The Festival of Fleeces - Merriwa, NSW

This weekend was the only long weekend (besides the plethora of other school holidays) that poor teaching staff  in Australia get to celebrate, so we decided to make the most of it. Kevin did a little research on things to do this time around, and he came up with The Festival of Fleeces in Merriwa, NSW. Merriwa is about a 2 hour drive from Dubbo, in the beautiful Upper Hunter Valley Region, known for its wine, its horses, and (like a lot of areas near where we live) its sheep. But more specifically, its merino sheep. The Festival of the Fleeces is about celebrating the agricultural strengths of the area. What we were most interested in seeing though, was the promise of 200 sheep running through the town wearing red socks. When Kevin told me that little detail, I was in! 

We arrived at our campsite (just south of Merriwa, in Sandy Hollow) early in the evening. Just in time to set up the tent before it got dark, as it gets dark shortly after 5 pm during these early winter days. We were a little uncertain of how we would fare during the cold winter nights in our tent with the equipment that we had, but we stayed nice and snug and slept really well (for sleeping in a tent). We even had our own flush toilets, hot shower and camp kitchen mostly to ourselves (we are brave Canadian campers, after all!). Again, Australia's parks and campgrounds are generally really fantastic. 

An example of a campground kitchen...and of course, not pictured, are the quintessential BBQs.

The next morning we did some jousting, lolly-gagging, and ate breakfast around the fire.

The Festival! There were expert shearers demonstrating their skills all day. The kids (and let's face it, us adults too) were a little concerned with the amount of cuts the sheep were sustaining, but after asking a farmer a few questions, we learned a bit more about shearing merino sheep. Apparently, merino sheep have very wrinkly skin, so it takes a considerable amount of time to shear them and the haircut does not come without its shaving nicks. She also told us that the sheep appear to be very pleased with themselves after their haircuts, showing off by licking areas that they have not been able to lick for a whole year! All of this wool is from one merino sheep.

After wandering around and looking at all the market stalls, we enjoyed a little parade, filled with anticipation of the wild stampede of red-socked sheep that we were promised. 

Finally, the moment we were waiting for! It surely did not disappoint, but it was over so fast. It seemed the sheep were in a real hurry this particular year. If you're wondering why they all look orange, it is because the dirt here is, in fact, orange. You also may be asking yourself, why the red socks? Let me tell you why. One of the sponsors of the festival could not donate money one year, so they donated a bunch of red socks instead. The question was asked, "What are we going to do with all of these red socks?" The answer - "Let's put them on the sheep!" And so the story goes. I love Australia!

We enjoyed delicious dumplings and pizza for lunch, and took shelter from the rainy day.

Another impressive event was dog high jump. We loved watching the bigger dogs do their thing. Their owner (the man in the hat) looked like Jim Craig, the man from The Man From Snowy River. 

Later in the afternoon, we got to watch, and take part in, a few more events. One event that was really fun for all of us to watch was teams of three on horseback competing to separate three same-coloured-collar calves from the group. The competitions were timed and very lively!

Next, the kids took part in a sheep poo spitting contest. That's right. Sheep poo spitting. Or jelly beans, for those of you who were concerned. 

Rylan did not place in the 11-15 year old age group. We all laughed at our poor son, who spit air the first go, but successfully remembered to spit the jelly bean after that.

Sadly, Calla also did not place in the 7-10 year age group.

Josiah, however, our shining sheep-poo-spitting superstar, placed third in the 6 years and under group. We were so proud!

Next up - the lolly canon! Picture yummy chewy candies shot through the air with a canon, of sorts, attached to an air compressor. We discovered that this was way more fun than having candy thrown at you during a parade. 

To close this fantastic day of Australian country fun, we enjoyed sausage sandwiches, bacon and egg rolls, and hot chips before we watched some spectacular small town fireworks. What a special day!

The next day, we had a couple of disappointments. Not only were we in wine, horse and merino sheep country, we were also on the edge of Wollemi National Park in the Greater Blue Mountains. I had planned a beautiful hike for us this day (and it was sunny and gorgeous!). After taking a few wrong turns and enjoying some spectacular scenery from the car, we finally found our trailhead and headed off, only to find that about 15 minutes into our hike, the trail was closed with a NO TRESPASSING sign. What!? So, we had a look at our sad roadside map, and found another hiking trail to do. Again, we drove through some beautiful scenery, only to find that the road to our hike also had a NO TRESPASSING sign. What!? We happened to see a couple walking their dog along the deserted road and asked about this elusive hiking trail. They were also visitors, and had no idea what we were talking about. But they did tell us about the top secret Wollemi Pine. At first, I thought they were pulling my leg with Aussie humour, but it turns out they were serious. I googled it later (yes, I resorted to the most reliable scientific way of finding out instant info), and found out that the Wollemi Pine is a tree that lived 200 million years ago and was thought to be extinct until they discovered live trees in Wollemi National Park in 1994. How many fascinating flora and fauna can one country have!? Anyway, these trees are highly protected, as you can imagine, and nobody but a few scientists know their location. So the theory for the day was that our hiking ventures were thwarted for the noble cause of protecting prehistoric trees. That's our theory, and we are sticking to it! In spite of being stuck in the car for longer than we cared to be on such a beautiful day, we did get to have a lovely picnic lunch, beautiful scenery, and a stop at a picturesque winery to sample more of the region's agricultural strengths. 

I forgot our camera (AGAIN!) so I was pretty pumped that I could catch this sparkly spider web in the sun.

We keep discovering cube shaped wombat poo and wombat burrows on our little hikes. We have yet to see a wild wombat. None of us was sticking our face in the hole after hearing that wombats can break a dog's jaw or a man's hand with the thrust of their square shaped bums out of their burrows. Impressive defensive strategy!

After picking up some wine from a young Italian winemaker, we headed back to our campsite to say goodbye to the beautiful horses we met there. Calla was so happy to spend some time with them, even if it was on the other side of the fence, and we got to feed them some of our apples that froze in the communal fridge overnight. 

A good end to a great weekend!