Saturday at Mungo National Park

Saturday at Mungo National Park

This morning was much like yesterday morning.  Very cold but blue sky. This morning a young Kangaroo with a joey moved in to the grass area between our camp and the loos. She was wary of people but not afraid unless you went too close, in which case she distanced herself with a few hops in the opposite direction. As the morning progressed she basked in the sun with her little one not too far away. It was a really nice sharing of space.

This morning we stirred the ashes of last night’s fire to make a new one and over it we got the toasting forks out and made toast. We sat there with our toast and coffee/tea until our eyes smarted with the smoke, by which time we gathered clean clothes and towels, organised the cameras for the day, gathered maps and lunch (I whipped up a hearty vegetable soup in the shuttle chef, it only took 30 minutes!) and headed for the visitor centre. We took turns having a shower. There were two showers so I showered first, then left all the stuff there for Greg to shower after me.

Ahh a  nice hot shower and a good hair wash. I even dried my hair with my hair drier as they had a power point.  Not because I love to have sensational hair – because I, well, would like sensational hair but don’t have it – but I am the first person to get the best headache from walking around in cold weather with a wet head. So cold weather and hairdryers are for me. Thank you National Parks! After that, we made our hot traveller – tea for me and coffee for Greg and started our 75km round trip of the park.

It was going to be a really slow trip as when we approached the lunette, the light changed and Greg had to keep getting out of the car to take photos. There were 37 points of interest marked with a pole with a number on it which corresponded with that point of interest which was on a flyer. Diligently we followed each one. I proudly announced the points of interest to Greg like a well tuned tour guide – even adding my own bits. Maybe I might do that as a career one day.

We had all day so there was no need to rush – and we would not be going back any time soon - so best make the most of it. The day had turned cloudy but not thoroughly cloudy so the sun made brief guest appearances giving the landscape a whole new look. More photos.

At one point we came over another mob of emus on the side of the road. We were happy taking some photos – mainly Greg as they were on his side – until a tourist with a caravan came and scared them away by driving slightly too fast for the terrain. Dickheads. No matter, we rounded another bend and they were there again. This time on my side. How happy I was. Greg and I swapped lenses so I had the big telephoto on my camera and I joyfully captured these amazing animals mooching along. They seemed to ham it up too coming quite close to the car. I dare say they are very used to being shot by cameras rather than guns or spears  nowadays. Another car came along and spooked them so after a brief running photo of them we ventured off to see what else we could find.

The landscape changed totally on the other side of the dunes from low lying salt bush and flat plains to mallee scrub. We did not see much wildlife here but came over a really nice picnic spot complete with table and chairs so decided to pull up and have our lunch. Out came piping hot vegetable soup, bowls, spoons and to really show off, serviettes! Greg commented that it was very strange indeed. Here we were in the middle of bloody nowhere and we are having a hot meal! We don’t even do this at home! The wonderful soup was finished by having a nice piece of sultana cake from yesterday. How civilised!

We packed up our things and hopped back in the cruiser we had been so busy that we had not realised we were starving as it was 2pm.

We ventured around the other side of the dunes and came over an amazing place called Vigar’s Well. It’s a natural spring and in the old days the cob and co coaches, drays carrying wool to Wentworth, travellers, shearers going to and from stations etc. All sorts of people went there to water their animals. Its amazing nobody erected a roadhouse and a pub!

Like walking on the moon!

Although the evidence of that is almost gone the landscape is totally unbelievable. The clouds – fantastic and always changing. It was also really cold and the wind was whipping up. We climbed the dunes and by the time we got to the top the sun obliged and came out from behind a dirty big black cloud. The sun lit the dunes up in a way, being late afternoon, that cast lovely long shadows over everywhere and back lighting the bushes and trees. Simply outstanding.

The dunes  - it was kind of the sun to come out to make
them look fantastic.

Right when we were totally in awe of our surroundings, my camera ran out of memory space on the card and the battery was nearly flat and the car was miles away in the car park. Greg suggested I go back through the memory card and delete the average shots. This was really hard to do as I could not see in the screen whether I was deleting something that could be a really great as the screen is too small. Never mind. I deleted some shots anyway and that gave me space to keep trying to capture this amazing landscape.

Since the sun was starting to set and the afternoon was wearing on. We were taking the longest time to cover the distance, we got back in the car. I found a new memory card and we ventured on.

We passed several points of interest that were interesting but didn’t make good photos. They made these above ground dams that they called ‘tanks’, usually with a windmill to pump water from underground or collect water when it rained. It was a really good idea except it didn’t only water stock, it watered the native animals and all the pests too including rabbits and goats so everyone’s populations thrived and the landscape began to be eaten out. Plants no longer covered the soil. Dust storms were more prevalent. Erosion became a problem. Still they grazed the sheep.

The aboriginals were so busy all their life loving, caring and protecting the land and we came along, kicked them off - and totally stuffed it in less than 100 years. Any wonder they are cross. Now we hand it back in a terrible state and tell them to be thoroughly grateful. Makes you wonder.  Just another of my opinions – whoops.

Zanci homestead is now a wreck but you can still mark out where the house and surrounds were. They also have the best display in the old wool shed which has been restored somewhat. Its built of cypress pine that was recovered from another shearing shed. Inside was very interesting information, mainly of the lifestyle of the people that lived on the station.

Zanci station woolshed - photo by Greg

Although isolated like you wouldn’t believe, the people got together for birthday parties, tennis parties and all sorts of occasions. They were spaced so far apart and didn’t have cars or phones but still managed to respect and enjoy the company of neighbours around them. Sad that these days as many people who live in suburbia, right next to their neighbour don’t even know who they are. These people who were miles away played support roles in each other’s lives. I guess in the remote out back that’s all you had.

A short drive back in the setting sun to Mungo and we had completed the loop. Another wonderful experience. Memory cards full of photos and dying batteries in our cameras we drove on back to the camp. Stopping briefly for another scrounge of firewood from outside the park – this time not too much as we were leaving the next day.

Tonight it was our turn to host the happy hour. Our last night with our new found friends. Wendy wanted to do Pizza and use up all her tomatoes and things as they were venturing into places you could not take fresh fruit. I had no argument. Other than home made pizza was one of my favourite things, someone else offering to cook was a bonus. It pays to take a stick to your neighbour’s fire and make them cake!!!

We had a lovely time. Fire was warming, camping chairs out. I had bought along a platter (not one of my best just a cheap $2 thing you buy at coles) that I cut up cheese, salami, pickled onions, made a sweet chilly and philly dip and put some crackers out. Looked mighty impressive for a bush camp miles from any store.

Wendy bought along a really nice bottle of bubbles – Blue Piranese ( sorry if I spelled that incorrectly)  In any case it was really nice and very fitting to cap off a wonderful time. Greg and I didn’t really want to leave –but there are more things to discover on our trip so we had to. The pizzas were lovely. Some a little sloppy but it all goes down the same way so it didn’t matter and besides we were having such a nice time. Even the feral cat stayed away. Over some lovely bottles of wine we watched the gazillion stars come up, sat in our chairs, revved up the fire and enjoyed our last night in Mungo. What a brilliant time.