Day 45 – October 15 2012

An early start this morning with a quick breakfast & a start on our walk before it became too hot.  We walked the Discovery Walk from the Wonga Campground at Wyperfeld National Park, a distance of 4km, starting not too far from our Karavan.  This walk is interactive as every so often there is a small post with information about a particular tree or plant or bird, etc.  It makes the walk that much more interesting as you become a lot more aware of what is around you.  This desert mallee country is very sandy in places, particularly walking up some of the sand hills it was hard work.  A lot of the desert wildflowers are out in full bloom, with a lot more in full bud & about to bloom, it should look magnificent in the next few weeks.  There are also lots of birds around, a good indication of a healthy ecosystem.  We got to around the half-way point & walked up one more sand hill to look down on the “Devils Waterholes”.  This is a permanent soak in the bottom of a mostly dry, small lake bed & the area is full of birds, mostly galahs, corellas & cockatoos, with a couple of emus as well.  On our walk back to camp we noticed a lot of digging from echidnas but did not see any.  Some of the porcupine grass that grows here grows in a ring with a hole in the centre, it looks so unusual.  The last sand hill we climbed was the largest & there is a small lookout constructed near the top that gives fantastic views across the mallee in all directions, there are certainly a lot of sand hills around.

Back at camp we walked another 1 km to the grave of “Baby Cameron”, a lonely site on a small hill looking out over the Wonga campground that is the final resting place of 7 day old twin Donald Cameron who died in the late 1800s on the Wonga pastoral station close by.  It must have been so tough in those days, so isolated, little water, no medical help, a very poignant reminder.

The temperature was now 33C & it was very windy so we decided to pack camp & head to our next destination, rather than have an early lunch here at Wonga Campground.  The drive was uneventful, bitumen all the way again, (we are getting spoiled) with very little traffic, to the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park around 30km south of Mildura in north western Victoria.  We had a look at the display in the visitor centre first & it was interesting & informative, before driving the short distance to the Lake Hattah Campground.  At last, a lake with water in it.  We drove around the campground & found the best spot & set up, then ate a late lunch.  It was 33C & very windy, a big difference from the 11C & very windy of a couple of days ago.  We were greeted by a family of 15 apostle birds that were anxious for a feed, they surrounded me as I sat on the top step of the Karavan eating a sandwich, one even flew into the Karavan looking for a feed & I shooed it out again.

After lunch we decided to go for a walk along the lake edge amongst all of the new saplings, it looked inviting & cool.  Well, the walk only lasted a very short time when we came across an Eastern Brown snake around 2 metres long, the 2^nd most venomous snake in the world.  He looked at us for a little while before turning & slithering off remarkably quickly.  We kept walking & then spotted the same snake again, well, that ended that walk.

We then decided to take it easy & a little less risky this afternoon & take the Hattah Lakes Nature Discovery Drive, a 6.5 km loop around Lake Hattah, including Lake Bulla & Lake Arawak, all with water in them.  Well, we hadn’t got far on this drive when we saw our next snake, a large black one, slithering rapidly off the road as we approached.  This loop drive had numbered posts that went with a descriptive pamphlet that we had, so we stopped at each post & read the information about the special plants & other natural features near the area.  This was very interesting & again we became more immersed in the area & the information.  Near the end of the drive we came across a goanna basking in the sun, not concerned about us one bit. There were lots of birds to see & hear here.

We returned to camp, rested & watched the birds come to the lake to drink.  As the sun started to set the weather became cooler & the wind abated.  The birds became noisier as they started to settle down for the night on the trees around the lake.  We sat outside until dark, enjoying the cool & the birdlife, even the bats started to fly around looking for insects in the dusk.  I can hear a tawny frogmouth bird not too far away & another owl species calling in the distance, not sure which one though.