Ekka!
Yesterday Val and I went to Ekka, which is basically a 10 day long state fair for Queensland. It's a huge event (I would say bigger than the Big E) where people from all around the state bring in their cattle, horses, roosters, dogs, sheep, goats, birds, etc. to be judged in competitions. Of course there is also non-animal fun (otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stay from 10:45 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.).When we first arrived we wandered through the maze of roads and pavilions full of shops and stands selling everything from the world's best lemon juicer to kangaroo leather hats to alpaca scarves to wine from Texas, Queensland.
We soon became hungry from walking around and smelling heaps of fair food, so we wandered over to the international food pavilion. We passed on the Malaysian food and were pulled in by the looping recording of the Dagwood Dog song blasting from one of the stands. We looked to see what it was all about and, just as Val had suspected, a Dagwood Dog is like a corn dog. The Australian twist however, is that they dip the end of it into a bucket of tomato sauce (ketchup) right before serving it to you. The corn bread around the hot dog also tasted a little more like fried dough than the corn dogs I have had fairs back at home. As we enjoyed our Dagwood Dogs and a cup of chips (french fries) we watched a food eating contest on a nearby stage - the contestants had to eat a plate of spicy chili food from the Malaysian stand without using their hands.We walked around some more and visited the buildings with the various animals. We saw sheep, llamas, and alpacas first and then horses. After that we saw cats and dogs at two stands promoting pet food and then we went into the bird building.
That was a crazy place. There was an area when we first entered that had Rainbow Pheasants from Asia and other water fowl - the pheasants were beautiful. We strolled down a few of the aisles of various birds in various size cages - we saw ducks, geese, and enormous roosters. After walking down the aisle with the roosters we left - too many birds making too many noises.After the animals we went upstairs in one of the buildings to the Woolworth's Food Pavilion - which was home to heaps of stands from various food sellers. Our favorite stands were the one giving away pineapple and watermelon samples and the one giving away little milk jugs with fun straws. We ended up going back to the milk stand later to buy a lunch box cooler, which came with our choice of two cheeses, yoghurt, an ice pack, and a headband with cow ears.
After sampling Aussie BBQ potato chips, Greek yoghurt, fruits, cheese, and other treats we made our way across the street to the Show Bag Pavilion. When we entered it was further reinforced what I had been seeing/hearing earlier: American foods are donuts and hot dogs when I saw the sign at right.
Once in the pavilion we wandered through about a dozen aisles of stand selling bags full of candy, toys, hats, magazines, coupons, product samples, costumes, and other random items. Val and I managed to make it out of the pavilion only purchasing one show bag - one full of Wonka brand candy and a purple and white fuzzy hat. I wanted to get it because I thought Val could use the fun hat in future clinicals - having her clients pull something out of the crazy hat. A good chunk of the candy is already gone less than 24 hours later.We also made one other purchase in the Show Bag Pavilion - a silhouette cutout of the two of us, done by a man who has been at the Ekka for nearly 60 years.
We were drawn to the board he had displaying some of his many silhouette cutouts, which included President John F. Kennedy and Muhammad Ali, among others and the newspaper clippings he had from the press coverage he has received over the years. Val and I were happy to be a part of his most recent clipping in today's issue of The Courier Mail for all of Queensland to see (click here for the newspaper clipping) (click here for the article online). We were pretty excited. I bought five copies of the newspaper today because I only had $5.After the madness by the show bags we wandered around the fair grounds some more and stumbled upon the circus tent about half an hour before the next show was to begin, so Val grabbed some free tickets for us and we walked around some more to pass the time until the circus began.
We walked into the building with the dog competitions on the far end of the building I saw some Westies so we walked that way. We discovered that the Westy competition was taking place right then and sat down for a few moments to watch all the Winnie look a likes be judged and walk around. I have to report that they were all a little more well behaved than Winnie - only one was distracted by the other dogs and didn't stand rigid. Winnie is more fun.
We checked our watches and zipped over to the circus - which happened to be sponsored by the Sunny Farm egg company (the ones with the smiling eggs). The circus was fun - there was a guy who juggled eight rings, a woman who did acrobatics on a ring way up high, and two girls who balanced and did tricks while riding on a horse together.We then wandered around again and went to the buildings with the stands selling all sorts of items and rested by watching an Aboriginal dance performance by members of a Brisbane-area tribe. There were four men and three children in the dance troop and one of the men played the didgeridoo the whole time.
After the show we walked around some more and started to look for hats for Val and I (most importantly for when we travel to Alice Springs and Uluru and need protection from the sun. I am horrible at picking things out, especially when I have a bunch of options and have to walk around to different places to compare. I finally ended up buying a hat that had a coupon for $2 off in the Ekka guide we had as a reference for when events were occurring. Val picked up her hat at another stand shortly after. Mine is brownish and hers is, of course, pink.For dinner we picked up chicken and chips. For dessert and a treat for later on we bought two buckets of fairy floss (cotton candy) - using another coupon from the Ekka guide (always trying to save a few dollars!). We devoured one bucket before the night was over, but the other one still has two-thirds remaining.
It had started to cool down and get dark so we headed over to the big grass arena and found seats to watch the line up of performances that were scheduled. As we walked in there was a man on a horse in the arena reciting a bush poetry about the Outback. After him there was a "Buffalo Bill" show - it was hard for me to hear and to follow it, but I enjoyed seeing a man riding on a bison on a saddle at the end of the performance. Next up was a coordinated performance of over 100 whip crackers and then an Australian country/western music star sang a couple songs. Next up was a freestyle motocross competition where two riders squared off and did some amazing jumps through the air. After that four cars came ripping out and did amazingly coordinated stunts of driving super close to each other facing opposite directions and driving at each other into the center of the arena and just barely missing one another. The final performance was by an American woman who was a human cannonball. It was so cool to see her launch out of the cannon, fly over 70 feet high and land 130 feet away from where she took off. The previous two nights she had barely made contact with the huge air bag cushion, but on our night she hit it right in the center.
The night ended with a fireworks display. Val and I called it our 4th of July fireworks show since we weren't home to see any. It was a good show and a great way to wrap up an awesome day packed with fun.
