YeeHa!! Rodeo cowboys hit Mt Isa

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After leaving Alice Springs we traveled most of the day only stopping a couple of times, with one stop being at the Devil's Marbles. These roundish rocks are all in piles, balancing on eachother and looked pretty cool. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs mostly though lol. We stayed at a free camp spot along the Barkley Highway towards Mt Isa, about 70k out of Tennant Creek. We met an older couple traveling who invited us to their campfire. It was a nice night drinking tea/coffee and chatting. We spent the whole next day driving and arrived in Mt Isa to visit Neil and Lisa about 5pm on the Thursday.
When we arrived Neil said what a great time to arrive as the Mt Isa rodeo was in town which is the largest in the southern hemisphere. Neil and lisa live right across the road to the showground which has been great, there is sort of a country atmosphere everywhere.
On Friday night the annual mardi gras was on and went right past their house. Nathan and Neil stayed upstairs and watched from and window, but Lisa and I went down and stood with the crowd hoping to get freebies, we got a Mt Isa Rodeo keyring and a handfull of lollies lol but it was still fun. The mardi gras consisted of floats from local organisations and some businesses, similar to the christmas lights one we have in the main street in Bundy. We then went for a walk to the showground to the part where they have showrides and sideshow alley. It was similar to the Bundy show but free to get in, just another attraction of the rodeo. Near the rides was a large tent called Fred Brophy's boxing tent. Fred Brophy stood out the front banging his drum and ringing a bell and calling up (encouraging) potential fighters from the crowd who wanted to fight his boxers. This tent is the last in the world and only runs in Qld and Northern Territory as other state laws won't allow his type of entertainment and he refuses to change the way he does it. We didn't go in and watch the fights but the call up was so entertaining. While he called people who wanted to fight would climb a ladder and need to walk the plank to make sure they were sober. There were quite a few people who were very drunk who would climb up and then wobble around needing assistance back down. Two guys got up and wanted to tag team with 2 boxers, one was from wales and one from scotland, both said they had never fought before apart from little scraps on the footie field (said in a very broad accent). They were backpackers and wanted to try something different, I'm not sure if they won or lost though.

Saturday morning we went 4wding out to a gorge and met some of Neil and Lisa's friends. The track was quite easy at the moment, but apparently during wet season its very difficult and a lot of fun.
In the afternoon we went to the rodeo and stayed through to the end. The rodeo was so much fun, it was quite exciting watching all the events. I especially liked the open bull ride and an event for the local ringers to ride bucking horses (can't remember name of it). One ringer has been doing this event for the last 20 years and is now 59, he said he was retiring this year. There was a few accidents but nothing too bad, one local ringer broke his thigh, one rodeo cowboy's head collided with the bull he was riding's head knocking him unconscious and it looked like one of the helpers was gored in the leg. An old school friend of mine who now lives in Mt Isa contacted me through facebook when she found out I was staying here. We organised to meet at the rodeo. It was great to see her, we caught up on what we are doing now and did a little reminiscing.

This morning we went to Neil and Lisa's church which was very nice. Afterwards we had a bbq at the lake with some of their friends and some water ski'd. It was a wonderful day and a great end to a really good weekend.
Tomorrow we start heading south and plan to be home sometime around the 17th of this month.

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Photos

Devils Marbles
Nathan pretending he is pushing one of the balancing rocks.

Nikki and I at Rodeo
An old school friend of mine who I haven't seen for almost 20 years. Through facebook I found out she lives in Mt Isa and she wanted to meet up at the rodeo. It was really great to catch up.