Friday

The shuttle bus starts at 10.30 and the gates for the races open at 10.45 but the first race isn't till 12.30 so we've decided to do some washing and then go to the races. We get up fairly early to get it on so that it will be dry before we need to leave. We've been showering with the little blow up pool in the bottom of the shower (to avoid creating mud and to recycle the water for hand washing). We drop the dirty clothes in this water to soak while we eat breakfast then put them through the hand washer. It worked quite well and the day is warm with a nice breeze so the clothes are dry by 11.30.

We head over to the road and the shuttle bus arrives just as we do. We grab a seat and head out to the track picking up people on the way. We decided against taking chairs although lots of other people have them.

I place a bet on the first race and then we go and buy a chicken schnitzel burger for lunch. There's no seating but Martin finds a place for us to stand and eat where there is a little bit of shade. The burgers have a full salad and are unexpectedly delicious.

After we finish lunch I find a place to stand in the shade next to the race callers box. It's perfect really, shady, can lean against it and right on the finish line. We still have about 45 minutes to the first race so we sit in the dirt for a while. Not such a good idea cause it was very hard to get back up but we did notice that we won't have shade for much longer.

No luck on the first race - some mongrel horse called Macgiver won - so we moved to another shady spot. Unfortunately it was under a Toyota marquee and Martin refused to stand under it. He was happy to stand next to it though. We backed a horse in the second race - not sure who it was, we really backed the winning jockey from the first race. Winner this time with the rest of the day the same sort of mixed bag. Apparently backing horses based on their name isn't a ticket to success - thanks Biggen, Kev's Destiny came second last. We had hot sore feet from standing all day and decided to leave after the second last race. We went down to the fence to watch this one and when they came out of the barrier one jockey didn't come out with the horse. The riderless horse crossed the line first but it was declared as a non starter which meant the horse I backed came second (good news for me as they were only paying 1st and 2nd). We got the shuttle back to camp and calculated that we were $14 down for the day.

A quick sit down, wipe over with a face cloth and changed for town tonight. We walk into town at about 6pm and get steak burgers at the Flying Doctors stand - yum. We've bought tickets for the Fred Brophie boxing group and are planning to go to the 7.30 show. At 6.45pm we line up at the entrance in what seems to be the line. After about 10 minutes it is clear that there is no line as people just start gathering around the entrance. We wait and wait, again on our tired feet and finally Fred appears a little after 7.30. But rather than going in Fred starts a very long monologue about the boxing troupe and it's history. There are banners with paintings of the boxers and he explains the background of each boxer encouraging a "give me a rally" after each one. This consists of Fred banging the drum and the female boxer (The Beaver) ringing a bell. After he talks about the 12 boxers on the banners (only 4 are with him) he introduces the boxers that will fight tonight and asks for volunteer opponents from the crowd.

A woman is first up but it doesn't take long for 6 men to volunteer. Finally we were allowed in and found a good vantage point. Charles Woolley and 60 minutes were there covering the fights and while I was apprehensive at first I really enjoyed it. The professional boxers didn't go overboard and fought according to the skill (or lack) of the challenger. The first fight was a draw but the professionals won the others.

After the fight Martin got another beer at the pub and. I got some Dutch pancakes before we walked back to camp. I was prepared this time with a torch which was lucky as my phone was flat.