How does one spend a great Queen’s Birthday long weekend? Checking out the Festival of the Fleeces in Merriwa, that’s how! We left straightaway after work Friday to start the three day weekend and toward Denman where we would spend the night.
Denman is a small Aussie town a ways inland and apparently so full of really nice people that’s all we ran across. Eric was thoroughly chatted up by the friendly couple from the Denman Motor Inn on check-in. Based on his interaction with them it seemed prudent to follow their advice on the best place to eat in town. Truly they were right and Gerard’s Place was scrumptious. They even provided an awesome local couple at the next table who very generously shared their wine with Eric. I should add it was wine that they grew and produced and Eric thought quite yummy. We spent the meal talking about their recent trip to Europe and about life – our views and our hopes and worries for our kids and their and everyone’s futures. It was sheer delight and we could have talked all night.
After a night’s sleep for Eric and a herculean sheep-counting effort by me, we did the hour’s drive to Merriwa and found the festival in full-swing. We hoofed it over to the main drag and investigated the booths and displays. We found a little bit of everything as you do at these kinds of events. Well, everything to do with sheep: shearing demonstrations, sheepherding dogs, and wool in every form.
We next chose our spot for the parade because we so did not want to miss the running of the sheep. They dress the sheep for this event in red socks. I ruminated on why a bit, but just don’t know except they do look cooler that way. Clearly, sheep that look cool are much more entertaining to watch. I enjoyed the running of the sheep with every fiber of my being. They kept trying to flock together because just maybe they don’t see lots of parade spectators in their normal everyday grazing.
We enjoyed the rest of the parade and watched a little bit of the dog jumping competition before we hightailed it out of town. We headed to some friends’ property that’s something like 20 kilometers of gravel road, 16 cow/sheep grates, and one water crossing from the main road. It's a nice part of the Aussie bush and they've made a fair number of improvements to the property. We originally planned to spend the night, but I was not at my best so we only stayed a couple hours before heading back home.
On the way home, Eric finally got the pleasure of an RBT stop. That’s Random Breath Testing in case you were wondering. I’d been stopped a couple years ago so now we can both say we’ve had the “experience” of the test.
We made it home without any unfortunate roo encounters (they tend to be on the move around dusk and they’re none too bright about crossing roads). I was disappointed that we didn’t see any lambs, but since it’s not springtime, it wasn’t really surprising. All in all, Festival of the Fleeces was a great slice of Aussie life. pictures here
