Day 178 Kulin, WA

When we departed Wagin this morning we commented on its obsession with wool and sheep.  Every street name includes a sheep and when you get over to the Showgrounds area the streets have names straight from a shearing shed! And then there is the Wine Baaaaa and what about Bull-Avarde! Somebody very clever came up with that one.

We are now in Kulin, just 150km from Wagin but still in the wheatbelt area.  This little town is better know for the Tin Horse Highway that we haven't seen yet as it is on a different road but we will pass it tomorrow. We have come here to see the wildflowers (a trail just outside the town) and also to drive to Buckleys Breakaway.  I won't elaborate on what that is. You will have to wait until tomorrow.

The council run caravan park here in Kulin is exceptional.  There are just twelve sites but all beautifully spaced with double concrete slabs.  The grounds are well kept and as it is only a newish van park the trees are still growing but will offer a nice amount of shade when fully grown. Well done to the council in this area that is catering to the grey nomads.  

After a bit of lunch we walked the short distance to the town area that is abuzz with people.  We find out that the races (sold out!) are on this coming weekend so a lot of the organisations are setting up exhibitions.  We passed an art exhibition and also a tin horse exhibition.  I watched a lady with a tribe of kids searching around the "community" sign for something and then I noticed a bottle with trinkets attached to one of the statues.  I started talking to her and it is a treasure hunt that the council has organised for the race weekend.  You collect a sheet of paper from the council office with a stack of clues that take you to the "treasures" all around the town.  The kids, of all ages, were really enjoying the treasure hunt.

When we arrived at the unmanned caravan park we had to phone the council office for our site number and the lovely lady I spoke to said that we can pay by either dropping into the council office or she will come to our van later this afternoon.  We elected to pay at the office.  What a friendly team they are behind the counter, and they gave us a lot of useful information one of which was to go and watch the mural artist at work.

Wow.  I have never seen a mural artist at work and always wondered how they could paint something so large and keep it in proportion.  The artist we watched was using an iPad as his guide and he was using spray paint as his medium.  It is such a fantastic mural and so lifelike!

This town is one of the friendliest we have visited in our travels.  We passed by a vintage car museum on our walk home and the volunteer who was manning the museum started chatting to us as we passed by and encouraged us to take a book from the book exchange stand that was outside the museum. These stands are usually take one return one but he informed us that there are too many books so take as many as you like!

Small towns right across Australia are the same.  Some of them are struggling to survive and they badly need the tourist dollar.  We have also learnt that it pays to move away from the touristy coastal towns and into the rural towns where everything is just somehow easier. And get a load of these fuel prices.  The cheapest we have seen and today the excise was re-instated!