The Wauchope Cup

Today's entry needs a little bit of back story to understand everything.

1. Tuesday November 4th was the day of the Melbourne Cup. It's like the Kentucky Derby except it takes place on a work day and LOTS of people get excited about it, girls dress up with funny things in their hair and many work places stop working to either go to the pub or pop a bottle of sparkling wine and watch the race. It's a big deal in Australia. This post takes place on that day in Outback Australia.

2. In the outback, at least where I have been driving, there isn't anything for about 100 kilometers and then there will be a small pub/grocery store/restaurant/gas station/campground all in one. There is one such place where this entry takes place and it is called the Wauchope Hotel (Devils Marbles Hotel).

As I arrived at the Wauchope Hotel, I asked the girl behind the bar if they had any space for me to park my van. (This means that I would get access to a shower and toilet and place to legally park the van). The girl asked me my name and then wrote it up on this board (Number 8: Red Centre Chaos):

I asked her what that meant and she said that I was just in time to participate in the Wauchope Cup with 9 locals. She told me I had 20 minutes to get ready but to know that it involved running and drinking alcohol. I pulled my van around back and changed out of my flip flops into my Nike shoes and came back into the bar to wait. Once back in the bar, no one looked ready to do anything so I ordered myself a cold beer and sat on a bar stool to relax. After my first sip, the proprietor of the Hotel came in to announce we would now be starting the Wauchope Cup. I quickly downed my beer and followed everyone out to the back of the hotel where 10 wooden horse faces were attached to broom sticks. The prizes were announced, 3rd place a Wauchope Hotel singlet, 2nd Prize a bottle of Whiskey and 1st prize $100 in cash. Not bad prizes for free entry at a country pub, I thought.

We all layed on our stomachs in front of the horses facing away from them. On the sound of "Go" we all jumped up and grabbed our horses and then were told to spin in circles for 1 minute. After a minute of spinning, we were told we could head around the building to the first checkpoint, but after a minute of spinning we could all hardly stand and all ran into each other knocking each other to the ground and breaking the head off of several horses. I was able to get out of the mess and start running towards the first checkpoint 500 meters away. I was currently in 4th position.

At the first checkpoint we had to clean a large tablespoon of Vegemite. The best way I can describe Vegemite is if you took salt and mixed it with dirt, with a kind of tar consistency. It is generally spread very thin on toast, and I have tasted it two times prior and not enjoyed either experience. An entire large tablespoon full of the stuff on the other hand made me start to dry wretch. I could taste stomach acid in the back of my mouth as I tried to swallow all of the paste. I managed to swallow half of it and tucked the rest away in my chipmunk like cheeks.

I ran with the broomstick between my legs to the second checkpoint a further 200 meters on. The challenge here was to eat a large Weetabix (cereal / cracker thing) and a hot can of premixed rum and coke. This wasn't too bad, as I was able to use some of the Weetabix to swallow more of the Vegemite down. I was still gagging and wanted badly to vomit from the vegemite (The running around and drinking in the hot sun could have also played into the equation). At this stage most positions 3-7 were all at about the same place. I was still in the running for a prize!

We had to run a further 200 meters and drink a hot can of beer through a straw. The hardest part of this was that by now I was out of breath and drinking through a straw requires air, that I was lacking. I finished the beer and ran across the finish line dry heaving from the Vegemite in 5th place.

I spent the rest of the night trying to get the Vegemite taste out of my mouth and chatting with the locals. Overall it was a really fun experience, despite not winning a prize, and the conversations provided me a great insight into the thinking and daily lives of the locals.