So after our stay in Batemans Bay we headed back to Canberra for the real reason for our trip - the Second Border Collie National Show!
This time we stayed at "Christmas Tree Cottage" about a 25min drive from the showgrounds. What a find this place was - a four bedroomed cottage with a TV room (that quickly became a
5th bedroom) It had three bathrooms, a full kitchen, a shed and fenced backyard so the dogs could go to the toilet and play properly for a change. "Breakfast was included" little did we realise
what this meant when we booked - the kitchen was stocked!! Cereals, milk, 5 kinds of coffee, 5 kinds of tea, juices, tinned fruit, every spread imaginable, sauces, packet noodles and much more! Oh and fresh homemade bread delivered daily!! Dogs were welcome inside and out and the hosts Keng and Barbara were fantastic. We were sharing the cottage with Ros, Peter and Rachael who came up from Melbourne. And Di Rose, Simone and her friend Rosanna who were also from Perth. Altogether 8 people and 17 dogs!!
We arrived first on Thursday afternoon and Glenn quickly put dibs on the room with the biggest bed and a TV! *lol* Next to arrive was the crew that drove up from Melbourne. Later that night the others flew in from WA and we were all set and ready for a big three days of showing and
trialling! :D
Friday was easy for us, it was the herding competition day. I didn't enter anything as I didn't fancy having to clean the dogs up after sheepies due to the early start for the show the next day. It turned out to be a good move as Ros and Peter had several of their dogs entered in the instinct test and after sitting around all day waiting only got into the ring at about 5pm! Luckily the passes they got made it worthwhile (well almost!) I on the other hand had a pretty slack day, some shopping for supplies for dinner and washing the dogs (again at the well set up and very affordable Canberra Vet DIY hydrobath).
We were going to go down for the Opening Ceremony but seriously slacked off and decided to stay home, have a nice dinner (STEAK!) and finish organising for the show the next day.
Unfortunately no pics of our time at Christmas Tree Cottage - in fact we were so flat out with
competition my camera didnt make it out of its bag all weekend!
Luckily some National Show visitors did take photos and thanks to them I have some visual reminders of our weekend.
Here is Di and myself grooming Tag and Flyte early on the Saturday morning. And yes I am wearing my first Nationals jumper - as there was no jumper available to purchase at this National! (tho I still managed to spend a heap on merchandise - t-shirt, tea towel, mugs etc!)
Full results next post!
