17 - May 2018 - Miles Show

I stayed in Condamine overnight, camped near the main road instead of at the back with other campers. And a very busy road it is, too! Large trucks, and by that I mean road trains, passing every ten minutes or so all night. After a while I got used to it although from time to time a particularly thunderous vehicle went past.

So as usual up with the strange sounding birds, shower, cuppa, and idle from 7am until 11am when I drove off to Miles 33km away. Of course the Telstra outage on Monday had cleaned me out of cash when I handed over my remaining notes and My Precious laundry coins, so first stop was the ATM.

 I never really grokked this 45º rear-to-kerb parking thing, but I finally did it!

Then topped up the tank ready for the next journey and moseyed on down to the Miles Showgrounds. Very nice they are, too. Apart from the horse paddock and the art/Craft pavilion everything else was spread out through a copse of tall pine trees which gave the Show a bit of a "surprise around every corner" feel, and a shady aspect in the warm sun.

First stop was the stage, with shows by local kids with their music teacher.

There's a performing child behind that music stand!

And another one behind that music stand!

10 / 10 for getting up and doing it!
(But there's a good reason the seats were nearly empty)

Then off to the poultry pavilion to size up tomorrow's dinner, perhaps.

1st Prize winner looks plump and ready.

Or perhaps canard à l'orange?

We are the champions! We are the champions!

Wasn't quite sure whether the child was for sale as well ...

The sign says $8 each. Pricey for breakfast!

Nearby were some goats. They were for sale as well. More than breakfast, methinks.

Back into the Arts and Crafts pavilion.

Little handcrafts

Big handcrafts

HUGE participation by local schools ...

Then out to the horse rings ...

Again the different coat colours ...

4th Dan in Amble Amble, perhaps?

A mini-me Thelwel

Plenty of sideshows. No HERO rides, but a few different and new compared with "darn sarth".

Angry Birds catapult. Nothing on our blunderbuss in Fairfield!

The real thing

Spread among the trees

A bit empty, but then I had arrived early AGAIN!

Air rifles

The cattle ring was over the back of the pines. There were many cattle, but these guys from Wallan caught my eye.

Finally, this local guy fancied himself as a bit of a bush poet. All I got out of it was a load of "shock value" bigotry and not a great deal of cleverness.

And that was about it. A different atmosphere. A real cattle presence for the first time. Huge participation by schools. Brave kids on stage. And a bush poet prepared to give it a go, even if I didn't appreciate his style.

Back to Condamine to prepare and publish this Show report. Next show is at Chinchilla on Saturday.