Two days and two pre-sunrise starts. Mark the calendars because that might
actually be the last time Ruthie sees predawn for another decade. Not to mention the last sunrise she purposely
watched was in Hawaii
in 2009.
This morning’s start was an adventure in the pre-dawn
twilight at the Walls of China. These
sand-salt-clay dunes provided a great vantage point for the sun to appear over
the flat curve of the distant horizon.
It magical except for one thing.
Well millions of one thing: flies.
We were completely swarmed with them.
Our theory is that they were buried under the surface of the sand during
the night and broke free with the sun.
What started as being overwhelmed by these bugs simply became the theme
for the day. Everywhere we went, we were
pestered by flies, and while we were wandering sections of the Outback it
always felt like the longer we walked, the more we attracted. Ruthie quickly came to regret not buying the
over-the-head fly netting she saw at the info center in Mildura yesterday.
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Returning from sunrise, we broke the fast at Mungo Lodge,
and then did the self-drive tour around the lake. What I naïvely hoped was that we’d find an
exhibit dedicated to Mungo
Lady and Mungo Man, combined providing some of the oldest bones found
outside of Africa, some 40,000 years young.
Instead, we found some other exhibits, and an exhibit explaining the
meaning of the Mungo Man and Mungo Lady as well as all the other things that
have been found around Lake
Mungo. Aside from some of the fossilized animal
parts, the best we had was a reproduction of the footprints that were also
found at Mungo. [Edit: it wasn’t until
doing some later reading that we discovered Mungo Lady is in a vault at Lake Mungo
exhibition centre and Mungo Man is in Canberra.]
Another highlight of our adventure this morning: we had
the park to ourselves. Well, not
entirely, as we briefly played leapfrog with two motorcyclists. For the record, we’ve decided to ignore the
Aussie accent of the second rider [we said hello as they drove past us at one
of the stops], and are sticking with the story that it was Ewan McGregor and
Charlie Borman doing their 3rd show by way of traveling Australia:
Long Way Under. Never mind that there
was no caravan of SUVs laden with support crew: there was a camera mounted on
the bike and on the helmet and that’s enough.
Also, I find it worth noting that given the red dirt and desert
surroundings, when the two motorcycles appeared in my rear view quickly
catching up to me – I had a brief moment of panic that I was suddenly about to
live out a scene in Mad Max for myself.
Anyways, we completed the 70km circuit around the Lake [undisturbed by the bikies], and then made our way
back to Mildura. We were advised that our two-wheeled drive
vehicle might not be the safest choice for the alternate route between Mungo
and Broken Hill as it had just rained a bit in that area overnight. So back to Mildura, where we had a much
needed stroll and lunch break, and then we took off for Broken Hill.
Leaving Mildura took us through a large agricultural area
dominated by orange groves. And then
civilization seemed to just stop. No
groves, no farms, no rows of unidentified short yellow stalks – just
country. Oh and multiple pointers
towards a town named Pooncarie.
On the silly excitement level, I finally have encountered
the mythical being that is the Road Train.
I’d been told of these things shortly after arriving, but had not
actually seen one in person. Road Trains
don’t leave much to the imagination: they are quite literally two trailers
behind one truck. It’s a lot of wheels
and wind to be passing you on a two-lane undivided high way at 110kph. I’d love to see the granddaddy of road
trains, the quad, but since I won’t be driving in any of the vast areas of the
open road in WA or NT, I doubt that’ll happen.
Broken
Hill finally arrived, and it was a bit like driving into a thriving
mid-Pennsylvania town. I’ve never
actually seen a prosperous mining town, which is partly why we’re here. The other part might be the fact that some
scenes of Priscilla were shot at the restaurant/hotel at which we ate dinner
and in the desert about 30km west of here.
Mad Max was, too.
Another thing that tickled me today: friendly
drivers. There seemed to be a pretty
steady flow of traffic headed away from Broken Hill and towards Mildura, and I
eventually figured out that I was occasionally being casually waved at by the
opposing drivers. So I began to initiate
the wave myself, and success: people are nice when you’re in the middle of the
Outback with nothing but the road and two tons of metal between you. Not everyone though – I soon learned that
women drivers didn’t seem to wave much, if at all. Mostly men, and now that I think more on it,
I’m going to theorise it was mostly other Ford drivers.
Tomorrow: a mine tour and Silverton. Those might not be mutually exclusive, I
don’t yet know.
-EP
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