William Creek, overnight.

So this was William Creek, first stop the Pub, where every one who is anyone and many who are not have left their calling cards in many different forms.
we all had a drink of some kind and most bought a stubbie holder at the exhorbatant price of $10.
Then there was the dog on the couch out the front, I thought he was dead but he did finally move.
From there we went to Tent city and found our allocated tent, ours was no 12, inside two camp stretchers made up and a towel. Where was the chair we were promised? How were we to get shoes and socks on and off sitting precariously on the edge of a camp stretcher? we managed.
Tent city was past the airstrip and on the Gymkhana grounds, with a set of cattle yards full of cattle and a big shed where we were to eat and an ablutions block miles away across the desert sand.
Entertainment before the sun went down and the cold night set in was to be Bronco branding, in which a large station manager on a very large horse surrounded by about 6 ringers (stockmen) hurled a raw hide rope at an unsuspecting calf and dragged it across to a set of poles where the ringers converged on the calf and threw it to the ground, no branding, just a dob of paint so you know not to get that one again. It was the beginnings of a new sport we were told, a bit more politically correct than in the past. They even managed to drag in 3 of the girls to act as ringers, I might add they were pretty hopeless.
That over just for fun several of the ringers did some bare back steer riding and all either jumped off or got thrown off for their pains, a few bruises and rodeo limps were in evidence at dinner.
Entertainment was in the form of a bush band with a very good meal of beef and salads and some nice wine, we staggered off to bed at about 9 pm, having been up since before 6 am that morning, but the party went on until 2 am, not so much fun for those of us in the tents near the band.
I went to the loo at about 4.30, luckily I had packed a torch as the lanterns didnt make it through the night, and as I walked down the tent lines it seemed to me that every tent I passed was snoring!
Walking back I looked up at the vast and starry night sky, it really is a huge and wide land out there.