Day 107 – Albany to Kulin

It’s been a great Christmas, having not yet seen Esperance, I’m really happy we had Xmas here, Albany’s been great. But it’s time to hit the road again. It’s rained overnight and we needed to do some early morning shopping, so packup is a little more difficult and it’s just after 10 as we roll out.

The plan is to head towards Hyden, a town near Wave Rock. It’s about 400km north east so it will be a bit of drive. It should also be a little warmer too, being away from the coast.

Through Mt Barker (Bakery – Yum) then after 30km we turn off the main highway that heads to Perth and the traffic quietens off. Through a town called Katanning and this really bizarre old park, full of playground equipment from ages ago (read 50+ years), as Justine points out, it is an injury lawyers…well….playground. Just as well they have all these “play at your own risk” signs up.

Via Dumbleyung, where they have a replica of the Bluebird, which broke the water speed record here on lake Dumbleyung in 1964

We arrive in this town called Kulin, about 80km short of Hyden, it is the start of what they called the “tin horse highway” (more on this tomorrow) they have a 72hr freecamp zone, and the pub is meant to be pretty good. We um and ah (we do this a lot), but we decide to stay. Again it’s not really the cost, although the way we figure it, what we don’t spend on accommodation we’ll spend on dinner at the pub. It’s only a really tiny town, the main street would be less than a couple of hundred metres long, but you can see they’ve really gone to some effort.

….This is one thing I love about the Van, today’s setup was about 3 mins, disconnect the stone stomper, hook-up the jockey wheel to take some weight off the suspension, and turn on the gas and we’re done, with the kettle starting to boil. Sure, when we’re setting up for a couple or more days it takes longer, but the fact we can pull up and be ready almost immediately is great. It will take longer to wash the breaky dishes tomorrow than it will be to packup and be ready to leave.

A group of families, who would be appear to be traveling in a bus (sporting group?) are staying at the pub, they’ve commandeered the street, and I mean the main street, to have a game of backyard cricket. Liam can’t help himself and infiltrates as a fielder, then bowler (of sorts) before finally getting a bat. Of course the game is halted every 5 or 10min as a car comes through. I remember something similar in the back lanes of Glebe went I was very young. Great to see it again.

Good dinner at the pub, and it’s a great old stone building.

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