Gidday all,

As always, last minute change of plans. Looked at the map and decided we were close enough to Lake Mungo to go and have a look. Always wanted to go there, so why not now?

Packed up and headed up the Darling River. About 30ks up the track found a nice spot by the river and pulled up for the day, we did get a late morning start after all.

 

Next day, made it to the visiter centre at Lake Mungo. This is the place they found the oldest known remains of humans in Australia, some 42000 years old. Mungo Lady, she was only 17 years old when she died.

They also found footprints in a clay pan dating back 40,000years, as well as preserved skeletons of megafauna.

 

 

 

 

 

You drive into the vast, dry lake bed to the western side, where you can see the ancient shoreline with its eroded clay mounds and shifting sands.

 

 

Called into the main campground and stayed the night. Next day did the loop track which takes you through the lake bed and around the other side. Another, more remote campground is over there so we staid the night there too.

In the morning, when it warmed up a bit from the minus 1 overnight, we headed along the track again. Reached the shifting sand dunes and went for a climb. Great views of the ancient lake.

 

 

Came out on the park boundary and pointed in the direction of the Darling again. What a special, important and spiritual place. We sat in the silence of the lake bed and thought of Mungo Lady and her tribe, foraging, hunting, communicating, laughing, living there more than a thousand years before the Egyptians started to build the great pyramids, just think about it.

 

Looked at the map again and saw we were half way to Menindee, so, back up the Darling, next stop Menindee.  

Gidday all,

Back on the road again. After a week or two back with Deb and the camels hanging about and then camel and dog sitting for her while she went to pick up a bloke who wants to get experience with camels for an upcoming trek he wants to do across Australia.

Deb arrived back with her student and set about training him with her new, young camel. He was nervous at first but was gaining confidence day by day.

We decided to leave them to it and headed off to do a recon of a trip Deb wants to do with the wagon and the new chums for a test run.

SA have public buildings in all small towns called Institutes, lovely old stone buildings, some big some small, most are still used something like town halls. Taplin, just a small settlement on the boarder, with only a handful of residents and a post office, has one. So many ruins of old stone buildings dotted about the state as well.

Out through Sunset Murray again towards Wentworth in NSW and Mildura in Vic

All good dirt tracks till you get to the Murray River near Wentworth where you meet the hiway and have to cross the river on a busy road, not good for camels and wagon.

Went into Wentworth and camped up on the river just out of town, where the Murray and the Darling rivers meet. Went out to the Perry Sandhills just out of town, a large area of sand dunes which were deposited there by the river in years gone by. They have been the location of many films and tv series like Man from Snowy River II, Burk and Wills, Flying doctors and Bony, to name some.

Camped up at the foot of the dunes and spent a couple of days there.

Will now follow the river back towards Renmark scouting for tracks suitable for the camels.