There was no way we were going to make it to the campground for lunch, so we stopped on the side of the road. When we got out of the car we could hear a pardalote, so Dazz went hunting while I made lunch.
Striated Pardalote
The campground was a pleasant green to look at, but as with a lot of the greenery over the last few thousand kilometres, it was "prickle weed" (my term - I still keep finding random bits of prickle in my socks, and I even have a piece that I am yet to be able to dig out of my thumb!). It didn't seem to bother the local wildlife, though.
Mungo is a dry lakebed, and as it has eroded fossils and bones have been exposed. The visitor centre had replicas of some of the 450 fossilised human footprints found in a "trackway" that has been uncovered.
The only way to get up close to "The Lunette" (the eroded parts of the lake) is with a tour, so we had booked an afternoon one a couple weeks before. As we got closer to the day the temperature forecast was looking more and more unpleasant... in the mid to high 30s, with no shade. So we armed ourselves with umbrellas and tucked ice packs into our waists and headed off.
As we walked up the dunes the high cloud got a bit thicker, which brought relief from the heat of the sun, and also meant there were no harsh shadows in the photos.
The wind is continually eroding the lake bed and pushing sand up into dunes (the "Walls of China"). It is a difficult environment for vegetation to establish but there were a few hardy plants.
In order to get photos without the rest of the tour group we were constantly lagging at the back!
The ranger said the best place for sunset photos was the Red Top Boardwalk, so we drove around there after the tour. The formations were beautiful.
Dazz spotted bones over in the back. Some were clearly recent, with the sand starting to cover them, but there also seem to be some fossilised bones in the rock just to the right.
The following day was just as hot (possibly hotter, as it was sunnier) and also windy, but we decided we'd rather be in and out of the air conditioned car doing the 70km Loop Drive than sitting in the van. We went slow, looking for birds and other photo opportunities, knowing that the longer the drive took the more time we would be in air conditioning. It took us over 6 hours!
We stopped briefly at the visitor centre in the morning and took a photo of the outside of the Mungo Woolshed.
We were really hoping for some birds, and in particular some chats. We had passed the Walls of China viewing area and Dazz noticed something flitting around, so we were out of the car and looking... and were then very excited when we realised it was a chat we hadn't yet seen.
White-fronted Chats (male & female)
Just before the Red Top lookout there was a little dam. As soon as I noticed it (I was driving so Dazz could jump out quicker for photos) I slowed right down, hoping there would be something on the water. There was an emu and chick just before the dam, though, and I didn't stop quite quick enough for them not to notice us. The adult took off, but the chick was a little slower.
Emu (chick)
The vegetation on the eastern side of the dunes was a lot more dense. There was quite a lot of mallee. It was too hot to get out of the car for a photo, though, so there is a bit of glare on the windscreen.
Vigars Well area was more interesting. There were some really old cypress pine trees. Between the logging (for use in buildings, including the Mungo Woolshed) and erosion, there were not many large ones around.
While Dazz was taking photos of the trees I walked up towards the dunes. The well was dug in a natural soak.
The eastern side of the dunes at the northern end of Lake Mungo
We saw more emus, but they insisted on walking away from the camera, not towards it.
There were lots of patches of wildflowers, and significant amounts of Patterson's Curse (a weed).
Just before the Zanci Homestead site there was a stand of trees with quite a few birds. There were White-browed and White-breasted Woodswallows, along with some White-winged Trillers. None of the photos were great, but this is our first photo of the male White-winged Triller.
White-winged Triller (male)
Inside the Zanci Shearing Shed (No one thought to take a picture of the outside - apparently it wasn't particularly impressive to either of us!)
Our last stop for the day was back at the Mungo Woolshed for a quick look inside.
After our return from the drive we went across to the Mungo Lookout, not far from the campground. It was almost a full moon and I was hoping to see the moonrise over the Walls of China, but there was too much cloud.
Back at camp Dazz managed to snap another great photo of a Pink Cockatoo.
