Port Broughton to Clare Valley

Now the westerlies at Port Broughton aren't too bad although they have increased over the last few days to the point of us not taking any more.Generally, the mornings are ok until about 11.00 then the winds come up and become almost unbearable to be out in it. Fair enough. We decide to move inland to the Clare valley, at least within a valley we should be out of the winds.Leaving we had a good side wind, not so good for fuel consumption though. Over the green hills we run down into the Clare valley, named after County Clare in Ireland. There are a whole lot of Irish connections going on in this valley, areas like Armagh, winery names and b&b names hold traditional Irish names as well.
Saturday is the annual Clare show and we have a great time at a well supported community event. 148 years this event has run by volunteers that struggle here and wherever they have an agricultural show like this one.We loved the alpaca display and judging, watched the horse events in the main arena and moved on to the official opening with the national anthem being sung by a couple of the local girls. At the right place at the right time when a pair of sisters won the blue ribbon (first prize) for their entry in the under 6 scarecrow building competition. They also won best exhibit in show for their scarecrow and VERY excited..Great.. Stopped in at the shearing  to witness a couple of rounds of that competition as well. Moving on we saw the machinery display as well as caravans and back to the main area before the queues got too long for lunch. The exhibits within the pavillion were huge. Lots of singular flowers in vases, bunches of flowers, decorated plates with flowers wow. A good cross section of baking entries that reminded me of both my grandmothers, not for local shows but Melbourne Royal, if you don't mind. Quilts, painting, vegetables, all good. Lutheran school entry for years 6 & 7 challenged students to create a 4 generation family tree and see the results. That was great I said that should create a spark . Hopefully that spark will create a fire that the student may get a desire to research their family history even further.A walk around the show is incomplete without going down sideshow alley, some things never change although Marg noted that there were no rides that "went inside" like tunnel of love, ghost train or anything similar.

Beautifully manicured vineyards

Alpaca judging at Clare show

Floral displays at Clare show

Today the Blythe car boot sale was on and so we ventured the 12kms out to this very pleasant small stone built town.Sale was at the local picnic/bbq area and was not huge but again well supported by the local community.We bought a bag of lemons, a chrissy present and a couple of sausages in bread. Sat and chatted to the rhubarb seller who was ripped off at the clare show by his grand daughter in the rhubarb competition, YEAH right!!