Boulia Racecourse

Have settled in 1st day as described in Boulia footprint.
Friday morning sees us get up around 8am have breakie and decide to head back into Boulia to do some more exploring. On the way out we call in at the Merchandise Tent to speak with Zac to confirm our volunteer shift. We are right to do 1pm to 5pm tomorrow and collect our volunteer admission wristband - so no entry fee for us.
Once in Boulia we look in the Waddi Gift Store and then head from there to the supermarket. While walking between these 2 places, Roger trips and has a fall, thankfully he falls well, does a roll on the grass (instead of a plank fall on the cement path) and gets up immediately like nothing happened. Phew! Safely to the grocery/Hardware store and Roger finds the solder thread he was wanting. Next we go check out The Australian Hotel, very nice clean establishment, with good facilities and menu. Enjoy a beer and decide to come back here for lunch today to try their Crumbed Camel steak Burger with chips $25. Next we go for a drive and find the Heritage Complex. Go to pay entry fee but they can only accept cash - so have to return to the Information Centre to pay our entry there - return to the Heritage Complex and so glad we did, very good displays and very interesting information provided throughout. Go back to the pub and have our lunch, Roger has the Camel Burger (disappointed the steak was tough) and I have Moroccan Camel with rice, very nice!
Return to our campsite at the Racecourse and do a few little about camp jobs before relaxing reading our books until the day's activities start at 4.15pm. Just before this time we head over (only a short walk) to the event area (I duck back and get our camp chairs when we realise these will be handy for our seating) and set ourselves up in front of the grandstand near the track. Have a good time with the day's program which includes Ride on Mower races and then a Camel Tagging Competition. During these we purchased some drink tickets, so we can get drinks from the bar.
After the Camel tagging we go back to camp for tea (BBQ steak and salad for us) and to relax back at camp and catch up with Darren and Kris who did their volunteer shift this afternoon. We can hear the live music playing (off in the distance), call it a day.
Saturday morning sees us get up around 8am, have our breakfast - Roger decides it's egg and bacon, so I go to have a shower as Roger tells me it's all good to go - whoops it's not, cold shower (very quick concentrated on my hair) as Roger forgot he turned the water heating off after his shower last night! Oh well, there was an apology and a very good breakie.
Once we're organised we head to the event area at the Racecourse- set up our camp chairs 3rd row back from the fence at the finishing line. Great spot and find Kris and Darren have sat beside us (not realising) so that was great. Enjoyed watching 3 heats of the 4 for the 400m Camel racing. Very unique type of racing for sure! Jockeys really have no control! We head back to our caravan for lunch and to get ready for our volunteer shift. Arrive at Merchandise tent for our 1pm to 5pm shift a good 20 minutes early - to do a good changeover. Our shift is good, busy but not as flat out as the previous day - nice other couple Pete & Lee on shift with us. After we've finished our shift we stay at event area get ourselves a good spot at the fence to watch the music artists (live). We decide to purchase our tea $25 per plate, help yourself smorgasbord of chicken snitzel, fish, pizza, chips, mashed potato, gravy, salads, vegetables etc. Very yummy. Stay and enjoy Josie's music set which is followed by really good fireworks, then enjoy some of Will Day's set. Head back to our van about 10pm. Roger has his shower, then we have a cuppa and bed.
Sunday morning up around 8am both have porridge for breakfast. I have a shower - warm one this time! Get organised (light back pack) to go watch today's finals and events - we get our camp chairs in the same spot as yesterday, 3 rows back from the track fence at the finishing post, around 9.30am. Have a bit of fun placing our agreed on betting funds ($20 each for the day's racing). This worked out to be $5 each on each race - was happy to have an interest in who was running. Overall we had a successful gamble $9 up. After the cup race we go back to the caravan to have lunch, pumpkin soup and bread, followed by watermelon. Head back to the racecourse events area to enjoy the rest of the day's activities. The yabby racing certainly gets a good prize pool together, $3K for the winner, $750 2nd, $250 3rd. Roger keen to get back to our caravan to get tea preparation underway - we're having a share cook up with Darren and Kris. I stay on at the event and enjoy watching more of the novelty races - good fun and all ages inclusive. Then at 4pm there is 2hrs of live music with Josie and The 78 Sound - very good. When it all finishes, music and bar closed I get back to our camp to have a lovely evening around the camp fire pit. Have a fantastic meal of Roast chook and gravy (Darren & Kris) with roast veggies and boiled broccoli and peas, followed by apple crumble with cream (Roger). By 9.30pm we've retired to our caravan, dishes done, Roger showered...looking at bedtime.
Monday morning get up around 7.30am so I get myself ready to go for a 'shuffle', Roger organising pack up and breakfast. I'm out for about an hour - checking out the camp and channel country. Get back we have breakfast together porridge ❤️ Next I have a shower to get set for us to head back into Boulia. Leave Racecourse campground 10am. Going to meet Darren and Kris in Boulia around 11am, so gives us time to do a few things ie water, toilet dump etcЧитать далее