The short drive down to Pinjarra was a pleasant one, and the town itself had a gorgeous villagy feel. The care taken of the heritage buildings, the gardens lining the town centre and the sympathetic new buildings all told us that the locals have plenty of pride in their town. We travelled a few kilometres further on and pulled into the lovely (but a little bizarre) Fairbridge Village. This too was a heritage village, set in lovely rolling green acres, beautifully preserved but almost completely empty. The place was purpose-built for migrant children over 60 years or so ago, so is basically a collection of old style houses with a big brick church at one end. So think along the lines of 'Oranges and Sunshine', without the slave labour and other atrocities (well, so we gathered from the literature on the place anyway - or maybe it was just wishful thinking). These days it is used for school camps, conferences and outdoor adventure activities. It did have a bit of a ‘Children of the Corn’ feel to it.
Some friends that we had met in Darwin (Justin, Kristy, Allan, Jasmine, Lily, and Ruby) had overtaken us and were hanging here for a couple weeks while Justin did a kayaking instructors’ course, so we thought it would be fun to catch up with them on the way down.
After we found which one of the many buildings they were staying in, we checked out the adventure area on the other side of the village – where after a while of happy play we decided to split after 1 kid, and then 2 kids, and then 3 kids splat themselves on the ground (luckily no serious injuries).
We stayed the night on their back lawn – having a bit of Halloween cubby party that night. Unfortunately Halloween is not so fun when there’s only one place with anybody in it for 10km! Still, the kids were delighted to be together and were able to get more lollies than they could eat somehow. The adults stayed up and chatted for a while, but had to cut it short as Justin had to get to Perth in the morning to continue his training and therefore needed to get up at the crack of dawn.
Next morning, we played for a while and the kids were sad to (again) say goodbye to Allan, Jasmine, Lily and Ruby.
We stopped at the Pinjarra Pie Shop in Manjurah(!?!) – which had been teasing us for a few kilometres with advertising claiming they had the best pies in Australia. Kel was keen to check them out and we did – gorging ourselves on a Pie and Milkshake meal along with other bakery delights. They may indeed be right about the best pie bit!
We also stopped off briefly at Harvey Dam where Rich had some old memories of when he visited the construction of the dam for work a few times 8 or so years ago, and then continued through the fields and farms on the way to Margaret River, arriving at Prevelly Beach around 3pm. Rich went for a quick drive up to Surf Point to check out the surf (it was pumping), while the kids acquainted themselves with a new friend, Chloe, back at the campsite.
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