Kulin to Bremer Bay 11th - 14th January

Change of plans decided to head to Lake Grace so the we can catch the little town of Kulin which promotes it's Tin Horse Highway. What a hoot! The locals farmers have a competition between the east and west of the town as to who can have the best tin horse. All we could say is how bloody clever are they. We stopped and walked around the town, best pie I have had for a long time.

We then spent about 2 or 3 hours driving about 15 klms, we lost track of time, just looking, laughing and photographing the creations, just great fun. Each October Kulin has it's annual horse race so we dropped into the track at the base of Jilikin Rocks. It looks like it would be an event bigger than Ben Hur. Interesting thing is that nothing was locked, none of the storage sheds, toilets etc, we just love the relaxed laid back life of country people.

On to Lake Grace with a bit of site seeing on the way and more photos. Lake Grace is a workers town and the caravan parks are full of workers living away from home, so we thought that we would move on to something a little quieter. We found a parking bay about 30 klms out of town so decided to pull over behind some bushes, have some tea and a couple of beers and maybe watch a movie tonight ready for our drive to Bremer Bay. Very windy I don't know if this is the effect of the cyclone. At this stage after 3 months we have covered 9,700 klms, 7,200 klms was done in the first 2 months.

Actually found a Mallee Fowl pen on the way through to Bremer Bay, they are very similar in looks and characteristics to our bush turkey, the Mallee Fowl centre was another interesting compilation of the local history and problems associated with the land.
In Bremer Bay we went looking for the Top Tourist Park and found it and the owner Bruce. We wanted to stay 2 nights and asked him the price after showing him our Top Tourist card. He went on to tell us that this peak season and that he could do it for $45 a night, What! We asked him what the normal price was and he said $60. He has got to be kidding and he didn't give us our 10% discount, not happy, but we pulled in as we could give the car and van a good tub here. You may not be able to hear the banjos but I could see the people who were playing them. The last time I looked I thought all the news bulletins were stating fire bans. You wouldn't know it here, nearly every camp has big fires going and are using anything they can get their hands on to have a fire. The weapon of choice seems to be 3 wheel rims piled on top of each other.

Went to the museum today, fantastic. Most of the display came from the homestead that is now used as a museum. The original Wilstead family appeared to be a very wealthy family with numerous cars dating back to the early 30's in immaculate condition.

The original blacksmith shop and all the original tools, carpenters shop and saddlery were all restored and every tool and item categorised into books for you to go through. Up to the sheering shed which now housed all the tractors and machinery, again all beautifully restored.

And then down to another building which was filled with more cars, motorbikes, carriages, even a horse drawn hearse, all gleaming like the day they were built. More items donated from around the area were stunning and very interesting.

Just loved the place, made the best wood fired pizza and coffees. Off to the beaches with the trade mark white sand and angry rocks protruding from the shoreline. Nice town but I was a bit peeved at being ripped off by over the top camp fees.
 

Had a drive to Native Dog Beach and once again the rock formations are beautiful. While we were there we wrote a happy birthday wish for Susan, a life long friend of Trice's.

Gave the van a good bath, it was great to get some of the red dust off. Off to Albany where we will base ourselves for 2 weeks and discover the surrounding areas from here.