We are in Cow World!!

After our time in Perth we decided to head inland from here. As we only have four weeks left for our Aussie adventure we made the decision to enjoy the unique parts of south Western Australia rather than rush to see it all.

The Bauxite mine train

We camped at Pinjarra for the night, a campground at the tourist information centre. Pinjarra is a relatively small country town and there was a pub across the road from the campground so we had dinner at the pub which was nice. The next morning we went in and had a look around the tourist information centre and found an Alcoa Aluminum showroom next door. It was fantastic and interactive for the girls to learn about the Bauxite mine and how aluminum is mined and produced. They dressed up, played with bauxite and alumina and as this was also the railway station we got to see the bauxite train come past as we were there.

Playing with Bauxite and Alumina

The mine truck

After a great few hours enjoying Pinjarra we kept heading south to visit the big orange at Harvey.
Driving along the countryside it was so lush and green farming country. As we were closer to Harvey which is where Harvey fresh milk is produced, there was a green paddock with some black and white cows. Kate yelled "look we are back in cow world". Australia is such a diverse country and over the last five months we have seen so many amazing and unique things. Seeing this country through a child's eye is even more incredible, they constantly remind us of how the simple things in life are often the best and enjoy 'all the different world's' that we do have around us. We have seen cows up north in the remotest of areas, but they were beef cattle and the ground was so harsh, seeing milking cows in a lush green backdrop was a different world to what we had seen over the last five months.

The Harvey Orange

We found the Harvey Fresh factory and climbed the stairs up to the top of the orange which overlooked an orange orchard. We bought some Harvey fresh flavoured milk and some Harvey pear cider from the shop. The shop had Harvey produced milk, wine and juice.
From Harvey went back to the coast to visit Bunbury. We enjoyed a camp at Leshenhult Peninisula, sitting around the fire that night we had a possum and its baby visit us and stole a sausage from us.
We caught up with friends Mal and Helen and their boys. we met Mal and Helen while we were working in Busselton on our first trip around Oz. Look forward to seeing them again in 2012 when they do their trip.

Our camp a Leshenhult

Night time visitor

The girls had read about Australia's largest free playground, which is in Donnybrook. So we headed back inland to check out this playground. It was massive and there were things to do for everyone aged 0 to 100. We had a bbq lunch and a great number of hours having a ball.

A playground for big and little kids!

We found another lovely bush camp that night just out of Manjimup, which is where the world of he tall trees start.