Walkabout with Marjan: Mungo

Wednesday

Well we managed to get up early, ven after having a 6 course dinner at Stefano's. Very nice food, interesting locale, in the basement of the Grand Hotel, and very busy wait staff, they made us tired just looking at them.

The road to Mungo started as you would expect from Mildura, normal road with citrus groves and vineyards along it. It slowly changed to dirt road with huge wheat fields, followed by open malle scub with the odd cow, and finally on to salt bush and mallee with some sheep. Through it all we had a huge sky.

Of course the Wentworth council has ensured that the road has all the modern conveniences.

We eventually (90 minues of dirt road) got to Mungo National Park. This is an odd little place. It is part of the Willandra lakes district. The Willandra was a distributory of the Lachlan when there was water in these parts and it formed a series of lakes. They had water till about 20,000 years ago. This meant there was all sorts of life around the water. More recently people grazed sheep around here and the salt-bush that proliferates at the bottom of the old lakes is apparently very tasty for sheep. After WWII divided up the ountry among returned soldiers the sheep farmers ended up with very dry land which eroded severely. The rosion around Lake Mungo meant that the ridge on the lee side of the lake lost most of its plant coverage and lo and behold we found some human remains which are currently dated to about 42K years ago. Mungo Man and Mungo Lady (not me being twee, it is what she is called) have redefined the human calendar.

We headed to the eroded lunette at the far side of the lake to start.

The lake itself had plenty of dry land wildlife

On the outside lee of the lake, the eroded soil is creating moving sand dunes that march east with the wind. Hard to get a sense but these would have been twenty-thirty metres high.

Back near the park entrance a couple of old homesteads provided some interesting recent history as well. We spent most of the day driving, walking and viewing this place. Really interesting.

Spent the night at Mungo Lodge. Great location just outside the national park. We had booked the cheapest cabins as the place, due to its remoteness, is quite expensive. The cheap cabins lived down to any potential expectation. However the chat with the managers and the volunteer teachers who were doing a five week sting supporting the parents in the teaching of their three kids was quite enjoyable. Especially with a drink in hand, and open fire raging, and a beautiful sunset sky just outside.

When you think this place is at least an hour and a half from anywhere you realise how big the School of the Air service is in country Australia. What was new o us whas the volunteer service of teachers who drop in to assist. They were a retired couple, he was secondary, she primary and they planned to travel and teach in this way. Seemed an awesome idea.

Thursday

Nothing too exciting. We headed back towards Mildura, but we drove west to hit the Darling, and then drove along it till it joined the Murray at Wentworth. Really we did the previous days driving in reverse. Saltbush, to mallee scrub, to Darling river flats.

Had a nice time in Wentworth, checking out the confluence of Darling and Murray, having a walk between the two rivers, picnicking along the Murray and checking out the bird life in the area.

A Major Mitchell