Literally, a desert oasis. Mungerannie Roadhouse must be one of the most remote roadhouses in Australia. It is just off the Birdsville Track, nearly half way down to Marree. Amongst the trees are the most amazing wetlands, with hundreds and hundreds of birds living there, or like us, just migrating through and stopping for refreshment.We walked into the bar area to check our caravan in for a couple of nights, and to my delight a classic, rather unkempt old chap with an abundance of crazy white hair under his hat greeted us. We checked in, 2 nights ($32 total).
There were closely growing trees and bamboo, with large paths for caravans and cars to drive in to, in which to camp. Further into the trees there were openings that lead out into the wetlands area, beyond that were sand dunes leading back out to the desert. Darren dozed and I actually felt compelled to go for a walk. Armed with my camera and home-made fly hat I set off to walk around the wetland area to get to the dunes….
perhaps now is the time to tell you about my fly hat?
In an effort to save $12 each for 2 fly nets that go over a hat, before we left I had gone to Spotlight and bought 3 meters of netting and some elastic. I had sewed them so the elastic fitted around the brim of my white hat and the netting came down around me. Everyone else’s netting stopped around their neck, mine stopped at my waist, so I looked like some strange bride with white shirt and trousers on, a large brimmed white hat, and a black veil over my face and half my body….(Bride of Dracula?) However no Bride of Dracula would have lasted 2 seconds in the sun that was burning down as I went started my walk, she would have been ash within 2 steps! (Tel-tale Buffy watching reference). It was hot, but beautiful. The sky was bright blue, there were morehen – looking birds paddling in the water, and cockatoos, galahs and kingfishers in the trees. When I walked near some trees to get around the wet, the cockatoos set up such a squark to warn, who? Other cockies, I suppose. It was almost embarrassing while other people were just sitting on the edge of the wetlands enjoying the peace, and I was walking with all these birds screeching at me. As I hurriedly left the trees where they were, they stopped and I had a quieter walk around to the other side of the small ponds.
There were so MANY birds! Right here in the middle of the desert. To the East from us (but with no direct road), was Innaminka, which is where I supposed many birds had come from, or were going to. But even Innaminka is about 200 Km as the cockatoo flies. I guess they too must make use of the water bores along the Birdsville track to get so deep into the desert. And boy, these cute feathered friends were to be SO extremely noisy in the late evening, and at dawn. What a screeching and squarking and carry on there was to be in the mornings! (Marcus, you would have hated it!). At the moment though, I was blissfully ignorant of the alarm clock that was going to pierce our ear drums while we tried to slumber in the mornings. At the moment they were creatures of wonder in the desert.
By the water there were white barked, leafless trees with many birds perched on them, and I spent a long time taking happy snaps of them. A small kingfisher taunted me with his colours, by being just out of range to take a picture, so I spent most of the time with the zoom on the max, and trying to keep a steady hand. I was rewarded at last by one goodish picture of the kingfisher, but not before many blurry takes, and many flies in the frame. ‘Cos there were flies all right. It looked like I was walking alone, but really it was me and a buzzing mass of flies that went for that walk. In the end, I got their hint, and walked back in quest of a shower.
When I got back to the caravan I heard Darren call very quietly but distinctly to me, and eventually found him near our caravan in the middle of a bush. Completely unsurprised (for it would have been more extraordinary if I had found him in the caravan like any one else), I asked him what he was doing there. While I had been chasing birds, Darren had found a goanna which he was stalking with his camera. The goanna was staying very still and not doing a thing, and Darren had to patiently wait till he could get an ‘action shot’. In the end, he left his camera on the ground, videoing, in the path of it. Much to his delight when he played it back, the reptile had the last word. (See video).
After we had had our David Attenborough moments we settled down for a drink with our new neighbours, two sisters and their husbands. Darren had seen one husband at the Petrol station in Birdsville just before we left. Since he had seemed to have been having some trouble with the fan belt Darren had of course struck up conversation at Mungerranie, and they were soon both peering into his bonnet, in the classic ‘how many blokes does it take to work out what is wrong with a car’ way men have about them. They had all been living in Zimbabwe (or ‘Zim’, as they called it), but had left and lived in Brisbane, and were of the age also to call it Rhodesia. Great people , they fed Darren delicious dip (always a crowd pleaser), and we had a chat about life out there for them. That is the lovely thing about caravan sites over 200 Km from anywhere, you are always going to meet good people, and makes me a bit sadder that we don’t stay at the official parks more often – but $16 a night is a stretch for us!
Dotted around the desert are artesian hot springs which bubble up from the centre of the earth. Some at boiling point, others at a more bearable temperature. We are headed for the largest of these, Dalhousie Springs, 794Km away. Here however they also had a spring, and had created a ‘bush pool’, made from railway sleepers, and filled with very warm spring water. It had been a warm day, but the temptation of what was, ostensibly, a hot bath, was too much for either of us. The owners had even provided plastic chairs to sit on in the water. As the sun set behind the sand dunes, Darren and I eased ourselves into the water and enjoyed a good soak. All that was needed was a wine and a beer to make things perfect!
No comments:
Post a Comment