Hot Dusty Shep

On the spur of the moment we decided to head inland to Shepparton for the Australia Day weekend. In my mind's eye Shepparton has always been a place that is hot and dusty and it did not disappoint !  

The girls sitting in the dirt ... were quite happy with the dust

Shepparton is in the Goulburn Valley which is reknown for its fruit orchards and is home to SPC Ardmona (as in the cans of peaches and pears etc) and apparently has some pretty sophisticated irrigation systems so it was a little confusing as to why it felt like we had stepped into a dustbowl.  Perhaps they reserve all the water for the fruit trees?!?    Anyway the girls did not mind one bit and in fact seemed happier the dustier and dirtier they got.  

One of the attractions in Shepparton is Kidstown which lays claim to it being Australia's (or was it just Victoria's) largest adventure playground.

And off course, there was no let up on the chicken from Abbey ... at exactly 11am there was the very familiar call for "chikin, chikin, chiiiiiikiiiiin".  

Abbey and her chicken

It was a pretty good adventure playground complete with its own miniature railway and the only way to get the girls to leave was to bribe them with ice-creams.  They have worked out that they should get different ice-creams so that they could have a wider selection to sample ! 

Shepparton is also home to "mooving art" and everywhere you look there are some very artistic looking cows.  Abbey was beyond excited whenever she saw one and you could not get her still long enough to snap a proper photo of her with her beloved cows.

 
 

But the highlight for the girls especially in the 40+ degree heat was Aquamoves ... a fantastic local pool with the best toddler pool we've come across and next to it was a water playground ... heavenly for both kids and adults in the heat.  In fact, it was so nice we literally spent all day there from 10am to 5pm and in all that time, Eloise probably only had 30 minutes out of the water (and that was only after being told she had to come out for lunch and bribed out with an ice-cream). She is very adept at making friends and always managed to find a little friend or friends to buddy up with all day.