South Dakota - Day 5 - Buffalo Roundup

Monday 27^th September 2010

BUFFALO ROUNDUP DAY!

We had been warned that the round-up punters like to get there early for a good seat and that the sunrise was worth watching. The car parks opened at 06:15 so we decided to get up at 5am and make our way down.

Still being without cooking utensils we had discussed the previous day if you could cook bacon in a microwave. Well if you didn't know it, you can. So I made us a round of bacon sandwiches on Candy bread to start the day, (We nicknamed the bread candy bread, as American bread such as this loaf tends to have quite a bit of sugar in. I forgot to mention in the first post that the yoghurts at the Holiday Inn had sugar as the second highest ingredient.

The trip to the corrals in the dark was nice and we hit the traffic around a mile from the car park. It wasn't going anywhere as the car parks didn't open till 6.15 so we abandoned the car and climbed a nearby steep hill to catch the sunrise and film the queues of traffic.

Once we were happy with that we made our way to the camp abusing “Media” or “Me-gee-a” as we called it, privileges to skip that last bit of traffic and park right where we had been allocated space.

By now hundreds of people had begun to line the hill and fence all with camping chairs and picnics. There was a big tent with that conveyor belt serving pancakes and coffee which went down well.

The media bit was interesting. The public were kept behind a fence, but the media were allowed to stand out in the field a bit. I knew from the briefing yesterday that the Buffalo have been known to bolt in any old direction, so we were hoping it wasn't in ours. We also found out yesterday that a buffalo can out run a horse.

The pen was full of journos and camera people from all over the world which gave us a great opportunity to chat to them all. They all knew the “BBC” was there which was a big thing for a lot of local people. You forget how well known the BBC Brand is.

Just before the start we have one more job, we went back to the stables to find a cowboy to wear the new office toy.

We have a tiny camera called a go-pro that can be fitted to a helmet. We wanted to find a cowboy to wear it so we could have a riders eye view.

Almost as soon as we arrived we saw our friend Dave Bolton from Bolton as he was now known. He was delighted to be asked and really keen to do it so we gave him the instructions and left him to it.

Back in the pen all we could do was wait, until suddenly on top of the hill I saw the Buffalo come over the top. It was still a distance away, but it was quite amazing that out of the whole pack of media it was the first time londoner that spotted them first.

It took about 10 minutes to gather them together. They took regular breaks as the weather was scorching hot and they didn't want the buffalo or horses to overheat. The final part is to gather the whole herd (about 1500) behind the last hill, and then they charge the horses with cowboys whipping and shouting, and the Buffalo stampede the last bit into the pen. This is the bit the crowd have been waiting for, a giant roar went up as the appeared, and even more of a roar when a group of buffalo tried to charge away, but some swift riding by a 4x4 driver and cowboy on horseback had them back on track and safely in the pen to a massive round of applause and some whooping and cheering.

After the even we went back to the corrals to chat to the cowboys and ask Chad how it all went. We then had the amazing opportunity to be taken right into the pen to see how they sorted the animals.

They had a network of runs that led to a big weighing machine. Here they were identified to a sex and age. Some were then immunised with an injection and/or pregnancy tested. This next big is a bit graphic, don't read over dinner...

They do the pregnancy test by a hand up the rear, and the vet actually feels the foetus, if they are pregnant they will usually be about 2 months in.

The final step is for Chad to decide if they keep the stock or sell it on. The auction is the big part of the year for the stables and where all their money comes from.

The final thing we got to see was the branding of the calves. We were very close for this, it's fascinating to watch and hard to believe that it doesn’t hurt them, but they don't seem in any pain. But that smell of burning leather is very strong.

We drove a different way home as we could drive in a loop and saw some amazing rolling Black Hills of South Dakota (Insert the song here from Calamity Jane if you know it).

On the way back we passed a stables we had read about in our hotel brochure, so we stopped off and asked if they had any places on their guided horseback tour. The did, so Maria and I booked up and we have a really relaxing ride though the most beautiful national park.

I've never been on a horse in my life, but i've always wanted to do it in America away from the ponsy posh stables in the UK.

I was quite nervous just before getting on. I was given a beautiful grey horse called “Confusion”. Four simple instructions, Hold the reigns in one hand, pull left to go left, right to go right and back to stop. A small kick in the stomach to go. There was nothing to it, although I think the horse had done the trail so much it knew what to do.

We went through water, up hills and across rocks. I even got it to trot two times which was quite exciting. I think i'm ready for some faster riding now......

That night we drove into the nearest town as we had enough of the lake restaurant. So went back to the restaurant from a few nights ago although this time we had a fantastic waitress who gave us a real lesson in service and how to earn a good tip. We still didn't manage to leave before the hoovering started though.

We did however go to the place that almost everybody recommended, The Purple Pie Place. Most places are proud of their pies, but this place was very popular with the locals so we stopped off to share a rhubarb & strawberry and a cherry pie with some peanut butter ice cream. It was amazing, and the fact that a whole crew of fire fighters came in at the same time seemed to lighten the girls evening as well.....

South Dakota - Day 4 - Buffalo Roundup

Sunday 26^th September 2010

So as we are in a self catering cabin we had the foresight to buy some bacon, eggs and bread for breakfast, what we didn’t think to do was check that the unit had any catering equipment at all.

Never one to let something like to get in the way of breakfast we quite proudly managed to make some plates out of toast and use the microwave to boil some water and do some poached eggs.... I'm just like Ray Mears me...

Today is our second story, it is the annual buffalo roundup in Custer State Park and the even has become something of a tourist attraction in the last few years. It's an opportunity to see real South American cowboys and girls round up the seasons buffalo on horseback (and 4x4) into the Corrals.

During the trip we have mentioned that the work we do does not only get us to some amazing places, but also access to things that most people don't get. The Buffalo Round-up was such an event.

Today is the day before the event but a really important one. There are 60 cowboys and girls on horseback during the event. Around 20 of these are selected from a ballot to take part ,so they may have never done it before and their horses may not be acclimatised to the buffalo or 4x4's.

The riders get a briefing of the grand plan by the man in charge, Chad Kremer. He then takes all of them out with experienced riders to take them around the fields to get them used to mingling with the buffalo. This also gets the buffalo used to having the horses around.

It's worth pointing out that every step of the way, the first priority is the welfare of the animals. The cowboys and girls are told there are not to stress the buffalo and if they break away and resist being rounded up they are to give up on them and let them go.

We go to go out on a 4x4 to go and see the buffalo grazing in their normal habitat and see the riders get used to riding the fields. The park rangers were great and took us wherever we wanted to go so we got to get some lovely filming done and a nice interview with the “Head of the Herd” in the middle of the field.

We saw the official tour vehicles whilst we were out and about so we were aware of how much closer we were able to go than the ordinary tourist.

We had a small break for lunch so we decided to drive a few miles down the road to an arts festival which was part of the round-up. This is where we discovered that Americans can do organised food really well.

The key is, One choice, several counters with a conveyor belt of people serving your food. The long queues move so quickly. The only negative is the amount of buffalo. When we started the week it was novel, now it's usually that only choice, and we're a bit done with Buffalo brisket and burgers, sounds so ungrateful as I write that.

In the afternoon we got a nice interview with the head Cowboy Chad. He is the most stereotypical cowboy, and if you have seen the pictures you will spot him in an instant. That moustache is a masterpiece.

We interviewed him outside of the stables with his horse. He was very popular with the ever growing media crews that were turning up but he did every interview with as much enthusiasm as the first. Everyone speaks highly of Chad and you can see that he just loves doing it.

Whilst waiting for Chad we were milling around the office when one of the cowboys asked if we wanted to have a go at using a whip. We all jumped at the chance and were given a masterclass. There are two ways to do it. The classic that most people can do with a tea-towel, I was quite good at this but have had lots of tea-towel practise in the past, but they also showed us the one where you swirl it round your head and whip it back, this is much more difficult, but I did manage one beautiful *CRACK*.

One fact for a boring dinner party.... The Crack of a whip has nothing to with it hitting itself, it is the end of it breaking the sound barrier and creating a pop. Cattle react to this as it sounds just like a pistol shot.

Whilst we were milling around the corrals we bumped into many park rangers, cowboys and media, and really enjoyed chatting to them all.

There was Mick our driver, Jason from the local paper, Bhaskar the photographer from Bangalore, Jason the cowboy and the most wonderful cowboy Dave Bolton, whose family ancestors came from.....yep... Bolton in England. He helped us out a lot.

When we were talking to the rangers about finding a cowboy to speak to, they were very kind in telling us to watch out as a lot of cowboys are full of BS. For the uninitiated that is “Bull Shit”. So we felt really lucky to find Chad and Dave who were lovely. We were advised that if you want to find a real cowboy/girl you should look for one with one finger missing, that is a true sign of a proper working cowboy/girl.

That evening we decided we would eat at the restaurant at the lake again more for speed and general easyness, but tonight we were earlier to avoid being last in the restaurant. For the second night in a row we all got salad, all being a bit fried food and buffalo'd out.

Sadly we were soon once again last in the restaurant and general hoovering and tiding up commenced around us. We took our cue and went home.

South Dakota - Day 3 - Crazy Horse

Saturday 25^th September 2010

This morning we decided to start the day with a swim and a dip in the hotel hot tub, before breakfast.

Today was our second day at Crazy Horse and we had an interview with a Native American who worked at the visitors centre to get her view on the project. After this we knew we had a quick turnaround as we had been offered a prime position for the mountain blast. Every so often they blast parts of the mountain to shape the sculpture and combined with a visit from the state governor they were doing this today. About 10mins into our interview we were told we needed to finish as we needed to go to watch the blast.

When we had packed up the kit we heard the call on the radio, “Three Minutes to blast”, it turned out our guide Pat had a broken radio and had missed the earlier notices, so we sprinted to the nearest area we could and managed to get the kit up and recording just as we heard “10 seconds to blast” over the radio.

The most striking thing was the delay between seeing the explosion and hearing it.

We then made our way down the road to get an ariel view of the statue from a helicopter ride over the top of the statue. This for me was a special moment as I have never ridden in a helicopter before and had always wanted to.

I rode in the front passenger seat and took off the door so I could film out of it. They didn't ask me to, but I clipped the camera to me just in case, especially as he said if I dropped it, it would go though the tail and that would be the end.

It was an incredible experience and so much smoother than I ever thought it was going to be. We managed to get some lovely footage in the 15 minutes we had in the air.

That concluded the Crazy Horse filming, so we said goodbye to Pat and took a piece of rock from the mountain blast as a nice souvenir.

Tonight we stayed down the road in a lodge so we were close to our next story, the buffalo roundup. We arrived at the lake lodge just as the sun was setting so I thought it would be nice to have a swim in the freshwater lake next to where we were staying. The water was FREEZING but oh so refreshing. I did get out pretty quickly though.

That evening we pondered firing up the BBQ but soon discovered that although the lodge had a hob and microwave, there was no cutlery, crockery or cooking equipment at all.

We settled for the restaurant at the late which had a somewhat restrictive menu. We all went for a salad to avoid any fried food, but my chicken salad came with a deep fried chicken breast, Mmmmmm.

Once again we were last to leave the restaurant and the hoovering and cleaning was well underway as we tucked into our meal (around 8pm). We ordered a dessert and took it back to the lodge. We have decided to slip forward all our meals from this point to fit into American time.

South Dakota - Day 2 - Crazy Horse

Friday 24^th September 2010

OK, If we're going to save the world environmentally we're gonna need some help. The Holiday Inn Express (Custer) have developed the ultimate in throw away breakfast. Plastic knives, forks, spoons, plates and polystyrene cups for the coffee...Mmmmmmmmm. Kind of makes you think it's not worth bothering when the other side of the world have no idea about wasting plastic. Oh, they do leave your towels if you hang them up so they are not “all” bad. *sarcasm off*

Breakfast itself was a little basic with muffins, bagels, scrambled egg and porrage. Although the did have the most amazing Cinnabon, really naughty but amazing.

First story of the trip is Crazy Horse Monument. As we drove to the site a few miles down the road we suddenly spied the memorial from a distance, and it looked quite spectacular from there, even before we got close.

On arrival we met press man Pat Dobbs who was really helpful and gave us a quick tour. Now Pat is a talker, in a kind of, why say 3 words when 30 will do, way. Although he did give us some great info and looked after us for the next three days.

One of the first things we got to do was talk to Ruth Ziolkowski. Ruth is the wife of Korczak Ziolkowski who was first approached to carve the memorial in 1939. Since his death, Ruth and their family of 10 children have continued the project and it looks like the grandchildren will keep it going.

The carving takes no federal money and has been offered it twice. Korczak always wanted to keep it publicly funded as he believed people would engage with it more and they would see it through to the end.

Ruth, now getting on herself still has a very active role in crazy horse, she still gives lots of interviews and the one with us was fantastic, she is certainly well media trained. She also runs the post office at Crazy horse for which she is paid $1 a year which of course she doesn’t cash as it's federal money.

After that we were given a rare treat in being taken to the top of the carving right in front of the head. Not many people get to do this, most tourists are driven around the bottom.

Pat took us up and recommended we walked right to the end without looking back so we could turn round and experience the full majesty and size of the finished head.

When we turned it was incredible, it looked a lot smoother than I thought it would and was full of some amazing geology that you cant really make out from the visitor center a mile away.

Whilst we were up the top, we met with Kaz Ziolkowski, son of Korczak and Ruth who still works on the monument. He was a little shy at first but soon told us all about what it was like to work on this humongous project.

That evening we thought we'd manage another Custer restaurant for dinner but we didn't get back until late, but on the walk to the same restaurant as the night before, we found another one open.

This was a proper steak house, and one that sold vegetables. AMAZING! The meal was good and only really runied by the bill coming mid way through dinner and the hoovering up. It was cracking on for 8.30pm........

South Dakota - Day 1

Thursday 23^rd September 2010

Travel Day....

So United Airlines, isn't their check-in fun. What we thought was an empty check-in was in fact first class. When we found the cattle class (after I’d been to customs...more below) the queue was massive, then came the mid-queue passport checks where they disappeared with our passports and asked Maria detailed questions (because she's Irish and they clearly cant be trusted).

This is the first time I’ve ever had to manage a carnet (It's like a passport for kit to check you're not buying kit abroad and saving money on avoiding VAT).

It involves writing down all the kit you want to take, serial and model numbers. This all has to be stamped on the way out and on arrival in the states. So having filled this all in the week before I was prepared if a little unsure as what I had to get stamped, but the Heathrow guys were quite helpful.

The United Airlines queue left us no time for any “shop” time at Heathrow, but I did manage to convince the others to register for the iris scan when we had gone through security. If you haven’t done this, it is free and means when you re-enter the UK, you can go through the iris scan booths instead of queueing, (and then you go and wait for your luggage with everyone else, but hey).

I do advise anyone flying United to take plenty of entertainment, the system had 5 really shit flims and 5 TV programmes. That was about it. Luckily I had an episode of Sherlock tucked away for such a crisis, although much to the annoyance of the other passengers, we did all talk a huge amount though the flight discussing a range of subjects including the all important critique of the office staff..(most of you fared well, but some....well....).

Funniest part of the flight was, after a bumpy approach and a pretty silent cabin, the plane touched down to a “Whoooooooohhhhhh” from a kid which made the whole plane laugh.

On the way out of the plane, first class passengers were reminded over the tannoy (to the whole plane) to pack away “ALL of your pillows blankets and complementary shoes” just to remind us of the luxury they had been experiencing.

Most flights to the middle of the states go to Chicago or Denver, we flew into Denver which is pretty sparse based on the approach to the airport and what we saw on our next flight on a tiny (Smallest plane I have ever been on) trip to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Our (only) flight attendant, Dana, looked like she had flown that route for the last 30 years and knew those safety procedures like the back of her hand.

We touched down in Rapid City to a tiny airport and went in search of Europcar....Oh they don't exist, but hold on Hertz have our reservation...Oh hang on so do National, Oh, but both details are incorrect and state we will be returning the car to the same location and don’t have any extra drivers. On setting every thing straight we are told it will quadruple the price. No problem, a quick call to the worldwide 24h helpline will sort this out.

Oh, they have no record of the booking as this is a UK centre. We took the car anyway.

We chose to stay near our first job at Crazy Horse monument, so a nice night drive through South Dakota to Custer was great fun to our “everything is amazing, cute, strange minds”.

On arrival at the Holiday Inn Express, we quickly were reminded that we were no longer in a 24h city as all the restaurants had closed bar one. With no further option we had our first (and certainly not last) fried food dinner. The bonus of this place is that they advertised over 100 beers. So we dutifully tried one each to close what was now hour 24 of our first day.