Views from the old woolshed on Mungo Lake All of us on the "Walls of China" The "Walls of China"

View across Mungo Lake

Friday, 1st May, 2009
The sun is about to set, and we are sitting around the campfire in Mungo National Park. It feels so good.

The road to Mungo NP finally re-opened and we came in on Wednesday. Once again setting up has been quick and easy. We are still finetuning where everything goes once camp is erected, but we’re getting there. Travelling with the camper/trailer certainly has advantages – like a really comfortable night sleep.

Mungo Fact sheet:
"Mungo NP covers much of an ancient dry lakebed system in southwest NSW. During the last ice ages, Lake Mungo was one of a chain of freshwater lakes strung along Willandra Creek, then a main channel of the Lachlan River. These dry lakebeds preserve the longest continual record of aboriginal life in Australia, dating from approximately 40,000 years ago to the present day. The lunette (or “walls”) contain extremely well preserved campfires, cooking hearths and burials. The oldest recorded cremation in the world has been found at Mungo. The Willandra Lakes region is a major part of the jigsaw of Australian and world archaeology."

This place is really amazing. It’s great to have a campfire each night and enjoy the socialization a fire naturally brings with it. We’ve had the roast lamb in the dutch oven, slow-cooked in the fire embers – YUM! However, no leftovers for tonight’s dinner, so it will probably be noodles. The bush walks are great with wildlife such as kangaroos and shinglebacks being regularly sighted. The boys are so noisy everything else runs away before we get there. You actually walk down into the basin of the dried lake and lookout to the white walls of the lake. They stand out along the horizon bright and white against the blue sky and are nicknamed the “Wall of China” – fair comparison.

Today we went for a drive along the dried basin of the lake to the Wall of China. Amazing! It felt like we were hiking on another planet – bit like the moon and mars rolled into one. The boys went crazy running up and rolling down the sand dunes. Then it was time to drive back to camp, which included many sightings of kangaroos and emus running in the bushland, to be in time for showers at the Information Centre.

Dan rode his pushbike on two wheels for the first time today!!!

The satellite phone is working well. We had to test it out a few times for the sheer fun of it. We’ve set up the solar panel which is keeping up with the boys nightly playstation and movie fest, and also recharging our batteries which in turn runs our inverter which then charges our myriad of lights, cameras and PC.

Tomorrow we are driving to Broken Hill. That will be our chance to re-stock our food supplies – most importantly fruit tingles – ready to drive on to Cameron Corner.