Mungo National Park

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Monday, 20 May 2013

Mildura

View of the Murray River taken during our run.

Mildura is in the state of Victoria, but just barely. New South Wales border is right around the corner from this little paradise. The Murray River, the largest river in Australia, runs through the area and orchards are plentiful. The town was established in the 1880s and is now home to 30,000 people.

The path through the old Mildura homestead.

This morning we started with a run along the stunning river. The trail is made of crushed gravel which is comfortable underfoot and you can go for a very very long distance. Our run began from our hotel near the center of town and followed along the meandering water. I turned around 5 kilometers later at the Apex Caravan Park and Hectie ran a shorter version turning just past the old Mildura homestead. For me, it was one of those days you can run forever…perfect trail and perfect weather. Total distance equalled 10 kilometers.

Dinner spot from previous night.

 

Mungo National Park

Our breakfast choice was easy…Stefano's Bakery. Perfect choice for the long day in the outback that we were about to experience.
 
Hector really wanted to visit Mungo National Park, part of the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area. This park is known for the longest record of continous Aboriginal (Paakantyi, Ngyiampaa, and Mutthi Mutthi people) life (over 40,000 years). However on this particular day you would never know it. There was not another soul around for the entire experience, so we just enjoyed driving, hiking, and viewing many of the geologic features.

 

To get there, we drove a long unpaved roads (over 100 kilometers). And even though we didn't arrive until 2 pm, we decided to take the additional 70 kilometer drive through the park.

The first stop was the Walls of China.

 

Second stop was the big dune, which I have yet to find out what it is named. We decided to run up the dune and take some pictures.

Hectie with his golden locks on top of the dune with no name.

As darkness approached the park was full of life…not human. Hundreds of kangaroo and emu appeared before us, so we attempted to take photos of these creatures darting across the dirt road. We felt like we were on our own private safari. It was a beautiful end to a fantastic day in a very remote part of Oz.

Drove 289 kilometers.

Ran 10 kilometers.

 

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