Lake Mungo

Our third Australia Day in Melbourne brings the first true long-weekend of the year. We found out somewhat late that Josh wouldn't have to work so we decided to take the opportunity to explore another part of Victoria - North! We had read and heard about another World Heritage-listed park near Mildura and thought the middle of summer sounded like a perfect time to visit the outback desert. (Please note the sarcasm!) Amazingly we found accommodation and flights without too much trouble and were on our way!

We left on Saturday morning, arrived easily in Mildura, found our rental car, stopped by the visitors centre for some maps and food suggestions, and began our exploration. First stop was one of the many tasty-looking roadside fruit stands where we found fresh grapes, plums, and rock melon (cantaloupe). We then hit the grocery on our way out of town to pick up other breakfast, lunch, and snack supplies for our drive to the park - Wilandra Lakes National Park. The most famous part of the park is Lake Mungo, an ancient dry lakebed where one of the worlds oldest human specimens was discovered in the 1970's. Lake Mungo is also home to the Walls of China; earth formations created over thousands of years by wind and weather eroding the ancient lakeshore. During mid-summer there are not many visitors as the temperature is generally above 40C with prevailing westerly winds. It didn't get that hot for us but we did try to either stay in the shade or the car when possible during the day. With not many tourists around, the wildlife was everywhere and we were able to see plenty of grey kangaroos, a few large red roos, and were also surprised by wild emus and lizards! We hadn't seen wild emus or red roos and happily took more than a few pictures to remember them. The only wildlife that they said lived in the area that we didn't see were echidnas - not surprising given how long it took us to see our first echidna (1.5yrs!) We did also see the expected domestic cattle that now graze just outside the park, and yes we took pictures of them too. :-)

Our first day was spent mainly on the road as the 110km trip from Mildura to Lake Mungo includes 90km of washboard dirt roads. We took it slow and safe, making it to our accomodation (just outside the park) with enough time to explore the visitors centre and surrounding buildings as well as scope out the Walls for future sunset pictures. The sunset at the Walls of China is one of the main attractions and we were able to enjoy the experience both nights we were there. Not quite as amazing as Uluru or the Bungle Bungles, but an outback sunset always seems to provide us with great light for photos. In the sunset, even the local outhouse becomes more interesting!

The second day we packed a lunch and took off on a self-drive tour of the park. The 70km route is intended to take 2.5hrs, though with photo stops and walks it took us closer to 4.5hrs - the views and wildlife were worth the extra time! After that much time on dirt roads though it was time for a nap to recharge before the second sunset in the park. We took some different perspectives for the second sunset but it took some major restraint to not take more pictures of the outhouse on the way back the lodge.

We headed back to Mildura for Australia Day - not realising how quiet the town would be on the holiday we ended up doing quite a bit of window shopping before lunch as the shops were all closed. We drove along the river to one of the local wineries - the area is known for high quantity not quality when it comes to wine, but it was a pretty view and was air conditioned so fit the bill perfectly for the afternoon. We also made the side-trip to Orange World and had a great chat with Mario about Mildura oranges and sucked down one of the best glasses of orange juice that either of us has had in quite a long time. We now know that Australian oranges that are green on the top are actually ripe, just protecting themselves from the hot outback sun - like sunscreen for oranges! We ended our Australia day with a great meal at the Mildura Brewery - watching tennis and cricket on the big screen TVs with a cool beer, steak, and prawns. We flew back to Melbourne on Tuesday morning, stopping briefly at home to clean up and then heading to the office to face one of the hottest weeks Melbourne has had in over 100 years. We're still working on getting all the pictures up to Flickr - they should be there by next weekend, so keep checking back if you get the time!

UPDATE - the pictures are up on Flickr now (have been for a while if you already looked) so check them out when you get a chance. Plenty of Aussie wildlife to see!