No horses at Birdsville this year, the crowds were down from around 7000 to 4000. Only 20 aircraft instead of 200, and many tourist buses cancelled.Somewhere between 6 & 10 BT in attendance.
We arrived on the monday before the races, & had the pick of sites between the caravan park & the river. Its amazing how this area totally filled up in the next few days.
There was always queues for the loos & showers (great to have a BT) Washing machines run all days & our next door camper overcame this by doing her washing after midnight. (our onboard Lemair was a bonus)
The hotel put up a big sign when we were advised of no horses -
"Who Needs Horses Lets Party"
However with the reduced crowds the hotel still recorded higher beer sales on Thursday night that the same day last year.
The Birdsville Cup was run up the main street with rocking horses mounted on a sheet of cardboard, & wound in by wrapping string around a XXXX can. A full commentary was given over the PA of each race.
The best event was the Ironman Race.
Teams of two people MM M&F or FF
1) Pick up a concrete building block (besser block)
2) Run 50m & put down
3) Run back to start & pick up 5m plank
4) Place plank across concrete blocks & run across without falling off
5) Return plank to start
6) Return concrete blocks to start
7) Eat a dry Weetbix
8) Wash the weetbix down with a can of XXXX that has been out in the sun for two hours
9) Run 100m up the main street & return to the start
10) The winning pair then go into the finals.
The finals were held on race day, & to sort out the real Ironmen, an extra task was added. As well as the weetbix & hot beer, eat the raw yolk of an egg!
Other
events were wheelie bin races & a demonstration of stockwhip cracking & precision cutting of a cigarette held in lips. One girl thought she would out-do the blokes, took her top off & held the cigarette in her cleavage & challenged the guy with the stockwhip to cut it.
Another mature age bloke stripped off & did a rodeo act of rough-riding a plastic road barrier.
There were the normal "sideshow"
events including Brophys boxing tent, plus bands, & country & western singers.
There were no obvious problems, everyone was there to enjoy themselves, & they did!
This was the first Birdsville Races without horses in its 128 year history.
Never heard any complaints, it was fun even without the horses.
Wouldn't mind going back again next year.
Neil & Pat