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Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Adventure West - Yawning Our Way Across SA


Today we travelled about 625km across South Australia. Very tiring!

Peak hour traffic in South Australia
We stopped for lunch at Port Augusta and took a look around the award winning Wadlata Outback Centre. There were plenty of films and interactives to keep the kids occupied.





School of the air - pedal powered!

Old telephone exchange
By the time we reached Kimba we were 1/2 way across Australia, Just the place for the Big Galah (and the slowest petrol pumps known to man!).



Tuesday, 29 December 2015

Adventure West - Mighty Murray


We have now crossed into Victoria and then into South Australia. Our constant companion along the way has been the Murray River. Today we spent some time at Murray River National Park.



Huge gum tree with kids for scale

Shingleback lizard

Lock 4 on the Murray

The girls taking a dip
We also stopped in at nearby Monash Adventure Park which would be absolutely great for a home-school hangout if it wasn't in the middle of nowhere!


Adventure West - Mungo National Park


We're moving house. So what better way to move from Sydney to Perth than a camping road trip. First stop was Mungo National Park.



The park is very remote so we stocked up on food, water and extra petrol for the trip. We stayed at the lovely "Main Camp" which is little more than a cleared area in the desert scrub. A little disturbing were the scorpions who shared the camp with us. 

Tarmac roads of NSW

A rather choppy lake along the way
The road into Mungo

Outback "rest area"

Shower block at Main Camp
Once at the park we had a look around the visitors centre and then took the 70km loop road to all the sights. There were many emus and kangaroos along the way.

Extinct mungo megafauna


Outback dunny #1

Walls of China



Bush emus

Nature walk

Desert victim



Outback dunny #2
We passed by the ruined Zanci homestead where the children explored the underground bunker which was a good few degrees cooler than the surrounding desert. 

Bunker



Stables



On the loop road we came to a feral goat trap. The depression in the ground once used to collect water for the pioneers now catches goats attracted to the moisture. A platform allows the goats to jump over the fence into the enclosure. once inside the goats cannot escape as there is no ramp on the other side. 

Feral goat trap
In the evening we took a sunset tour of the Walls of China with Graham from Harry Nanya Tours. The tour is not cheap but you can only walk the walls with a ranger. After we had sampled some bush tucker we learnt all about the formation of the park and its cultural heritage. The dunes are covered with Aboriginal artefacts and burials. Mungo Man, 45-68 thousand year old modern human, was discovered in this World Heritage area. The tour was excellent and well worth the cost.

Explaining termites








The children had a great time running down the sand dunes.





Sand painting by L