The 'once every 20 years' Yealering Regatta and Markets
On Saturday this weekend (being the 28th October, 2017) I made the trip over to Yealering. I went over to meet up with a friend who was going to the Yealering Regatta and Markets; or it could have been the Yealering Markets Regatta. One or the other.
The markets are held on the edge of Yealering Lake—from whence the town gets it name. It seems that Yealering Lake is generally void of water, or only has a bit right in the middle. But this year Yealering Lake was full and it is quite a large inland almost-fresh water lake—by Western Australia standards anyway.
Below is a 160 degree panorama of the lake. This picture is 3,500 pixels wide, so if you are lucky enough to have a 4K computer monitor (which is 3,840 pixels wide) then you will be able to see it full size. The rest of us will have to be content with a reduced version; but SquareSpace will manage that for us and ensure we see the largest version that fits in our window.
But you can see that it is full. There is a speed boat docked in the right side of the pano.
The markets part of the Yealering Markets Regatta is pretty easy to come to grips with. They were markets selling mostly locally produced 'stuff' such as corrugated iron sheet do-dats, some wood crafty stuff, and other homeware what-nots and things. Oh. And there was a coffee van and a doughnut van, who together—I am pretty sure—took the most money of any other stall holders there.
The regatta part of the Yealering Markets Regatta does not involve 12 meter yachts. The local kids have been building various water craft from various materials over the last couple of months and the 'regatta' involves aged groups of kids racing to the end of the jetty, or the end of the jetty and back for the older kids.
Following are a couple of pictures of the regatta. These were taken with a polarising filter attached to reduce glare from the water, but this also makes the water look darker.
Following are a couple of shots of the onlooking crowd. One taken from the back and the other from the edge of the lake.
This next picture is an 18mm wide-angle shot of the market-road; along which the stalls were located. You can't miss the doughnut (or is is donut?) van at the end. The coffee van—which was a tiny Suzuki Swift with all the coffee making machines tightly fitted into the back of itwas just to the right of the donut van.
Finally, following are some snaps of the regatta craft before they were launched into the water. Click on any image to see it slightly larger (500 pixels high).
So, as I close out, there could be some people wondering why the title "The 'once every 20 years' Yealering Regatta and Markets". Well it seems that the last regatta was something like 20 years ago because there has not been enough water in the lake for the last 20 years that would have allowed the regatta to be held.
If it is 20 years to the next one ... then there is a chance I might not be around to see it.