Outback Road Trip – Sea Lake

Day three of our trip was time for the big run from Sea Lake to Mungo. We started in foggy Sea Lake and ended our day with sunset in Mungo, NP.

The previous evening

Last night, most of our group met our guide, Julie Pringle, at the visitor centre. We sorted out the gumboots for hire (the lake was supposed to be muddy) and headed off convoy style to Lake Tyrell. The plan was to shoot the lake at sunset. Which meant the plan went to hell in a handbasket very quickly. There was almost total cloud cover, barely any water in the lake— and no colour in the sky. So I didn’t even get the camera out of the bag. Fortunately, a couple of our group members had more optimism than me and shared their images, as seen below. Thank you, Julie Powell and Pio Marceline. By now, grumpy and disappointed, the sister and I had given up and retreated to the bar of the Royal Hotel, followed by a delicious dinner and off to bed.

The next morning

Having had no luck with sunset last night, we thought we would try our hand for some early morning shots of the lake before breakfast. But, unfortunately, I opened the door to our motel room, and it was pea soup fog out. So we went back to bed.

An hour later, we braved the fog, deciding to venture out to Lake Tyrell. Our thinking was a shot of the new Tyrell sign in fog would be nice. The closer we got to the lake, the thicker it got, and after a few U-turns, we gave up trying to find the road in. Hungry and defeated, we returned to Sea Lake for breakfast at the Bottom Cafe. We had to make do with sitting outside again, as the new dining room isn’t finished yet. However, the owners were lovely, brought out a patio heater, and set it up to warm us while eating. We both had the delicious brekky wraps, and the coffee was excellent and hot 🙂

With breakfast over and the fog starting to thin, we headed out of Sea Lake towards Mildura via Robinvale. At Robinvale, we called into an old homestead. Unfortunately, that was also a bust, nothing to see, but by now, we were 3 for 3 (sunset, sunrise, homestead), and hopefully, with our jinx behind us, we would have photographic luck hereon.

Mildura

As the morning wore on, and the further north we went, the fog cleared, and we had blue skies and sunshine as we drove to Mildura, arriving around lunchtime. We met up with our group at “Bobby and Me”, a cafe alongside the river, for lunch. It’s a ‘diner-type cafe in a shipping container, but they have tables and chairs on the lawn, and the service was good. We had the New York hot dogs and coffee. Delicious.

After fueling up all cars, (there is no fuel at Mungo), we headed to Wentworth and called in at the visitor information centre for last-minute info on roads. Our planned route would take us up Wentworth Road for 88kms before turning off onto Top Hut Road for the last 55kms. Top Hut is a dry weather road only, and while it’s dirt, it’s certainly in much better condition than Arumpo Road. Although due to being told, there is a rollover weekly on Arumpo Road, we had no intention of going that way. Also to be considered is it’s around 80 kms of dirt road compared to 55 kms on Top Hut.

Mildura to Wentworth

In convoy style, our group headed off from Wentworth. We made good time as we had sealed roads before turning onto Top Hut Road. From here, it was dirt all the way to Mungo Lodge. While the road was soft, sandy in parts and corrugated, it wasn’t too bad, and thankfully, we arrived in time for our sunset tour to the walls of china. The entire area is part of the Willandra Lakes, a UNESCO World Heritage region since 1981. However, there has been no water in the lake for around 15,000 years. What is left behind is a surreal landscape not unlike what you would imagine the surface of the moon to be.

The Willandra Lakes Region is an extensive area that contains a system of ancient lakes formed over the last two million years, most of which are fringed by a crescent shaped dune or lunette. Aborigines lived on the shores of the lakes for at least 50,000 years, and the remains of a 40,000 year old female found in the dunes of Lake Mungo are believed to be the oldest ritual cremation site in the world.

enviroment.gov.au

Walls of China

The Walls of China are open to public access. However, unless supervised, you must remain on the boardwalk. We opted for a guide as we wanted to get up on the lunette and shoot the sunset. The guide supervised us as our group of sixteen scattered across the dunes, looking for the perfect composition, setting up our tripods, and shooting the sunset. Not a great sunset, but still a lovely way to end the day before we all piled back in the bus and returned to the lodge for dinner.

next week – our second day at mungo – We get a fabulous sunrise and visit the old homestead