Darwin (Friday)

I tell you what, if I didn't have a date for the Birdsville Races, I would be staying here until it got too hot. I have been offered a job cooking if I want to stay- tempting!
Turns out my body can't handle the amounts of alcohol I've been drinking (not much, but a lot more than usual) with the amount of sleep I've been not getting, so I was up crook through the night, then awake cold for another hour or so. Woke up feeling like rubbish!
I'm also struggling to handle the amount of eggs and bacon these boys like to eat, so I made pancakes this morning, with yogurt and some raspberry sauce. We ran out of pancake mix, so we ended up with eggs and bacon too, but that's ok, at least I got my pancakes!
After breakfast the boys had a few jobs to do, so Beth and I headed into the shops to get supplies for lunch. Johnno even gave me an allowance. Bonus!
We had people I and out again all morning, running horses in the arena, or just stopping in for a chat. It's such a great atmosphere! I cooked tacos and burritos for lunch and we had a bit of a lazy afternoon. I wanted a Nanna nap, but didn't get one unfortunately.
We all headed out to the rodeo at about 4.30, for a 6pm start.
The rodeo was opened with a dance presentation by a local indigenous group, which i found really interesting. Everything was going well until the lights went out half way through the barrel race. Apparently there was a power outage throughout the whole suburb, so we had an unscheduled break...
Brock's bareback ride was first up. he rode time with a 67 point ride, so we'll see tomorrow if that's enough. The steer wrestling was up straight after, with Luke's run. Unfortunately his steer cut in front of him and he didn't eleven get off his horse. Brock also rode in the first round, and he did a little better, with a 6.6, but got a 10 second penalty for breaking the barrier.
After the rodeo, we headed round to the boxing tent. I've seen it before at Mt Isa both times I've been, but never gone in. Robin, a friend from the Tassie rodeos, who lives in Darwin now, was also at the rodeo, so we all headed in to have a look at the boxing. It was different to what I expected. It was quite friendly and funny. The last fight was the best. They matches their top man with and older guy and a drunken (and possibly high) young idiot. Turns out the young guy fights like an octopus- limbs going everywhere! It was pretty funny. And he had a sore leg an was hoping around on one foot...
So I'm exhausted now. Unless this band picks up, I think I'll go home to bed...

Grand entry

Boxing tent

Boxing tent

Indigenous dancing