Well, I'm back.

I can't post a picture of the actual jousting--a charging horse through a thick crowd is too much for my little camera, though I do have some movies. But here are a couple of shots to prove we were at a cataphract event--the Festa Sant Joan in Ciutadella, Menorca, Spain. Totally insane. For two days, a troop of around 100 horses with riders parades through the town center, actually going in to the houses of the old-time residents for pomada (gin and lemonade) and food. There are also *thousands* of people thronging the streets of the medieval town, also drinking pomada. The crowd is *drunk*. Then the jousting itself happens in a densely crowded town plaza. Densely crowded. It's about 150 yards long, maybe 30 yards wide. It's also sunken about 30 feet below the level of the town, so the walls are lined with people up above--and there are only two ways out of the square, at either end. There's a dirt track about six feet wide down the middle with *painted white lines* to separate it from the crowd. And that's it. Thousands of drunk people. Horses charging at full speed. Lances. And someone got very badly hurt and eventually died. The amazing thing is that this was the first accident at the games in ten years. They say that next year there might be changes, but it's Spain, so I doubt it.

At any rate, here's a pic of the horses parading through town the day before and then one of Ms. Haversack and I and our bottle of pomada, waiting for the games to begin. It was a long wait in the hot sun, but once the horses started charging, more than worth it. I just wish no one had been hurt.

Also on this trip, we rode the same breed of horses, cantered through thick pine woods, and then cantered along a secluded beach and even into the Mediterranean. I'm pretty sure I'm a first level cataphract now.