The race that stops the nation

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Day 191 - Coral Bay

Just as well that we went to bed when we did last night because today was another ‘big day’! It’s Melbourne Cup day, a huge money spinning horse race and this is our first experience of ‘the race that stops the nation’!

We’re up reasonably early and I wander down to the campground reception to ask if we can book in for another night. The lovely lady there said we can stay as long as we want but at $30 a night we can’t really afford to hang out here forever!! Another night will do though!

There’s a three hour time difference between Western Australia and Melbourne in Victoria, and we're three hours ahead which means the race gets broadcast here at midday. Sadly that means we ‘need’ to be in the pub by about 10.30am in order to get a table in the shade and some seats. What a shame I hear you all cry!

First things first, we hit the pool for a bit of a play around with the kids before hitting the showers. The pool is lovely but because it’s artesian fed the water is no where near cool, in fact as it comes over the waterfall it’s near boiling! Luckily someway or another it’s cooled down a bit so the temperature is bearable to swim in! It's a nice way to start the day regardless!

When we checked the phone and the internet last night we found three separate messages from the Elliotts who are currently having a great time at the Williambury station. It seems there might just be room for us too and they’ve suggested we give owners Rachael and Johnno a call to see if we can sort something out. We rang but there was no reply so we left a message saying that we would be able to come out as early as tomorrow but we’d give them a ring later in the day to see what their thoughts were. It's quite exciting to think we might be working on a station for a week or so, we certainly hadn't factored that into the plan!

Back to the day in hand and all the ladies will be dressed up in their finest frocks and the men in their best bib and tucker for the race. I guess it’s the equivalent of Ascot but with the sun is shining! Only joking! Our wardrobes don't stretch to such luxury items and with a distinct lack of Op Shops in Coral Bay we are in shorts as normal!

Over at the pub we join Bergot, Marco and the girls and are pleasantly surprised to find a whole hoard of people arriving that we’ve met previously during our travels. James & Grethen that we met in Broome, Lisa and Paul who we recognise from as far back as Queensland but neither party can work out exactly where and the glue that’s holding this other group together, Carl, Rani & Chloe who we camped with at Mesa in Cape Range! Great to see them all again especially with such a fun atmosphere around us.

The betting is underway, the runners and riders have been well documented in todays paper but with no TAB within Coral Bay it’s a sweepstake only approach. There are various prices you can purchase your lucky dip for; $5, $10, $20 or $50. It’s then all divided in terms of the prize money if your horse romps home in 1st, 2nd or 3rd. We get two $5 cards and end up with number 10 and number 12 although I don’t think we ever did find out which horses they related too! As a group we pool together for one $50 attempt and ‘un-lucky for some’ number 13 comes out! We can only hope the tables turn for us today!

Everyone is on their feet when the race starts, everything is now closed in Coral Bay with the exception of the pub which is full of tourists and locals alike! With the tour staff here too perhaps even the Manta Rays have the day off!

In about three minutes it’s all over and the horse “Shocking” is the winner. Even more shocking is the fact that it's not ours! Kenny and Beth did get 2nd and 3rd though so the Reeves family did well there but horse number 13 didn’t turn out to be lucky for us today afterall!

We’d order some nibbles for lunch and when they came we soon realised they’d do for dinner too! Talk about a mountain of food, very good value at $15 per person considering the pile left over which we persuaded the pub to put into takeaway cartons for us so we could devour it later!

The much awaited and talked about 2nd race of the day is the Coral Bay Crab race and the excitement reaches bursting point when the pub staff return from the beach with todays runners! We nearly fall over in shock with the price of the crabs, when the bidding started they were going for $200 each so we had to come up with a plan of attack! Kenny desperately wanted a crab so the group decides to join forces and the bidding starts. Darryl’s been chatting to an older lady from the table next to us and she also wants a crab and with some encouragement from us she gets one for $60, there’s hope for us yet!

We're still crab-less when the bidding starts for number 17. Kenny is doing a splendid job though and brilliantly secures us this good sized, fit looking crab for only $50! Now we're very excited!

We surround the track waiting for the runners to be brought across in the crate. As the crate is lowered to the track and they spill out one crab is immediately off and running - it’s not number 17! Despite, or perhaps because of, our yells of enthusiastic encouragement “Kenny” the crab doesn’t move from the crate! He’s not dead, he’s probably just got stage fright but number 4 romps home and the winners pick up a cool $900 prize fund! What a laugh!!

The afternoon was rounded off by the ‘ladies’ competition which featured the lovely Amber our photographer from yesterday's tour. We gave her a huge cheer as she strutted her stuff on the catwalk but alas she didn’t make it to the final three but in fairness the winner was totally stunning and lucky Mark even got his photo with them!

There was nothing left for us to do except decide who was going to cook dinner later, the girls or the boys! A pool competition seemed to be the best way and Mark managed to talk the chap who had been hogging the table for most of the day to let us have a turn. It become quickly apparent that we were all as bad as one another and that the game could take a very long time! With a note of sarcasm from the self proclaimed ‘pool table owner’ we were told to keep serious and keep playing! After much laughing we started to pot some balls and the girls came out the winners when Simone fired the black in the pocket. What delights will the boys cook up for dinner we wondered as we went back to the pub to collect the leftovers from lunch!?!

We made our way back to camp and before much more merriment got underway we thought we’d ring the station again to see if we could catch either Rachael or Johnno. We got through and spoke to Rachael but it seems that they’ve had to re-think the situation because the weather out there is very hot at the moment and their weekly food order hadn’t taken into account two extra people. There’s also the added complication of what we’re capable of doing and when Rachael asks us about our background it’s a bit difficult to convince her that they need our help when we know nothing about working on a station. Despite our obvious enthusiasm and that we’d be willing to give anything a try, that we’d sleep in the caravan and we wouldn’t eat much (!) Rachael feels that we’d be better sleeping in air conditioned accommodation and they don’t have any free at the moment. She’ll talk to her husband Johnno and give us a ring back to let us know one way or another. Sadly it didn’t sound very promising but we headed straight for the pool in good spirits to cool off from the hot weather and enjoy the rest of the day.

Not long after we headed back to the caravan our phone rang, it was Jane from ‘Tony and Jane’ that we’d met whilst atop Uluru. Fantastic to hear from her as always and we chatted away about what we’ve been up to lately and our future plans. We’re really looking forward to seeing this couple again in Tasmania as we’re hoping to sail on the same day!

About twenty minutes later the phone rings again and its cousin Grant. Fantastic, we haven’t spoken to these guys in ages and it’s great to hear from them too. We have a good chat with both Grant and Anna and a quick chat with Amy and Charlotte who are both already in bed. We discuss plans for Christmas and express our ever tightening timescales and that it was looking less hopefull that we would make it back to Melbourne in time. This does not go down well!!!! Anna beautifully expresses her desire for us to be home for Christmas, it’s lovely that she cares so much and we know what a special time it is so we’ll do our very best not to miss anything on our journey but still get back for the celebrations even if we arrive half way through dinner!!!

What a great day we've had catching up with friends new and old and it was still only 4pm in the afternoon so after another dip in the pool with the Reeves family, Bergot, Marco and the girls we headed back for dinner. Darryl and Mark slaved over a hot oven for an hour or so before producing the warmed up leftovers from lunch! Perfect and totally expected, had we lost the pool comp then we would have done the same!

The laughter flowed and the guitars came out again, this time much earlier than last night and even I plucked up enough courage for a sing of the Missy Higgins song I’ve been learning! A great evening all round and funnily enough we were all in bed by 10pm!

Hope to hear from you all soon

Dar and Sar

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