Hello folks, last week I went on a Roving Dinner. “What’s that?” you may possibly cry, well it’s a four course meal with a difference. It’s a progressive feast, with each course being served at a different restaurant along the brilliant Beaufort Street in Perth.

It’s all in conjunction with the Beaufort Street Festival, an all-dayer attracting heaps of people with loads of live music, art, bands, a food stage, entertainment, and local restaurants and bars selling their wares out the front of their premises.

Jolly good show, so let’s get on with it! First stop is Mary Street Bakery for canapés and a good chat with Courtney the Head Baker.

Courtney’s been working here for about a year and is a great asset to the business. Knowledgeable and affable, he takes great pride in his work. At Mary Street Bakery they source their flour from Western Australia’s Eden Valley and it’s bio-dynamic, organic, stone ground and milled especially for them. The place is a great stop for breakfast, a real vibrant hub with a ton of freshly baked goods. Tonight’s canapés were a great way to kick the evening off, delicious and plentiful. It was like being in the kitchen at a house party, no chairs, everyone mingling and meeting their fellow diners. Always the room you wanna hang out in.

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Howdy folks, here’s a little video I made after visiting the Golden Outback’s Wheatbelt region.

We had a great time at The Kulin Bush Races and Cambinata Yabbies Extravaganza, and if you want a bit more info about these events, have a look through my blog and read The Great Aussie Wheatbelt Road Trip parts one and two (published a couple of blogs ago).

Bye for now, have a lovely day!

Last weekend I headed off to the Kulin Bush Horse Races and the Cambinata Yabbie Extravaganza, so one step at a time Martin, we’ll start off with the gee gees.

Kulin is situated 280km south east of Perth in the heart of the West Australian Wheatbelt and as our campervan cruised further inland into the Golden Outback, I was amazed to see scenery more in keeping with the green fields of England. I wrongly presumed the terrain was going to be all harsh desert and red dirt, but was actually covered in crops, green vegetation and wildflowers.

We stopped en-route to chat with a local sheep and wheat farmer to experience first-hand what it’s like to run a  farm here. The past decade has been pretty tough on the farmers around these parts, with lack of rain a real problem, but this season’s crop looks set to be a bumper one (fingers crossed).

Now folks, I’ll let you all in on a little secret….. farmers don’t wear hats to keep the sun off their face.

How do I know? Well, we asked our farmer for a photo and he duly obliged. A rough, tough Aussie outback bloke, shearin’ sheep and cuttin’ wheat, working hard all day in the unforgiving sun and tough terrain, he said he was keeping his hat on for the photo because……….he was having a bad hair day!

KULIN BUSH RACES

After various stop-offs (historical town of York, Hyden’s impressive Wave Rock and the town’s Antique Lace Collection) we hit the Tin Horse Highway. This 30km stretch of road leading up to Kulin has become quite famous because of the 70 or so cheeky and humorous tin horses that can be spotted along the side of the road.  The horses (made from tin drums and bits and pieces found in farm scrap heaps) were originally built by local farmers en-route to the races to promote the event, but now everyone in the town is creating some form of equine art to try and out-do their neighbour.

Now in their 19^th year, the Kulin Bush Races started as the residents of the town sought something to turn the economic slump and reignite the community after a period of poor farming seasons. It’s completely driven and coordinated by dedicated community volunteers and is not-for-profit, with more than $1 million invested back into community projects over the years (medical services, youth development and school apprenticeships to name a few).

But apart from all that, it’s bloody good fun and a great weekend (or week-long event if you want to camp longer).

It’s not just about the horses either, it’s a family orientated event with arts and crafts, sheep shearing, walks up Jilakin Rock to witness spectacular views, circus performers, the traditional Aussie game of Two Up, live bands on the back of trucks and delicious country style food. I ventured behind the serving counter in the main marquee to the kitchen, and met all the ladies of the town who prepare the food for the 6,000 visitors every year.

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