Tuesday was our day to get out and about. We drove west to Meandarra to see the newly opened War Museum, which was excellent. Amoungst other relics, it houses a Canberra bomber hanging from the roof. Most impressive. Certainly well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. We ate our lunch next to the town lagoon, while watching the antics of grass parrots, galahs, and kingfishers. Then onto Glenmorgan where the Myall Botantical Gardens are situated. This gardens is set in 130 hectares of natural bushland, is internationally recognised and heritage listed and is a collection of all-Australian flora including many rare and threatened species. It was created by the late Dave Gordon and is the home of the grevillea "Robyn Gordon" which has got to be my favourite grevillea. There is also a wonderful gallery displaying botanical art. They have also created a large man made lagoon where bird life abounds. We spent a very enjoyable few hours wondering the pathways, lapping up the sun. This is also a "must see" if you are out that way.
Back to Tara in time for happy hour around the campfire. We made a few "new friends" around the campfire each evening. We were awoken each morning by race horses being trained. What a beautiful sight - sun coming up, horses breath in the cold morning air - then back to bed til the temperature rose to an acceptable degree!!!
As the week wore on the "campground" started to fill up. This was obviously a very popular Festival. By Friday the place was chockers. Friday night saw the Festival kick off with the Irish Night. Plenty of good irish tucker and a brilliant band kept us entertained for hours, not to mention a few Killkenny beers along the way.
Now the festival was in full swing. What to see first? Anything from the Mornington Island dancers, Hungarian Dancers, African drummers, belly dancers, Spanish dancers, roving circus, bush poets, working sheep dog displays, cuisine from every corner of the globe and of course the camel races, which has got to be the funniest thing I have ever seen! We were in stitches! They look a bit like a frog in a blender when they run. Of course there were bookies in attendance, and they were very popular (but they got all our money!! Not a winner all weekend)
Karen and Allan met up with us mid morning and we had a great day together. Saturday evening started with Jazz, Wine, & Cheese, followed by a fireworks spectacular and country music til late.
Sunday morning Karen and Allan took us out to Karen's old stomping ground of "The Gums" about 20 minutes west of Tara. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours exploring "The Reserve" which was a nature reserve set aside by the early settlers of the district, a beautiful little church, and a quarry dug by hand during the depression to supply ballast for the nearby railroad.
Then back to Tara for more camel racing, music and fun.
We had a fantastic week. Tara is a pretty, friendly little town and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The locals obviously went to a lot of effort to arrange this festival. We will definitely suggest another club trip next time in 2011.
We had the "best trip ever".
Kim
And the race is on!!
The quarry
The quarry
And again