Mungo National Park

Thurs 15^th May

As planned, we were up early to drive further along the loop track to Vigars Well.  The moon was still up, big and full as the sun started to rise in the east.  The sky behind us came to life in a blaze of red, orange and yellow.  It was a beautiful drive.  We were the only ones out there, our footprints the first to break the smoothness of the sand as we walked across the ridge of the dunes enjoying the changing light of the rising sun.

We spent an hour or so exploring the area.  Eventually we returned to the main track and continued our drive, which took us towards the northern end of the ‘lunette’ (crescent shaped line of sand dunes, 30km in length), over the top and down into the ancient lakebed.  This is now covered in bluebush and occupied by emus and kangaroos, but you still get the feeling of driving across a lakebed. 

We had a good look around the remains of the Zanci homestead.  I liked the old stables, built from pine logs bound together with fencing wire.  The roof had been thatched with wire and dried spinifex.  We went down into the dugout, used as a coolroom for supplies but also a refuge from the summer heat.

Having explored the whole area, the information in the visitor centre was now so much more relevant.  There was a short film too, including an interview with the archaeologist who found the bones of Mungo woman and, a few years later, Mungo man.  Really interesting.

One of the megafauna, known as Ziggy.  Oops, I should clarify that's the one on the right!

Meanwhile, preparations were under way at the Meeting Place in the visitor centre courtyard for an event of some sort … a stage, lighting, sound checks, chairs set up and national park workers gathered.

Later in the afternoon we drove out to the Walls lookout, from where we thought we’d watch the sunset and the full moon rise.  It was great out there; they have a boardwalk to enable people to get quite close to the ‘pinnacles’ of the Walls of China.

We were rewarded with the soft, changing light on the dunes as the sun set behind us.  However, long after the sun went down the moon still hadn’t risen!  We ended up driving to the next lookout from where we were lucky enough to see it full and orange, rising over the top of the dunes.

It was magic being out on that ancient lakebed, lit only by moonlight.  We feel we really experienced Mungo today, morning, day and night.  However, things only got more surreal when we returned to the visitor centre – the courtyard was full of people, the fireplaces were aglow and Archie Roach was on stage performing.  There must have been a couple of hundred people.  What a beautiful atmosphere it was, under the desert moon seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.  We felt very lucky to have such an experience.

Archie Roach (centre) on stage at Mungo

Beautiful Mungo morning