Mungo National Park

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)

Sunday, 13 October 2013

We left Mildura after breakfast, and arrived to the Main Camp at Mungo NP around lunchtime with a fuel stop at Wentworth, the place where the Darling River merges into the Murray. From there we followed the Darling river along its left bank towards Pooncarie for another 90 km, then on a dirt road another 60 km to the park. The dirt was reasonably good, accessible for 2WD vehicles, but still it was better to lower the tyre pressures to reduce the vibration on the corrugations. 
The main camp is very well organised, spacious individual sites well separated from each other, each with its own fireplace and picnic table.  After lunch we went for a walk to the Mungo Lookout, for a view of the dried-out Lake Mungo and the white dunes of the "Wall of China" on the other side. Another short walk along the "Grasslands Nature Stroll" gave us an overview of the vegetation of the area with lots of information displays.
Before sunset we drove out to the other side of the lake, to the Walls lookout, about 10 km away. The weather was cold and windy, and there was a little rain, which gave us an unexpected, interesting sight along the way: large groups of kangaroos congregating on the short sealed section of road in front of the visitor centre, licking up the water from the little pools on the pavement. We have never seen so many kangaroos at the same time. There were also many emus very close to the road. 

From the lookout the Walls  - eroding clay formations of various colours - seemed a bit disappointing to me, I expected something more monumental.

Monday, 14 October 2013

We woke up to clear sunny skies after a cold night, but the wind remained strong over the whole day. In the morning we drove along the Mungo Track, a 70-km loop circuit around the NP with several stops and short walks. The most impressive was the Red Top Lookout, where the clay formations were more impressive and colourful than from the Walls lookout. 

At the Northern end of the lake, we climbed up to a tall sand dune for a nice view of the surroundings. We saw many kangaroos and emus wandering around the area, obviously not frightened by the presence of people.
We went back to the camp for lunch and a rest, then drove to Zanci Homestead for an afternoon walk along the Pastoral Heritage Loop, continuously harassed by clouds of flies around our faces. In the Zanci Woolshed we saw a very rich and nicely presented set of information display about the pastoral history of the homestead and the creation of the National Park. 

We finished the day at the visitor centre, going through some more info displays and a hot shower. See a short video about our visit at Mungo NP here: http://youtu.be/EfDPWgPTakc

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

After breakfast we packed up and drove back to the sealed road, then to Pooncarie for a fuel stop, and then on to Menindee, another 110 km dirt road, but not too bad. Menindee is another small locality of less than 1000 inhabitants along the Darling River, and the centre of several large overflow lakes. 

The Darling River

The Kinchega National Park - the first of its kind in Western NSW created in 1967 from the pastoral station of the same name - is just beside Menindee. There is a River Drive meandering along the right bank of the Darling River, with many individual camping sites. We chose one of those as our camping spot for tonight. 

The remains of a paddle steamer explosion

We drove along the whole length of the River drive, visited the remains of the boiler of the P.S. Providence, a paddle steamer that blew up at this spot in 1872, the ruins of the Kinchega Homestead and the Woolshed and Shearers's Quarters, historical remains of the former pastoral life.

Kinchega Woolshed

 Then we spent a memorable evening at the campsite, cooking our dinner at the camp fire and watching a pair of pelicans fishing in the river.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

It was hard to leave this beautiful place, but we had to go on. After breakfast we headed to Broken Hill, only about 120 km away. On the way we stopped  at a lookout for a view of the bird-life at Menindee Lake. 

Menindee Lake

After settling down in a caravan park, lunch and a bit of rest, we drove to the city centre, and went through an art gallery, containing both aboriginal and classical Australian/English paintings, some very nice ones. Then we walked around the city centre to appreciate the historical heritage buildings of the city. 

Broken Hill city centre

This was a very hot and windy day, enough for a day's activities. 

Thursday, 17 October 2013

The Miners' Memorial

We spent the day visiting some historical and touristic interest in and around Broken Hill. First we drove up to the Line of Lode (the site of the major silver-lead-zinc deposit that made Broken Hill a mining centre) lookout and Miners' Memorial at the top of the hill beside the city.
From there one can see a nice panorama all around, but it was so cold and windy we did not have much time to enjoy it.

Then we drove out to Silverton, about 25 kms away from BH, an old mining settlement, established before BH, but abandoned already around 1890. This place became an attractive location for movie-makers, the historic Silverton hotel was present in more than 100 films. 
In the afternoon we visited the Pro Hart gallery, a local painter who rose to world-wide fame with his naive narrative paintings of life and landsacpes of the outback.

Lastly, we drove out to the "Living Desert" a sculpture park at the top of a hill outside BH, where a group of Australian and international sculptors made a dozen sandstone sculptures in 1993 as part of a symposium. The sculptures are a bit rudimentary (in my humble opinion) but the location and the setting is worth the visit. 

Két napot töltöttünk a Mungo Nemzeti Parkban. Egy kellemes bozót-kempinben éjszakáztunk. Több rövid sétát tettünk a kemping környezetében, megismerkedtünk a növény- és állatvilággal. Sok kengurut és emut láttunk, meg nyulat, ami itt kártevonek számít. Elso este vot egy kis eso, utána kiautóztunk az egyik kilátó-ponthoz, közben érdekes látványban volt részünk: a rövid burkolt útszakaszon kenguruk csapatostul gyultek össze a burkolaton összagyult vizet nyalogatták. Ennyi kengurut még nem láttunk egy rakáson, és nem féltek az emberektol, csak az utolsó pillanatban ugrottak el. A Mungo NP leghíresebb nevezetessége a "Wall of China" a Kínai Fal, a kiszáradt tó másik oldalán. Sok szép képet láttunk már róla - most, éloben kicsit csalódást okozott, nagyobb léptékunek képzeltem. 
Másnap, hétfon, egy 70 km-es autós túrát tettünk a nemzeti park körül. Tübb helyen megálltunk, szép kilátó-pontokon, megcsodáltuk a Kínai Falat ahonnan lehetett, meg a növényzetet, most is sok emut meg kengurut láttunk. A végén a korai telepesek pásztor-életének emlékeit látogattuk meg, a Zanci farmház és birka-nyíró telep meglévo romjait.
Kedden továbbmentünk észak felé, Menindee-be, és az éjszakát a Kinchega nemzeti parkban töltöttük, a Darling folyó partján. Végigautóztunk a Darling folyó partján, egy szép eukalitpusz-erdoben, és itt is megnéztük a Kinchega Homestead (farmház) romjait és a még meglévo birkanyíró telepet. Este tüzet raktunk a vízparton, nagyon kellemes táborhelyünkün.

Szerdán érkeztünk Broken Hill-be és az utóbbi két napot itt töltöttük. Broken Hill régi bányászati központ, foleg ezüst, ólom és cink érceket bányásztak itt 1885 óta. Végigsétáltunk a központ foutcáin, meglátogattunk két galériát, felmentünk a bányászati emlékmuhöz. Kiautóztunk Silverton-ba, egy korábbi bányász-településbe amit már 1890 körül felhagytak, de azóta rengeteg film helyszíneként lett híres. Végül meglátogattunk egy szabadtéri szobor-parkot a városon kívül egy domb tetején. A homokko szobrokat 1993-ban egy nemzetközi szimpozium keretében készítették a résztvevok. A muveszeti szinvonalat nem vagyok hivatott megitélni, de a helyszín és a környezet mindenképpen érdekes és élvezetes volt.