bigtrip.com.au

Another past-event post I’ll back-date accordingly at some point.

Day 37/38 - 29th/30th November

Arrived late in Gundagai the night before, rocked up to a motel partially because we had work to do, partially because the wild oats that seem to grow everywhere nearby particularly sets off my hayfever, and last time I was around the stuff my head puffed up like I’d just come out of a savage boxing match.

For a friday evening the town was pretty quiet – we rocked up to the awesome Niagara Cafe near closing time, the interior of which doesn’t seemed to have changed one bit since the 1950’s (old photos on the wall really do attest to this). One of their claims to fame is that the Australian Prime Minister visited Gundagai 66 years ago during wartime, and spent an afternoon there eating in the cafe conducting war strategy talks with his staff.

While we were there the lights went out, and we spent a romantic time holding hands in the dark as the family working there located candles, much to the dismay of their youngest member: a toddler who fearfully asked if it was going to be dark tomorrow night too.

On saturday after exploring an abandoned stretch of railway line in a stone gully and a pair of rotting but picturesque (and extremely long) bridges, we headed out of town. Checked out the statue to the “Dog on the Tuckerbox” on the way – definitely not one of Australia’s fabled ‘Big Things’ but still a very nice monument and story itself. Drove out to Batlow to photograph the Big Apple – and found an orchard with an honesty box selling apple juice and Batlow Apples – both delicious and refreshing, you can see why people pay more for apples from Batlow. Wished we’d bought more to last us a few more breakfasts, we’ll never get them so cheaply again.

That night, back in Gundagai, the town was deserted again as the Rodeo was in town, so we put on our best cowboy gear and drove out past the crumbling abandoned railway bridge to an impromptu car park where every car in town was parked. Making our way past girls and women warming up their horses and under electric fences to the main arena, we worked our way through the crowd and up the slope to the beer hut. Looking down on the crowd and the arena with riders lassoing the necks and legs of cows, we realised we stood out in one important respect. Every man, woman and child from the smallest baby to the oldest drunken brawler was wearing blue denim jeans. Even teenage girls showing their long legs off in short shorts were wearing blue denim shorts, even the occasional goth wore at least black denim trousers. Practical though denim is, we simply don’t have room for it in our tiny plastic tubs that pass for a wardrobe.

Nevertheless, anyone with an MB can in their hand sitting on the edge of the fence to get mud blasted over them as horses and bulls thunder by and kick the fence never really looks out of place, and that’s exactly what we did – sitting next to a pair lads, their white cowboy hats stained brown with old blood from cutting of the testicles of bulls earlier that week. Down there we watched men throw themselves off their horses to wrestle – yes wrestle – young cows to the ground, ride bulls and bucking broncos – truly spectacular though often short lived – and women driving their horses at top speed around a barrel course, horses spiraling in the dust, turning so fast it looked as if their legs would buckle to the ground.

We’ve been to quite a few places since ou lost blog post to Uralla – we’ll update you with a quick overview shortly, but first I’d like to share the view I got when I opened my eyes this morning (click for bigger):

We’re on the coast south of Sydney in NSW at the moment, and drove from Merimbula last night where we watched Baz Lurman’s “Australia” – very good film I thought, and Nicole Kidman managed to give a decent performance for the first time in a long time. It was dark by the time the film was over, but we pressed on for Eden anyway. Trying to find a nice spot by the beach in the dark can be a bit hit-and-miss affair as the sea and beaches are obviously completely unlit. Last night we got a corker: we parked the panel van up between the beach and Eden cemetery (an obviously quiet spot), and as you can see in the photo it was a pretty good sight to start the day with.