Sometimes you just feel right at home!
Lots of long straight roads on the way from Balranald down through Tooleybuc, across to Manangatang, Ouyen, Murrayville, Pinaroo, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge.
There are some wonderful fascinating places in Australia, but with respect to Manangatang, it isn’t one of them.
Ouyen had the classic pub, but was accurately described as in the middle of nowhere. Certainly it is a well cared for town, and has a Pickering Street no doubt named after my Perth friends.
The highlight of the trip was the pink lakes north of Linga in the Murray Sunset National Park. Very remote and I didn’t see anyone for three hours. There are some camping grounds which look pretty harsh. The official publications warn you to have plenty of water and that you might not see anyone to help, and I suspect from my experience that that is correct.
The salt is 800 times the concentration of sea water. Thousands of years of moisture then evaporation has left this incredible concentration of pink salt.
The varied scrub forest was attractive to birds especially the parrots. These are my first sighting of Blue Bonnet parrots.
There were also several birds of prey including what I think is an old Brown Falcon.
After the Pink Lakes it was pretty much monotonous flat and straight driving west through Murrayville, Pinaroo, Murray Bridge and into Glenelg.
Michael Monaghan Photography 