There was another early start for us this week as we set off at the crack of dawn on Friday to catch the train down to Sydney for the Royal Easter Show. We love a country show but this one knocks all the others into a cocked hat, it is sensational. Not only is this huge event impeccably organised and a brilliant showcase for everything that is impressive about country Australia but there is a nice big helping of the ridiculous too, which appeals to me no end.
The show is on for two weeks over Easter and, although most exhibits are on show for the duration, events like the wood chopping and the dog shows change every day. We realised we were in luck when we arrived at the fruit and vegetable displays just in time for the prize giving and things kept getting better. Last year the dogs on show on the day we visited were nearly all Labradors, pleasant but not much variety, this year we were treated to Old English Sheepdogs, English Terriers (never seen them before but they were very cute), Irish Wolfhounds, Deer Hounds, Airedales, Afghans, Salukis, Dogues Du Bordeaux and a variety of different Collies my sister in law Brenda would have loved. 
The best was yet to come though. As we entered the woodchop arena we saw it was set up for the tree felling competition! This is an event you don't get to see very often because it is not staged at the smaller shows (I'm guessing there are not too many wood choppers who specialise in it or maybe the event organisers just cannot afford the insurance) and, even at the Sydney show it is only on a couple of days and I have never seen it before. 

What happens is this; they erect 4.6 metre logs and the contestants chop out a chunk, insert a narrow plank, jump onto it and chop out the next chunk inserting another plank and jumping onto that. They carry on like this until they reach the top, then chop halfway through the top section, leap back down and start again on the other side. The first person to chop the top clean off their log is the winner. However, they are handicapped and counted in so the least able starts first and the others join in one at a time. When we were watching, the world champion was taking part and he started a full two minutes after the first contestant and still won! 

There are prizes for everything, including champion fleeces and eggs. The cakes and arts and crafts were the usual mix of staggeringly intricate and just plain weird (yes the biker is a cake)  and I was impressed as usual by the very young people handling rather large livestock. It really is very important for the livestock owners to do well in the show as to have an Easter Show Champion increases the value of the flock or herd enormously so all the animals go through the sort of grooming process we are only used to seeing at dog shows. The cow wash, in particular, was very busy as the owners made their cows and bulls pretty for the judges.