On Sunday we left Mutawintji and drove several hours south to Mungo National Park. Mungo is part of a World Heritage Area due to its archaeological and cultural importance. Human remains were found at Mungo that were dated to about 40,000 years old, making it the earliest evidence of human occupation in Australia.
We arrived at Mungo in the afternoon and started to explore the bizarre scenery. Thousands of years ago, there was a lake in the area. Now it’s totally dried up and it left these giant sand mounds where its shores used to be. It’s really odd looking because there’s flat areas with vegetation where the lake bottom used to be and then this mountain of sand comes up out of nowhere. On the sand dunes were what appeared to be rock formations that upon closer inspection turned out to be made of sand. The sand was blown into really cool wavy patterns in some places. It was the closest thing I’ve experienced to being on the moon.
After the sunset we returned to our sleeping quarters. Peter, our cultural guide, taught us how to make Johnny cakes. Johnny cakes are just flour and water mixed into dough and then cooked over a campfire, and they are traditional food in Aboriginal camps. They tasted pretty good, but the real fun came during the inevitable flour fight. Hilarious. Then we learned some traditional Aboriginal dance which was great fun. The night ended when a local Aboriginal elder treated us to some guitar music around the campfire.
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