Bremer Bay - WA.

Before leaving Albany we were up early for one last coffee at Emu Point Cafe, and then around to the Royale bakery, which I forgot to tell you in the Albany story, was an amazing place for wood fired bread, to pick up some fresh supplies, because we are off to remote Bremer Bay, which we are told it has just the bare necessities! Looks like the coffee machine (Plan B), is in for a workout!

We are welcomed in style.

Bremer Bay.

The drive to Bremer Bay is through mile after mile of blue gum plantation forests. The blue gum is an amazing tree, which in its young stage looks like a silvery blue/grey shrub, then the main trunk emerges from the centre of the bush and heads skywards. It leaves all that pretty foliage behind, and finishes looking like any other gum tree! We turn off the highway and head for Bremer Bay. What's at Bremer Bay I hear you ask. Not bloody much really, but great scenery, beaches, fishing and the Fitzgerald NP. It is situated at the mouth of the Wellstead Inlet. We plan to stay for 4 nights.

We have booked into the Bremer Bay Beaches Caravan Park. We decided to book, as it is a long way in to find there is no room at the inn! Here is a trap for young players! With a name like Bremer Bay Beaches it is fair to assume beaches nearby, right? Wrong!!! We are miles from

Wind farm of one turbine
supplies 40% of towns power.

Set up at Bremer Bay.

the beach! However, it is a nice caravan park, and given the way the temperature has dropped, we are unlikely to be doing much swimming. There is another caravan park closer to town and the main beach, called Bremer Bay Caravan, and it looked nice as well. Our place is full of trees, and they have allocated us the worst site in the park with no hope for the satellite dish. We say no way, and so do the walk to find a site. We meet Rob, the manager driving around on his golf cart. He tells us to hop on board and he will show us the best sites available. Success, site 32 is huge and no trees where our satellite points! The park is quiet, and for the first night we have neighbours but after that we are on our own. Actually, our neighbours were really interesting. They were from the Channel Island of Jersey. More Poms! We learned all about Jersey, and how it is British but independently governed. A tax haven, which probably explains why they can afford to travel annually to Australia for three months where they keep caravans and cars in Perth, at the homes of their children who are working in our mining/oil industries. 

Wellstead Homestead.

Windy Bremer Bay
from the Cuneo Dr. Lookout

The name of Bremer belongs to a British Admiral who was in charge of a ship that came into the bay on a voyage of exploration in the 1830's. First settlement was a family by the name of Wellstead, and the family has lived and farmed here until the current day. In fact Wellstead Homestead is the biggest tourist attraction here today. In fact, the Wellstead name is all over town. They have a wonderful museum, seems the Wellstead's never threw anything away, as well as cafe and wood fired oven, turning out pizza, bread and scones. They kept everything and restored it. We were looking forward to a lunch and look around. We arrived to be told they were closing early, in 15 minutes actually, that they would be closed the next day because Mr. Wellstead had to go to Albany for tests, and that the next two days after that were the days of the week they didn't open! That went really well!!!! No tour, no pizza, no bread, no scones. Aaaaah!!! What else is there to see around here???

Little Boat Harbour.

Blossoms Beach, without cows.

Scenery at least never closes, nor does it have to go in for tests, so we took the no risk option! We did the beaches drive. First stop was Little Boat Harbour, a tiny beach protected from the strong southerly winds. Beautiful. Then it was off to Blossoms Beach, named after one of the Wellstead's cows! Obviously not a lot happens around here! Apparently old blossom got stuck in the sand while about to calve. Happy ending, they both survived and got a beach named after them. From here

Fisheries Bay Marina.

Native Dog Beach.

we went out to Native Dog Beach, a rugged area facing all the Southern Ocean has to throw at it. It was rough and windy. Amazingly, there were a couple of large homes here, partly hidden in the scrub, but with the most unbelievable views. Talk about loving your own company! Next stop was Fishery Beach Marina, a very protected little bay, safe for launching trailer boats and home to a few commercial fishing boats. It was very pretty, and a couple of families were swimming with their kids. The water was freezing! The last beach to visit was

Fishing along Back Beach.

Back Beach.

Back Beach, but this was for another day, as to get there we had to walk through the bush from the caravan park or drive along the beach, but the really soft sand didn't look like something I wanted to take the Landcruiser out onto. The next morning we did the walk, 1.6 kilometres each way, and it was worth it. A beautiful place, and after the walk I thought I was ready for a swim until the feet hit the water and turned blue! Along the beach, we noted a large number of shade cloth covered structures among the scrub. Turns out to be an abalone farm, and if you had a bit of local knowledge, you can drive to the beach along their road. There were a couple of lots of people fishing on the beach, but not with any luck.

The Thong Tree.

Ring Necked Parrot Shower.

Shake your bootie little guy.

In the caravan park near our site was a tree with a whole lot of thongs nailed to it. We asked what the significance was, and the story is that there is a local fox that comes through the park at night, stealing any thongs left out. He only steals one and slobbers all over the other. The tree is the final resting place for all those slobbered on thongs! Now the guy who told us that, kept a straight face all the way through, and even with my "pull the other one" look, he didn't budge, so I will leave you to decide. Suffice to say we kept our thongs inside at night! The caravan park was full of birds, including the beautiful ring necked parrots. We were fascinated watching their antics with the sprinklers. They used them to drink from and wash themselves. Who teaches a parrot how to take a shower??? We watched them take turns in the water for ages.

Bremer Bay Resort's Mermaid.

Pelicans near the
fish cleaning table at Town Beach

Bremer Bay is beautiful, and there are a surprising number of shacks and nice homes all over the area. Shopping is confined to a supermarket, hardware store and a roadhouse. Amazingly, the price of diesel at the supermarket was 10 cents cheaper than the roadhouse!! There is also the Bremer Bay Resort, which is also the local pub. Rob, and our Channel Island friends had told us the food was good, so we decided on a meal there for our last night. It was quite busy, and Rob and his wife turned up for their Sunday Roast. We both opted for the daily special which was a local steak. It came with a lovely mushroom sauce, onion rings, pan fried potatoes, grilled tomato, bacon and asparagus. It was delicious! We washed it down with a local Mt. Barker Merlot from Ironwood Estate, and had a great night. Next morning we packed up early for a longish drive to our next port of call. We have had a lovely, relaxing few days at Bremer Bay. The fishing rods didn't get a work out, as mostly they fish off the beach with long beach rods. Not my scene. I don't think we would come back to Bremer Bay, but it is undoubtedly a beautiful place, and well worth calling in to see.