I went up to the border on the weekend for the 23rd Camooweal Drovers Festival, the fourth time I've attended the festival.
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In 2016 as a relative newbie I drove up on the Friday evening to watch the parade but immediately left to drive back to Mount Isa that evening.
That proved to be a mistake for a number of reasons.
Firstly, at least an hour of the journey was done in the dark and I was at the mercy of dimly lit cattle on the highway in what was a slow and fretful experience.
More importantly however it meant I missed out on some of the other great parts of the Festival.
The more I found out about the Festival afterwards the more I wanted to spend more time there and I rectified my mistake in 2017 and in subsequent years.
For starters there was more fun to be had on the Friday night with the mail race (which I incorrectly called the Mailman race, mixing it up with the very different type of event, the Mailman Express on the Thursday of Rodeo Week in Mount Isa).
No horses are involved in the Camooweal mail race but teams of four must take a cart, pick up the mail, down a beer at the pub, pick up a passenger at the roadhouse then find the drover with their station name back at the pub.
As the following photo shows, it's fast and frenetic and it's also hilarious to watch.
The night winds down with a charity auction and a free concert outside the pub.
On Saturday morning, the action moves to the Drovers Camp and the bronco branding.
This year it coincided with the national championships so competition was even fiercer than usual.
I could only sit back and admire the old skills on show.
There was the catcher with a trained eye ready to rope the beast. Then there was the branding team who put themselves in harm's way to attached the leg ropes and tie the steer to the post before branding - all under the watchful eye of the judges.
Later we get another reminder of the past when all the old drovers are introduced.
The trucks have replaced them on the long paddock, but the drovers are living history and a reminder of why Camooweal is so special. Derek Barry