Bull boy's back

8th August 2008

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Mathew Sharp is back in Gladstone after taking on the bulls in Spain.

MATHEW "Sharpy" Sharp has shaken off the dust from the bullfighting arena and returned to Gladstone and the humdrum.

Sharpy attracted attention to the Australian flag when draped in one while almost being impaled during the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, last month.

He escaped with just a scratch after being charged by a young bull on two occasions.

"I don't know why the bull picked me out of the 30 other people in the ring, but I could see him eyeing me off," he said.

Sharpy said there was no time for pain.

"There was too much adrenalin to feel any pain," he recalled.

"What was going through my head perhaps grab the horns and flip over the bull's back? I don't know."

He said the bull caught him head on in the first run and tossed him to the ground.

"Then he was off chasing a few others, but he decided to pick on me again and rushed me," he said.

"He caught me under the leg and I ended up on the ground again."

Sharpy had always had a yearning to visit Europe and see the sights, but it was the decision of his Gladstone girlfriend Courtney Allen to go to Spain for an extended holiday that finally firmed his resolve.

Missing her, he packed his bags and was off.

Unfortunately, Courtney was staying with a host family in Madrid when the bull run was on.

Sharpy remains undaunted by his ordeal.

He said if he returned to Spain he would again do the run.

But extreme sport in the %bullring was only a small part of his European experience.

"I ate a lot of Spanish and Italian food Naples has the best pizza in the world, they really have got it down pat and drank a lot of German beer," he said.

He also saw a lot of sights and even enjoyed the sense of history that Europe presents and the art.

The Vatican City was a highlight.

"That is a really great experience and to see the Sistine Chapel that Michelangelo painted was just awesome," he said.

Sharpy's planning a return visit to Europe this time the Greek Isles and Croatia.

"But, you know, nothing beats home," he said.