anything “due to flooding earlier in the year”, not even a majorly discounted price of $75 for three performances. We were originally meant to be crammed in a tiny space between a camel truck and the horseman Guy McLean (who regularly cracks whips during his performance), so we complained. Then we had to wait three hours before they allotted us a better spot, already fenced off perfectly. My mood lifted a little. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. But the day of the festival wasn’t much better. We arrived just in time for the parade, which we’d been told we were welcome to go in, only to find nobody knew we were going in it. And we weren’t in the program, or on the website, so no one knew who we were. We got down to our area, only to find the fencing had been moved, leaving our area fully open to the busy highway. We ended up just randomly performing in an open area in front of an animal nursery. Sparkie was the only dog who behaved like she was meant to – Tess and Lassie both ran off several times, and Freya just wanted to sleep in the shade.
After that we all had a round of colds, which cleared up just in time for the Winton Show. We got into the showgrounds late at night, so the caretaker showed us where to camp. The secretary came over the next day and showed us our performing area, which was on a beautiful green grassy area in front of the grandstand. We met the other entertainers, including the famous knife-throwing, sword-swallowing Roy Maloy (but I gotta admit, I’d never heard of him before that day!). Roy was very helpful and willing to give us tips on how to get our very stubborn audience to cheer for us! The other entertainers, a couple of stilt walker/fire twirlers, were a little more cold towards us, like they felt superior or something. We did four performances over the weekend, as well as Tess and Lassie competing in the High Jump (they got 1st and 3rd) and then all four entering the Children’s Pet Show. Tess got 1st in the Hurdle Race, Sparkie got 2nd, and Lassie got 3rd; Lassie also got 3rd in Best Dog, and Freya got 2nd in Best Puppy. The audience at our performances didn’t seem to know when to clap, so Mummy had to tell them when to do it! During our third performance, Sparkie was getting a little bored and was going really slow doing her agility demonstration, so Mummy asked the audience to cheer for her to see if it’d make her go faster. And Sparkie did go faster! It was so funny. So that was a good show. Our camp was pretty dusty though, and it was windy all the time, and the buns we got from the local store were mouldy and the cheese sauce was a week past its use by date.
ABOVE, LEFT: our dusty camp at Winton Showgrounds. ABOVE, RIGHT: the area we performed in.
We arrived in Cloncurry late on Wednesday night, and went to a place called Wal’s Camp. There was big sign out the front saying “STAYING GUESTS ONLY PAST THIS POINT,” and a phone number. It was 9:30pm, and we were desperate for a camp and this was the only one in Cloncurry. Mummy rang the number, and the man on the other end swore and told her it was 10pm and “oh fine then I’ll come down and see you.” Ten minutes later the phone rang again, and apparently there was an office somewhere and that’s where he’d gone and “the least you could have done is come all the way to the office!” and more swearing. He wouldn’t say where it was and there was no signs to point the way so now what? Mummy said maybe we should find somewhere else to camp tonight and he said, “Yes, I think you’d better.” So we ended up sleeping in the van on the side of the road.
So you can understand that we’re all feeling somewhat depressed at the moment! Our current camp is all cool breezes and nearly-green grass on the banks of a lake amongst the rocky hills between Cloncurry and Mt Isa. We’re rehearsing our routines, Sparkie’s learning a partially new routine for Isa, and we’re enjoying the open spaces to explore! Only two downsides to this camp – there’s no running water (which is why we’re in town refilling our water containers) and there’s no toilets.
