When travelling from east to west, Balranald is the logical and most convenient point to access Mungo National Park. One of the reasons we waited in Balranald for 2 days was to closely monitor the weather forecasts. For several days substantial rain had been predicted and because the majority of the 150Km. distance to Mungo is unsealed, rain could close the roads for days, or longer. In today's world of modern technology it was easy to monitor the weather with our computer and mobile broadband and so we closely watched the weather patterns and predictions. The decision was made to take the chance and with fingers crossed we left Balranald. If we got this wrong and heavy rain did affect the area we could be stuck out there for many days.
In the end our drive out to the national park was uneventful apart from needing to take it really easy through the sections that were very rough and rocky. Once we had registered and paid for our campsite at park headquarters we drove off to set up in the main campground. Choosing a site was easy in the well laid-out, spacious camping area. Although setting up was not all that pleasant as the temperature was over 42 deg. Celsius. As evening approached we returned to the park headquarters to begin our discovery tour of the "Walls of China" section of Lake Mungo. A visit to Mungo would not be complete without taking part in one of these very interesting and informative tours. Our tour was certainly enhanced by our friendly and jovial guide, Ernie.
Discovery Ranger, Ernie.
7,000 year old
Mungo is such a fascinating place and well worth it's world heritage listing and it was all brought back to life by Ernie, Thanks mate ! Taking part in a discovery tour is the only way the public can gain access onto the fragile landscape of this ancient lake bed. In the sediments of the lunette there is evidence of continuous human occupation going back at least 40,000 years and it has the oldest example of ritualised burial in the world. Of course the scenery and the sunsets are not bad either.
The next day we took the self guided drive right around the perimeter of the ancient lake bed discovering remnants of Mungo's pastoral era when it was a massive sheep station. That evening we watched, with a little anxiety, the distant thunderstorms passing by, but getting seemingly closer. However we were prepared to leave at any time with the van fully hitched and every thing packed away, should it start to rain. Luckily we had a good night's restful sleep and left the National Park to travel out to Pooncarie and I must say we were very relieved to reach the bitumen road before the rain arrived. We journeyed from Pooncarie following the Darling River to Wentworth where the Darling meets the Murray. Off course most of you will know that the predicted heavy rain did arrive and resulted in some of the worst flooding of NSW and Victoria for many years. We consider ourselves lucky to have been ahead of it.
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