Easyer Weekend 2011 - The Murray and Mungo

On the Thursday we broke up from work, me and my friends Claire and Dani from the YHA hostel went to a comedy evening as the Melbourne Comedy Festival is still going on. We went to see a comedian called Wil Anderson who's pretty famous in Oz and hosts several TV shows and such like. He was very funny and we had a good laugh, before heading out in Melbourne to try a few of the bars.

For 4 of my 6 days off from work, I booked myself on a little trip to go up to the Murray Region in North West Victoria. The Murray river borders Victoria and New South Wales and flows out to the Sea in South Australia.

There were problems with the trains on the way there, so I got there a bit later than expected, but still managed to pop along to the waterfront to watch an aboriginal music festival with some arty stalls and a sausage sizzle.

The next day I walked along the banks of the Murray for a few miles. Just outside of the main part of town on the river is a weir and a lock that all the boats go through so I sat watching the boats go up and down for a bit, and watching the fish jumping out of the water eating the flies. That afternoon I went on a paddle steamer trip on the river which was very civilised. The river is actually part of New South Wales rather than Victoria. There are so many orb spiders around that area, they're pretty big critters, but don't bite as a rule unless provoked. But the webs they spin are huge - they can reach from the edges of branches on trees all the way down to the floor!

On the Easter Monday, I went on a day trip to Mungo National Park in New South Wales, about an hours drive north of Mildura. I went on a guided tour with a local aboriginal chap called Graham who comes from the area and was very knowledgable, we learnt all about the plants and trees on the drive over there, I learnt how to spot a termites nest and which trees not to sleep under (there's one called a River Redgum tree that kills lots of campers each year as it stores lots of water through the day, and in the night, if it's taken excess water, it stores it all in one branch and drops it off, so it anyone's underneath it when it falls, it's not good).

We got to the national Park around 10ish and went to a viewing platform to look out across the lake. Mungo National Park is an old dry lake bed, about 10k wide. We looked out across the other side to the raised edge of the lake and what's called the Great Wall of China (it doesn't look like the one in China, but some Chinese people worked around the area years back so I guess it got its name then). But it's quite stunning with some good rocky formations. Over time, the wind blew sand and earth, causing it to deposit on the edge of the lake, creating the Walls of China. Over the years, that earth and sand is now being eroded again by the rain, causing all the history underneath to become exposed, as well as creating the rocky formations left there. It was quite a posh tour I went on as we got morning tea and everything which is quite a rarity for me, complete with cakes, biscuits, nuts and a cup of tea.

From there we headed down across the lake to the wall of china and went for a walk and a nature/historical talk. Our guide was so informative. He talked about the geological and archaeological discoveries around the region. The national park has the oldest human remains in the world (although this is disputed in Africa) stretching back to well over 40,000 years. Erosion of the wall of china has uncovered ancient fireplaces and hearths, stone tools and animal bones as well as buried human remains.

In one of the remains found, there was a necklace with teeth on it. archaeologists were wondering how the tiny holes were made in the teeth and with what the necklace string was made from. The string was silk from an orb spider, and the holes were made by using acid from a termite (termites spit acid onto wood to dissolve it) and putting it on a thin stick, then putting it against the tooth to create tiny holes to thread onto the necklace. The archaeologists couldn't comprehend how such a thing could be done without a drill.

The remains that are still underground are covered with large sticks, this is to mark the spots on the earth where there are items of interest. It also keeps the landscape looking natural. There have been many occurrences in the past when they have cordoned an area off, only to find tourists digging up under the barrier. They also tried putting a few 'fake' artefacts out on display around the park and over time, they were all taken by tourists. its terrible that people do such things, but it's a good system that they seem to have come up with now.

But the tour was really interesting, I learnt loads of new stuff and it made it so much better going to somewhere like that who is really knowledgeable about the area, you would miss so much if you just went there by yourself.

My last morning before catching my bus and train home was to chill out by the river and the lock in the sunshine with my book, watching the boats go by.