Day 6 Mildura to Mungo NP

Getting up early has its advantages, there are less flies and the day seems longer. Big disadvantage this morning was the cold though. Nevertheless we enjoyed a coffee but decided to hit the road shortly after and have breakfast a bit later.

First we visited the old Pump house near our campsite. Then we did some quick shopping as we still needed jerry cans (to carry extra fuel in remote areas) and a new portable gas stove.

By then we were hungry and therefore we drove to the Mildura Port Warf where we prepared a delicious brekkie in the morning sun with a great view over The Murray River. Yes again the same river! It’s Australia’s largest river and it just doesn’t seem to end!!

We walked besides the river for a bit before driving to the Tourist Information Centre. Here we gathered some information about ‘Mungo National Park’ as this is was our next destination.

We filled up the fuel tank before we had a quick stop at the Mildura Botanical Gardens. The highlight here were the rose gardens, there were many varieties which were all flowering.

Then it was time to face our first long distance gravel road to Mungo National Park. The road is about 100 km long and most of it is unsealed (no asphalt). The conditions of the road were pretty good. The only things that left an impression were a big truck that passed us with quite a bit of speed from the opposite direction leaving us ‘blind’ in a mighty dust cloud for a few minutes and a massive farming machine that we had to pass a bit later. It was gigantic! But I guess the size of the farming land is massive too in these regions.

Once we arrived in Mungo NP we drove straight to the Information Center. Mungo NP is sacred aboriginal land and listed as World Heritage. The area is rich in archaeological artefacts dating all the way back to around 50.000 years ago. The information centre has a nice display on the history of the park and its inhabitants.

We paid the park and camping fees ($ 17 in total) and took a little walk. We saw heaps of kangaroos and an old woolshed.

Then it was time to set up camp. 2 km from the centre is the main campsite which is great with lots of spacious and well maintained sites. We had our own picnic table with a roof and a fire pit. There were some kangaroos hopping around. Idyllic!