Lake Mungo ... photo intensive .. broadband best

[Graybeard]

CLICK on Photos for larger view


Hi Peoples .... been away for a while. Just got back from a trip to Lake Mungo.

From the Wiki ....Lake Mungo is a dry lake in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Mildura. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Many important archaeological findings have been made at the lake, most significantly the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia, and Mungo Lady, the oldest human remains in the world to be ritually cremated.

Not from the Wiki ..... Lake Mungo cycles from dry to wet over periods of thousands of years. The last time it contained water was over 15,000 years ago. Each time it drys out the westerly winds blow the sandy lake bed up on to the eastern shoreline creating layered lunettes. The main lunette is called the 'Walls of China' and is a single dune 20klms long and 3-4klms wide.

It consists of three main layers, the Gol-Gol or bottom layer, the Mungo or middle layer, and the Zanci or top layer.

The photo below is taken from the top of the Lunette and in the receding distance is the dry lake bed with the dirt track below my right arm curving away across it



The following photos are from the top of the lunette or 'Walls of China'. The wind sculptures mainly consist of the Zanci layer which has been severely eroded in the last 15000 years

Below .. Wind Sculpture



Below .. Wind Sculpture



Below .. The top of the lunette. My friend Roscoe is walking on the exposed Mungo layer



Below .. Wind Sculpture



Below .. Wind Sculpture



Below .. Part of the exposed Gol-Gol and Mungo layers











Below .. A small Desert Lizard at Vigers Well, on the northern end of the lunette




Hope you enjoy .... greg

[Graybeard]

Below .. its getting dark on the lunette, time to find somewhere to camp



That night a series of storm cells hit the Mungo Lake region, a very rare event, and we were forced to camp in the Zanci Woolshed overnight. The next morning we were caught by the Aboriginal Ranger who gave us a stern lecture on fire in lanolin soaked woolsheds. We had to cook our breakfast outside.




On the western side of the lake, opposite the lunette, about 6-8 kilometres across the dry bed are the abandoned sheep stations (circa 1920-1940s) of Mungo and Zanci

Below .. Mungo Woolshed





Below .. Zanci Homestead (abandoned)



Below .. Zanci Stables. (abandoned) Built of rot and termite resistant Cypress pine, which once forested this area. Unlike American stlye logcabin building, each log is dove-tailed into its post



Below .. Zanci Woolshed





Hope you enjoy... greg

[Graybeard]

From Mungo we headed west towards the NSW/SA border to check out the Perry Sand Dunes. These are mobile dunes that travel around devouring whatever is in their path







Below .. I think this was my best photo of the trip ... taken at the rear of the perry Sand Dunes



Below .. And a sleepy lizard




Hope you enjoy .. greg

[Graybeard]

Finally we headed for home. But we stopped at the lonely Tilpa Pub about 400klm north of Lake Mungo first. We had quite a few beers before finding a dry creek bed to sleep in.

Below .. Tilpa Pub



Below .. Tilpa Pub main bar



Below .. Tilpa Pub Lounge



Below .. And our last campsite before civilisation, sigh










I call this last photo 'Prayin for Rain' .....






Hope you enjoy ... greg

[Graybeard]

As to the Archeological side of things ....

We found many lithics. In fact if you look in the Lake Mungo photos in the first post nearly every rock and discolouration on the ground is a stone tool.

Here is a photo of a Kangaroo print I found in the Mungo layer. They're large, slightly bigger than a mans hand, fossilised and would be around 20,000 years old. These tracks were surrounded by sea-shells and many stone implements from the same layer.



Someone had a party here long before Egypt had its first Pharoah

Hope you enjoyed and weren't bored shitless ... greg ..

[r.p.bibra]

As to the Archeological side of things ....

We found many lithics. In fact if you look in the Lake Mungo photos in the first post nearly every rock and discolouration on the ground is a stone tool.

Here is a photo of a Kangaroo print I found in the Mungo layer. They're large, slightly bigger than a mans hand, fossilised and would be around 20,000 years old. These tracks were surrounded by sea-shells and many stone implements from the same layer.



Someone had a party here long before Egypt had its first Pharoah

Hope you enjoyed and weren't bored shitless ... greg ..

Thanks Greg for taking us to the grand-party. Words would spoil the mood. love&regards.ls

[Mikal]

Hi Greg...great to see you back and much thanks for sharing your journey and such great and beautiful pics. Luckily there are great adventurers in life like yourself who go for the actual journey and exploration and then so graciously come back to instill us with such amazing acts of nature like wind sculpting and such. Always enjoy your escapades into these seemingly alien places that seem not so inviting to visit and experience all the simple expressions of nature at work....



Mikal