Dubbo Chronicles No. 8...Greased Hog Wrestling at the County Fair

Well, not quite. But I did spend the day with friends at the Dubbo Annual Show. I entered into the spirit of the day by getting my best country shirt and jeans on.

We started off in the sheep tent, where there were plenty of different breeds on display, including Suffolk sheep...

Beloved Dorset Horns...

Marinos...

Border Leicesters...

And a reminder of the eventual fate of most of the contestants..

There were also many farming displays and competitions such as wood chopping and shearing. Here are a couple of the young farmers in the shearing competition. The winner sheared 11 sheep in 9 minutes!

Then we found the cattle tent...

Below: A humped back Braford...

I think this was a Hereford, although these cattle were huge, more like hippos than cattle...

They were taken outside and paraded in a circle for the judging. The local  police women even entered a bull...

There was a Poultry Tent. Here are a few Prize Roosters...

We seemed to miss the show jumping, but did come across this strange-looking albino horse...

We then went to have a look at the food and produce tent...

Above: Cabinet upon cabinet of cakes.

Below: The winning entry, a brown fruit cake.

Jams...

Roses...

Fresh Produce...

There was even a prize for the best hay bale!

and fleece...

I was very surprised to see a quilt entirely of Golliwogs  But I guess rural Australia is not know for its political correctness.

After a few more beers at the local pop-up bar, we decided to leave to go into town to a gourmet pizza restaurant. This was lovely, and I got to meet some more people, including an avid equestrian who invited me up to her farm in Tamworth to go riding. After it got dark we decided to go back and relive our adolescence by going on some fairground rides. The first ride was amazing - a giant arm which went around and around taking you from the ground up into the air and back down again....

We should have stopped after that ride. Things kind of fell apart when we decided to go on the 'Gravitron' ride - designed like a giant washing machine on spin cycle where you are supposed to stick to the sides on plastic cushioning. However, my cushioning came loose and I flew up to the metal ceiling, hit my scalp and was concussed. I was pinned there until the end of the ride, my friends not being able to do anything for me as they were similarly pinned to the walls with centrifugal force. When the ride slowed down I fell back down to the ground and regained consciousness where my friends led me from the ride to get some fresh air. That brought the evening to a natural close, it was time to go home to bed. Never a dull moment in Dubbo.