Day 45: Cows and paddle boats

The Golden Cow was our first stop today. No, it is not a big golden cow of biblical proportions, but rather a dairy farm. They did have giant thickshakes outside though, but not a giant cow to be seen.

This was a great experience: we watched a little movie about dairy cows, then became the audience at the milking. The fellow brought in four cows and took us through the whole process. Afterwards we headed out to the cute little calves and were able to feed them with special calf milk bottles. They were all girls. The boys apparently don't even get a drink from a teat at birth, it's just bye-byes for them... Oh, and if you wondered where all those delicious McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Burger King beef burgers come from, well, spare a thought for the dairy cows that no longer produce enough milk...

The farm also had some cute bunnies to maul, some ducks to freak out and some chooks (protected)! Also on offer are a range of 39 milkshake flavours. Yum! Yum!

The milking show

Mauled bunny

Champion suckers

Thickshake anyone?

This afternoon we headed down to the Port of Echuca to have a look. It is done in a similar style to the Pioneer Settlement in Swan Hill, but nowhere near as extensively and is not as engaging for kids. We had a bit of a meander and it was kind of exciting to be able to step over the Vic/NSW border at a whim. We did that for a bit - but not in front of witnesses! No audiences to our daggy behaviour!

States apart...

Callum and Andrew had to do a quiz about what they learnt at the dairy farm and, as they both got it right, were rewarded with a shopping spree at the lolly shop we saw yesterday. Andrew systematically picked out his stash, while Callum seemed overwhelmed by choice and mainly lingered by the imported cans of drink. After much dithering and deciding, we eventually got out of there with sanity intact and two very happy campers.

Tomorrow is moving day again. This time on to Albury-Wodonga, where we will overnight on our way to Canberra.