Easter Chicken

Got up reasonably early this morning and caught the ferry from Circular Quay to the Olympic Park to visit The Sydney Royal Easter Show. This is Australia's largest event and attracts almost a million people over the two weeks it runs for. Its very much a showcase of Aussie life with an emphasis on agriculture.

The ferry was actually very quiet and even by the time we got to the Olympic Park Quay, there were no more than a dozen or so people waiting for the connecting bus to the show ground. However, that quickly changed when we got off the bus and joined the large queues to get in. The place was heaving and there must have been tens of thousands of people all milling around in the warm sunshine. I must confess I am not good in crowds and will always look for the quietest spots and smallest queues, even if that means having to miss out on my first choice of things to do or eat!
Its very much a family day out with lots of screaming kids and parents pushing buggies across your path or into your legs!

Me and Mrs B retreated to the agricultural halls, which were fascinating. I reckon there must have been somewhere between 2 and 3,000 duck, geese and hens like this one in cages waiting to be judged. The sound of them, particularly the cocks crowing, was incredible. It was then on to see the goats and pigs all nicely groomed for the occasion. The Merino sheep were something else in their big thick, but also very soft, woolly jumpers. They were clearly feeling the heat!

The cattle were also very well turned out and sat in rows on top of newly raked and pristine sawdust. They even had fans to keep them cool! It may be of interest to JudyS that there were over 100 Charolais and a similar number of Limousin on display, many with leaflets detailing their pedigree. Mrs B picked up a couple of leaflets for Mr S extolling the virtues of the bulls semen!!

The highlight of the day however was the wood chopping competition, which appeared to be in a purpose built arena with at least a couple of thousand people watching. The wood choppers take their sport seriously and there are even world championships for chopping a log in two! However, the best bit was watching the young choppers (if that's the right name) chop sections out of an upright tree trunk, insert a wedge to stand on and then chop the next section and so forth until they get to the top of the trunk. They then have to descend and do the same on the other side of the trunk until they are in a position to fully chop off the top section. The first to do so wins. I should add that it was a handicap event and the best chopper from Tasmania had a 2 minute handicap. Despite this he still won, taking less than half the time of the runner up. I was exhausted just watching them. If I get a minute I will link a shot of them in action.

We returned to the hotel early as it is our last night in Sydney and we had bags to pack. It was a nice wee meal down by the Opera House (where our waitress was a girl from Giffnock in Glasgow!) before turning in for an early night.