We were picked up promptly from the Grand Hotel at 8.30am. We are staying at it for two nights.
I have stayed here on a number of occasions and its position is perfect. It is adjacent to a street containing almost all of restaurants and cafes. The hotel is also close to the Murray River which forms the boundary of VIC and NSW.
Phil was the tour guide who proved to be excellent. He was originally from a wheat and sheep farm located in Ouyen to the south of here. We were two of ten people involved in the tour.
We headed off to Lake Mungo which was about a two hour drive into NSW. The road was mostly sealed but there was a section of about 45 minutes duration which was not.
We stopped about 10.30am and had morning tea. We drove on a while further to the lake itself.
We were able to see the Walls of China which form the eastern section of the lake.
On the way to it we had some animals lurching across the road in front of us which included a fox, several sheep and lots of feral goats. The sheep were of several different varieties including a black faced one which is unusual for Australia.
We also drove past a gypsum mine, a large power station driven by alternative energy as well as a Bentonite mine. Bentonite is a highly porous clay used in a variety of manufacturing purposes including kitty litter.
There were lots of Mallee trees around. The top of the the tree can highly vary in age but the roots ( Mallee roots) can be over 2500 years old. They are an excellent source of firewood renowned for its longevity and heat that it exudes.
We also drove past the Willandra Heritage area.
A short time after that, we arrived at the Lake Mungo itself .
It's one of 17 lakes in the Willandra Heritage Region. There are 5 in and around Lake Mungo.
Several important archeological finds have been made there including Mungo Man and Mungo Woman. The remains are over 42000 years old with Mungo Woman being the world's oldest cremation.
We had a 90 minute walk across Lake Mungo including the former shore area. As you can see it's dry but 18000 years ago was covered in water to a depth of 10 meters.
The hairy nose wombat was one of the animals that inhabited the area but the only wild life appears to be lizards. On our walk we saw remnants of the hairy nose wombat which has long been extinct. There are also lots of shell remnants.
We went back to the visitors centre where there was an interesting display depicting the history of Lake Mungo plus several other buildings including an old shearing shed made of Murray Pine which is found in the area along with Black Box still existing in dried up river bed even though it is usually found in exisiting rivers.
There was also a display depicting a collection of fossilised human footprints from the time of Mungo Man.
For more pix, click here.
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