Bloemfontein Show

Well I haven't been to the Royal Show in Pietermaritzburg in many years, but I have heard it said that recently it has become very commercialized and not as interesting as it used to be.

Bakkies convinced us that the Bloemfontein show is well worth the visit, and so we made our way into town to the show grounds on the first day it was open.  At the show grounds, Johan has both played badminton and shown budgies, so is familiar with both it's location and the layout.

From the entrance we went in at, we found ourselves right next to the craft hall...much smaller than the main craft hall at the Royal Show and probably displaying about a tenth of what I ever remember seeing on show, however I was still impressed at the workmanship involved.  There was plenty of artwork from school children along the outer walls, giving an array of emblazened colour to an otherwise cold and dull hall.  The craftwork was all in glass cabinets, no doubt to protect them from dust and dirt kicked up and blown in from outside the hall....interesting indeed and lovely to look at.

From the craft hall we wove our way in and out of the other halls, a combination of provincial government departments, displaying and advertizing; small and large businesses - both non profit and other; plenty of food stalls and at last we found the arena.  Dressage was on the go, and that is where we sat for the next hour or so, watching different age groups come in and perform for the judges.   NiQi was very excited and moved closer to take some photo's while Johan and I sat and rested on the stands.  I felt so awful when finally we decided to make a move to look further at the show, and discovered that a packet that had been lying with NiQi's 'things', had disappeared.  While the cleaners came along and swept all around us and gathered up rubbish, they must have picked up the packet with 5 scarves NiQi had bought earlier, thinking it was rubbish.  On our way out, we found the hall with the scarves and I let NiQi choose another 5 to replace the ones lost....

From the arena we went to the sheep and lastly found the SAPS horses, magnificent specimens, before buying some lunch.  By this time we were exhausted and decided to make our way 'home'...resolving that the zoo will have to wait for another trip...