Two new stars, and dinner for 10

The lights flickered on in the pre-tent as a fine mist engulfed the site. Paddy, the circus cook was pottering around in the chuck wagon, carefully preparing the diverse range of dishes for our mis-matched crew of gluten free, vegan. vegetarian, and meat eaters. Amazing smells wofted across the lot as a few cast members congregated around the caravan.

Damo walked up and Paddy cheerfully informed him that dinner was ready. Luke and I started ferrying dishes out to the pre-tent and placing them down on a side table. Damo stood by us, and without warning erupted in a call that would have frightened an angry T-rex into submission.
"DIIIIINNNRRUUOOWWRRGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Ouch do ya have to? Mike wandered, jestfuly nudging past the boss. "Oh hey Eve, do you like Damian's dinner call?" He grinned, This was another thing to look forward to every meal.

It seemed everyone understood Damian's unintelligible vocal hail, because moments later the pre-tent was alive with activity.. Dinner, meeting time and the official welcoming of Mary, our new silks and slack-line performer, who had arrived earlier that day. She and I would be stepping into the ring for the first time tomorrow.. We were both super excited.

Arrival in Queenstown

With a bright teal green caravan lumbering along behind us we started our journey over the pass to Queenstown. The convoy of trucks and trailers was taken in three trips as we only had two drivers licenced for the larger vehicles. I was in the third convoy with Luke, Mike and Briar.
It had been a long day of rolling tent skins onto trailers and locking down caravans for travel. It had been hot, and with the Chuck wagon (our food caravan) packed down, there was nothing available to eat. We traveled in silence. We were all too tired and hungry to engage in conversation. The scenery was stunning for the entirety of the journey, this was enough to occupy our thoughts for the duration.

Just after 5pm we rolled into the new lot. We disembarked the vehicles and forced ourselves into action. Everyone was carefully arranging the caravans out ready to encircle the big top. We started the task of pitching the pre-tent (our dining room) and setting up the chuck wagon. The main big top wouldn't go up until the morning, but a few essentials had to be set… Tomorrow promised to be a huge day.