Friday at Mungo National Park

Friday at Mungo National Park

We awoke about 7.30am to the sounds of the birds in the trees in the National Park and I would not have got out of bed for a while but for the need to visit the loo. What a lovely surprise I got when I stumbled out of the van dressed beautifully in a beanie, coat, jarmies and ugg boots.  The sun was burning off the mist which gave the bush a very soft filtered light look. Trees and grasses glistened as the dew from the night before was shone upon by the sun.

I boiled the billy for tea and coffee and I cut up fruit for breakfast which Greg didn’t think much of but I was determined to eat healthy. We did not bother with showers but had a wash in a bucket. We weren’t that dirty as we just travelled the day before and besides it was so cold it wasn’t like you were hot and sweaty and covered in sweat, sunscreen and insect repellent.

While we were attending to our morning bits and pieces, I made a cake in the shuttle chef. Greg was an important part of this as apart from not having any room, a mixing bowl, an electric beater, etc, I got him to beat the eggs with one of those old fashioned hand beater things and cut the baking paper circles to go in the top and bottom of the steamer bowl. Actually he took such care about the circles I had to remind him that it was not a craft session, its going to be cooked!

This was a sultana cake using sultanas I bought off Joe the fruit man near Mildura. Basically I used a recipe from the classic book ‘common sense cooking’ and adapted it to the shuttle chef. Instead of baking your cake in a tin in the oven, you put it in the pudding bowl, put that in the pan of hot water half way up the steamer, simmer for about 45 minutes on the stove, then put the pan with the steamer inside in the shuttle chef for 5 hours. The shuttle chef recipe book says to cook it for only 30 minutes but I did that and it was undercooked. Anyway, I told Wendy and Pat that I was doing this and should make for a lovely afternoon tea. We all looked forward to the cake that afternoon. A few little prayers for it to turn out didn’t go astray either! I put the shuttle chef on the bed and jumped in the car for our adventure.

The four of us – Greg and I and our new found friends Wendy and Pat met down at the visitor centre and booked in for our walking tour. We met the most delightful fellow called Ernest who is a local tribal lad. We paid for our tour and learned that it wasn’t until 2pm that afternoon. Bummer we thought it was in the morning. No matter there were some walks we were interested in.

Mind the Emus crossing! On the way to the visitor centre from camp.

One was a 2.5km loop and the other 5km. I wanted to do the big one but the time estimated was 3 to 4 hours. I thought I could do it a lot faster but just in case it was difficult we decided to do the short one.  In any case, I didn’t want Greg to get really tired and had no ideas of the fitness levels in the other guys. Good thing as it turned out, as we strolled along (not fast enough for me) but in saying that we saw all sorts of things. Greg and I took photos of interesting old fence posts, scenery trying to capture the vast lake landscape with the bright sands of the lunette in the distance.

Part of the original fence with the shearing shed in the distance

We came across about 8 emus in their family group – whatever you call a bunch of emus is – a feather duster? Boa? Anyway these were wild and just there and don’t get too close to the wildlife.  Greg and I want spare taking photos anyway and Pat – the emu whisperer went around the group to see if he could get them to come closer. So long as we were happy so long as a clump of trees weren’t too far in case they decided to run at us. Ernest had said that some of them have chicks and can be quite protective. That’s enough for me, I have no desire to be run down by an emu or several emus.

 Our first wild emu on the walk
 - we could not stop taking photos

We saw some lovely Cypress Pines which were nicely growing in a forest until the first farmers came and chopped lots of them down to make things. They are termite resistant so became instantly popular for building material. The shearing shed at Mungo and Zanci are both made of them and are a great thing to see – all be at the sacrifice of a lovely tree. Anyway they are encouraging regrowth so I wondered why people can’t just come along and dig some holes and plant some more but I don’t know anything about conservation so should keep my opinions to myself.

A lovely example of a cypress pine

We finished our walk which was lovely but by which time was lunch time so we decided to go back to our camps and have some lunch and meet again closer to the time of the tour. Back at camp I had a really good idea to reheat some left over stew which makes a nice hot lunch – and soak it up with our stale bread. It takes a lot of gravy to make stale bread palatable and I absolutely hate stale bread.

The dunes in the background of Lake Mungo

Being a dill, I forgot to buy bread for the trip and all I had was a quarter of a stale loaf which was not really smart. I was a bit distracted in Wentworth. Anyway after the ‘shit I forgot bread’ episode I decided to make a shopping list in my phone! Its amazing the simple things you forget on holidays – and more importantly what a dill you must appear to be when asking for simple things around a strange supermarket. But I digress. Whilst eating lunch the weather started to cloud over, a mean cold breeze sprung up. We ate outside in our little under cover picnic area and I got out the computer and started typing things to put in a blog. I got an hour by which time me and the lunch were cold and the computer was dying of a flat battery. Time to leave for our tour anyway!

More emus!

Emus taking a drink at one of the waterholes left by the recent rains

Whoops but first we need some firewood!! Ernest said that if we go outside the park for firewood it would be just fine. We would get firewood later.

We all met back at the visitors centre. To my surprise there were several other vehicles there. Everything from Nissan Patrols, Pajeros, Prados, Cruisers, Jeeps, then Subaru all wheel drives, even a combi van and a few sedans (poor buggers!)

Ernest appeared and told us all to follow him. He had a Toyota 4wd ute. Another bloke got in the car with him and he took off. The funniest thing was that everyone wanted to keep up and that ensured that it was hayhem in the car park as people reversed and justled for position. It was hilarious to watch. Forming some sort of line that seemed to be kick arse 4wd vehicles and then the rest, the combi was behind us. Then he dropped further behind as the road was quite washed out from recent rain and very corrugated. The cruiser just rode the bumps like a surfie girl winning a world championship. Hate to be in the combi!

Evening on the road to the lake

We all arrived at the spot and Ernest got out and headed for the loos – so we all got out of our cars and mingled around like lost sheep. At the last minute I got out my coat and a beanie as I am the first person to get an ear ache and a headache in a cold wind. Turned out to be the smartest thing I’d done for a few minutes (ok all day).

Ernest came back from the loo and his mate got out of the car and bought with him a guitar – elaborately decorated but it was far from new. Ernest gathered us around and introduced us to his cousin – Ernie. Now that’s confusing. He wasn’t just Ernest or Ernie but they were the 4^th or 5^th. They explained which tribes they were from and where their parents came from. I can’t remember where but it was great to hear them talking with such fondness for their people. Then without further udo he just said, ‘enough of that lets walk’ and turned and walked off. Ernie following and the rest of us in a bemused state of sheep – followed without question.

Lake Mungo with the Lunette in the distance

Ernest and Ernie took turns explaining what some of the plants were for. They called the area their supermarket. The first plant was on a blue bushy plant with bright red berries on it. He picked some and told us they tasted like tomatoes. We tried and they did. From a tiny small berry about the 8^th of a size of a grape came this vivid amazing tomato flavour. Just delicious.

The next tree was one that didn’t look that amazing but it had pods on it that opened like a locket. Inside was a berry that women used to use. Its very bitter. What they’d do when it was weaning time for their babies was smear it on their boobs so when the child demanded food they got a gob full of bitter taste and learned quickly that boobs weren’t good tucker any more. What a great way to wean. I recon they should sell it to mothers in a boob cream! It must save tantruming kids! Anyway other than not knowing much about nature conservation I am certainly not a subject matter expert on weaning kids since I’ve never bothered to have any of my own – so I’ll leave that one.

The next interesting thing Ernest showed us was a memorial stone. His uncle Colin was a tour guide and suffered a fatal heart attack whilst taking some tourist on the walk. Two nurses were on the tour and nobody could revive him. It was just awful. However to commemorate his life, they dedicated a good sized stone. The stone had to come from elsewhere as this region is not good for stone so they bought this stone in and inscribed his name, plus his past and his children and all sorts of symbology on it. Then they were going to put it right where he died but it fell off the truck about 20 meters short. It was so heavy to move that they left it there. Stuck it into a cement surround and here is stands. Dear Uncle Colin.

On to the viewing platform where the guys explained some of the ways of the ancient aboriginal way of life. There was a gate to the lunette and I really wished I could go there but respected that the people have their heritage there. The talk was really interesting and I could do the walk again just to try and remember all the information.

Just when I thought it would be nice to go over there….. Ernie opened the gate and we stepped all be it cautiously on to the lunette proper. What a treat, an honour and a privilege. Nobody said anything I think we were all in awe.

Like walking on the moon!

In the sand are certain markings. You may come over a small gathering of shells and stones. A fireplace was there 20,000 years ago. Over there is a small dark grey patch, round in the sand. That’s a fireplace even older coming through. Each time it rains a new thing is discovered. Sometimes it’s a fossil. Sometimes a fireplace with evidence of local mussel shells.  The folk here used to eat mussels. All you can see now is bush and its been like it for thousands of years! Along the walk the lunette was just amazing and one was not limited to following the footsteps of our guide – but everyone pretty much did. We found skeletons of wombats buried for years and eventually got to the top of the dunes. The cold wind was buffering us and it was really cold but the best part was that Ernie and Ernest were telling us stories of their childhood and their life and it was just great. Then Ernest said that it was the end of the tour and that Ernie had some songs to sing. I was wondering why he was lugging that guitar around everywhere.

Vast erosion from rabbits, goats and sheep
have lead to some interesting  landscape

Ernie sang songs he made up about coming home to visit his Nan, you could feel the love he felt for his family in this song. He also sang about his ancestry and the spirits of his people that tell him they are with him. Not a concert, just 4 songs and we all stood there, freezing cold and loving every minute of his music. It will live with us forever. Just one of the best experiences we have ever had. Greg felt the same. We all walked back down the sand to the cars where we said farewell to our guides and told them how very grateful we were of the experience. Gosh fancy walking on the dunes among such history!!!

I got chatting to Ernie on the way down the hill. What a lovely bloke. He had had some problems but sorted them out with help and was kicking goals in life now. He told me his father and Ernest’s father were trying to make good lives for their boys, to keep them out of mischief and the grog. They became goat musterers – as goats are in plague proportions up there as are rabbits and are destroying the country. Now he works for National Parks as a guide and enjoys taking people out and telling them all the things. What a great guy and a terrific ambassador.

We arrived back at the camp and it was afternoon tea time. I was starving which surprised me as we had such a decent lunch. I unveiled the cake. Praise the Lord that it was perfect and still a hint warm. Super YUM! I cut slices for Wendy and Pat who had also returned back to camp and popped them on a place. Two slices each. I trotted over to their camp site with my latest offering. First a stick now a cake. Hope they don’t want me to outdo myself tomorrow! They were very grateful, maybe they were as hungry as me. I left them to make a hot cuppa and deal with their fire while we went on our new nightly scrounge for some firewood of our own.

Ernie said we could collect wood so long as it wasn’t in the park, so this time we turned left out of the park, went over the cattle grid on to private land and pinched – sorry scrounged firewood from there. Armed with some gardening gloves and with bonus orange garden bags in the back of the cruiser – we got quite a load. Stoomping on dead twigs, snapping off sizable branches for firewood was quite an exercise but soon we had enough for tonight’s better than last night’s fire.

Back at the camp and over the fire, Pat, Wendy, Greg and I all chatted about the day. We all were as excited about it as each other. What a treat. It was just amazing. So we had a happy hour, I found a bottle of bubbly to share with each other then we retreated to our respective caravans and retired for the night.

I cooked some Mediterranean chook and rice and we had it in front of our little fire whilst sat in our camping chairs. We watched the stars brighten in the darkening sky. So many, many stars…….. and hissed at  feral cat that hangs around the camp to shoo it away. What a great day!  Life was very good indeed.