Off to the races

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup day. This is the biggest race in Australia and is even a cultural holiday in Victoria. No, we didn't go to watch it in person. Instead, we went to Tilba for the Darcy Cup race! Getting to Melbourne would take about 8 hours. Tilba is about 22 min. The Darcy Cup is run on main street by fox terriers. It also comes with fancy dress, fancy hats and lots to drink. It sounded like fun so I convinced Scott we should attend. My resources said 11am for the start. When we got there, new resources said 1pm. So we decided to go on a hike, have lunch and kill time for couple of hours.

The Bellbrook Farm Loop Walk sounded like just the thing - according to the website it was "a scenic two-kilometre walk around the foothills of Gulaga (Mount Dromedary)." But when we got to the walk, the sign said it's aboriginal name was "Burrani-Yana (meaning "hill walk")". Okaaaay. But hills are not mountains, right? Hah. It was a LOT of steep trails. Just because it was a loop didn't mean you could bypass the steep staircase in either direction. Fine going down at the beginning. Less fun on the way back. Apparently the town of Tilba is halfway up Mount Dromedary, or at least it felt that way.

We did hear lots of whipbirds, both calling and doing the mad whip bird mumble they do in the leaves.  [Listen to the different sounds on this page. The last half of the last recording gives a hint. It is actually more grumbling in real life. ] However, the vegetation was so dense that we never got a picture of any of them. We did find this little scrub wren chick, also known for grumbling sounds

It seems to be practicing its adult scowl to go with the grumbling. 

At least the eastern spinebills don't grumble. They were enjoying the lantana (noxious weed) flowering in abundance!

We were on the way back to the steep staircase,  looking for the whipbird we could hear on our right when we heard rustling in the scrub on our left. There are no squirrels here and it was too noisy to be a honeyeater or wren. Out popped this fellow just a few feet away.

The echidna totally didn't notice us (see those beady little eyes). It just keep jabbing that nose into the side of the hills, snuffling ants! Very fun to watch. 

We made it back up the hill to the pub for refreshments. We were kind of surprised there was a free table-

Eventually the judges came out to draw the race lines  aka chalk on street in front of the pub. It also came out that the Darcy Cup race would be run after the Melbourne Cup - more like 3pm. We called it and headed home to watch the Melbourne cup on TV. We did get to meet the reigning champ, Brian, and his younger sister, Beryl.

Brian was supposed to retire but decided he wasn't ready to hand the title over yet. Apparently he handily won again!

You can see the training regimen (this included shifting meal time to afternoon so they weren't overloaded for the race) at this link and the race itself, here. Definitely worth a look! They go all out. 

Dubya put on his racing silks to join in the fun. He took them off before the race, though.

For the Melbourne cup itself, I backed GoodieTwoShoes (next to last) and Scott picked SoYouAre (8th). Better luck next time. I think we go with Brian!