Horses race by at the rodeo.

Journal by Colin McAuliffe, photo by Neil Dana

Woooohooo! Yah! Yah! Come on horsie!. I guess it was quite a hilarious sight, 5 Australians and one American galloping around an earthen mound like horses, spanking their own bottoms the whole way. I’m sure you guessed it, that American was none other than myself. I don’t really know how I got involved in the “horse race” but I know it was extremely silly.

We came here quite by accident. On our way out of Cairns, a kind gentlefellow informed us that there was a big four-wheel-drive party going on in Mt. Garnet, which just happened to be on our route towards Alice Springs. Well, there was no 4x4 party, but there was a huge horse race/rodeo (pronounced here as roe-day-o) party going on. As we pulled in we asked where we should camp and were told that there were a few sections for families, and one for rowdy people. Being the super genius that I am, I of course persuaded the team that we needed to be in the rowdy section. Man, was I sorry. Ozzies are a crazy bunch and they seriously love to party, and when I say serious, I mean it, really. We’re talking 5 a.m., shaking-strangers’-tents party. We’re talking wake Colin up by opening his tent and yelling at him, even though you have no idea who in God’s name he is, and you don’t really care anyway, as long as you get to wake him up partying. We’re talking every other word is an expletive party. We’re talking horseless horse races partying.

Justin somehow met a cricket team at some point, and at some other point, Justin and I ended up at their camp. The Mongrel Dogs, as their team is known, are a bunch of friendly jovial fellows, and took us into the fold like we’d known them for years. They all had names that contained the word dog, such as Black Dog, Lap Dog, Red Dog, Mock Dog, Big Dog, etc, and they found it hilarious that I had a nickname (now fortunately defunct) that also contained the word “dog.” Ahem, however I won’t mention it here for fear of proliferating that which I really do not want to proliferate.

Anyway, a seriously good time (except when we tried to sleep, which really wasn’t fun, or even possible) was had by all, and I am rather glad that we chose to attend the roe-day-o.