Dirt and Dust Festival

The weekend after Easter, my colleague Nicola, her boyfriend and I packed up my car and headed to the Dirt and Dust Festival at Julia Creek.

It's this annual festival that apparently started as an idea in the local pub as a way to rejuvenate the town. It's won a couple of tourism awards because... it was so much fun!!!

Gagey and Lukey had to work on Friday, so we didn't get away until the afternoon. I drove to Cloncurry, which was about half way, and than Gagey drove the rest of the way. That's when Luke and I hit the beers in the esky...

But we got there in time to see the headline act, the one and only Troy Cassar-Daley.
We were so close I could see up his nose...

Now, I'm not really too big a fan of country music, and I have never really gotten into Troy much before. But he was awesome! He had an amazing presence on stage and really worked the crowd. I think he was also the perfect person to play at a festival like the Dirt and Dust.
So channeling my inner Queenslander, we drank a few rums and danced had a great night. It did involve getting a security guard to drive my car to the camp site at the racecourse because of said rum, but he was very friendly (I think he had his eye on Gagey - Luke was too drunk to defend her honour) and his mates followed him out there to give him a lift back. Great night.

The next morning we woke up with, it's fair to say, pretty bad hangovers and headed out to get some bacon and eggs. Now, one of the main attractions of the festival is the triathlon. They do the swim in the creek that apparently has stagnant, gross water more often than not, then cycle into town, and then run laps of the main street. I'd say it was about 36 degrees while they did this.

We, in contrast, sat in the cafe eating bacon and eggs, recovering from our hangovers and feeling very unhealthy.

I kept taking photos of this old dude because I thought he was cool. I hope he didn't think I was stalking him! I was just impressed he could run a triathlon while wearing a straw hat.
That night was the bull ride! I had actually seen a bull ride the Thursday because I got a free ticket to an event in Mount Isa from work. But the Julia Creek event was way better.

Not quite sure why, but I really like this photo of the cowboys singing the national anthem.
Watching a bull ride is so exciting, even if there are few animal ethics issues...
The bull riders are crazy, but I reckon the crazier guys are the clowns, who put themselves between the bull and the rider when they come off. They're usually experienced older bull riders, but they're the people the bull will usually charge. Of course, the rider can also get trodden on when they come off...
I was sitting right near the fence taking photos, when I got charged by a bull! He'd thrown the rider, and stood on the other side of the ring, glaring at me. He did the full-on snort and hoof scrape across the dirt, and charged me. He hit the fence, which hit me pretty damn hard! Luckily I'd gotten a bit further away, but it was a bit of a shock! They way over 500kgs, so you don't really wanna get trodden on by one.
So all in all, a great weekend. Country music, bull ride, triathlons, rum, friends. Who could ask for anything more...