On Friday we headed into Camooweal for the annual Camooweal Campdraft and Rodeo weekend. I don’t think we have missed a Camooweal Campdraft since I arrived up here in 2001. Not only was that my first ever Campdraft but I also met Mr Chardy there. Now don’t get too excited, I am only a spectator, and by spectator I mean standing at the bar chatting to friends not watching the campdraft. You see – watching campdrafting is worse than watching paint dry. At least if I were to watch paint dry I could get high on the fumes. It isn’t really a spectators sport.
It is also mind boggling to me that these men and women of the horse loving kind (of which Mr Chardy is included) work their arses off for weeks on end without a break and then head off to a campdraft for some “time off”. This so called “time off” involves LOTS OF work to get things organised – trucks ready, horses shod etc, driving for hours & work hard to set up a camp. And then, if that wasn’t enough (the shoeing of a horse alone is enough to turn me off them) then they have to get up before the crack of dawn and ride their horses. They actually pay to enter the campdraft so they can do what they usually do every other day at work. Do you see what I mean – crazy. But as Miss Georgie said, if all of these crazy people didn’t love their horses so much we (meaning me – the non horsey type) wouldn’t have a social outing to attend. So thanks horse lovers.
My chosen sport for the weekend was Chardy drinking and child wrangling. I am actually not sure how my children are still alive with the amount of slushies and ice cream they consumed, but they somehow survived and had an absolute blast. All my friends seem to have boys, so there was the biggest gang of little boys wandering around having a brilliant time together. I am so excited that they are finally old enough to go off with their friends and have fun. Clancy was just happy hanging with me eating ice cream and drinking blue slushies.
So you wanted to know what a campdraft was and so far with my ramblings I haven’t done a very good job at explaining it – does that tell you how passionate I am about this sport??!! ha ha ha. After promising to be a good blogger, take photos and Facebook the weekend, things went terribly wrong. Not only did I not take many photos, but my phone ran out of charge soon after arriving and I was too busy catching up with my lovely friends to worry about charging it. Dedicated aren’t I!!! So I hope to do another post on Wednesday with some photos from my lovely friend Leonie Winks Photography who is much better at taking happy snaps than me.
The crew are actually still in Camooweal. Mr Chardy is the Vice President so they all do a lot of work over the weekend. They will be back this morning. The children and I headed home yesterday, so I could unpack, wash and repack as we are heading off again tomorrow. Over to Mrs Gumnut’s station, just north of Tennant Creek for a School of the Air Group Day (well days actually – 2 of them). It was great to get home and not have anyone else here. I managed to get the car totally unpacked, swags out and everything put away by 4:30pm. I even had a soak in the bath.
So…. Monday – let’s do this people. A fresh start. I am off for my morning walk now with a new podcast episode from Two Fat Expats to listen to. Off to a good start. Lets chat again on Wednesday and I will tell you all about Campdrafting and our trip to Mrs Gumnut’s house.
Good morning Miss Chardy. I’m new to your blog spot and am loving it. I am a very urban dweller with a thirst to know more about life in the Australian country, so your posts come as interesting snippets to quench that interest. I have quite a few questions to ask you, but as you are busy perhaps i could slip one or two in now and again? I look forward to reading more of your posts.They are wonderful!
Hi Chris, welcome aboard. Ask away or send me an email. Happy to answer your questions. 🙂
Have a great week Miss Chardy.
You too Sandra 🙂
Have a great time at the Group Day/s. I miss those times. Say hi to the SOTA gang. X
We will Helen, looking forward to it.
Monday is starting v e r y slowly here. Mum and Dad visited last night and we may have over done the wine tasting! Looking forward to seeing the photos – I’ve never been to a camp draft. x
Oh your night with your Mum and Dad sounds like it was fun. Hope your Monday is getting better. Do you have Wine Flu as Mrs D calls it???
Oh, you resonate with campdrafting like I do haha! Can’t wait for Wednesday’s post!
Ha ha ha ha, glad I am not the only one who feels this way. 🙂
Totally get you about it not being a spectators sport. Hubby also drafts. It’s amazing how its classed as a break, lol. I could certainly think of other ways to have a break. Glad to hear you had a good time catching up with friends though!!
Ha ha ha, yes it was great to catch up with friends though.
I am intrigued about the campdraft so am waiting with baited breath. It does sound like you’ve had some nice and much-needed socialising – and get those blue slushies in to the boys as it’s probably a rare treat! All the best for a great trip to Mrs Gumnut’s house xx
You will get to find out all about a campdraft on tomorrows post, thrilling! ha ha ha. Looking forward to our long trip to Mrs Gumnuts this morning. x
I seem to be going in the wrong order catching up today! We definitely had different weekends/weeks – I thought of you in NYC though Miss Chardy! Hope it was a great week on the road for you and your gang x
Oh you have no idea how jealous I am of your trip….soak up NYC for me!!!