Rustle, rustle, rustle, scrape, scrape, crunch, crunch.
I listened intently. Was it the rain that was forecasted to fall? Are they going to close the road? And no...it wasn't raining. We had a visitor. We would later find out when daylight arrived.
The sunrise was dramatic but short lived as it was a cloudy day. We packed the car quite efficiently and were ready quite quickly.
Ella Mae's back tyre was flat. Lucky we managed to return from our ride before it happened.
I was quite sad to leave Lake Mungo. The weather was reflective of my mood. My chats with the two rangers separately yesterday did set the tone. The road from Mildura to the lunette will be fully bitumised. The rangers are short of staff by about five personnel. They already struggle with maintenance. How will they able to protect the indigenous community's heritage, artefacts, and cultural spaces? We already had seen boot prints where the tourists were supposed to keep off. I am worried for this spiritual and sacred space I love; and am bracing for that shift between generating income vs pilfer, pillage, and disfigurement.
We stopped by Red Cliffs. I do not think this was a highlight. It would have been better to view the cliffs from the other of the river.
However, it was good to visit Big Lizzie, an engineering marvel built in Melbourne; and designed by Frank Bottril. It was to replace camel trains and navigate difficult sandy terrain. https://redcliffshistory.wordpress.com/history/big-lizzie/
Sea Lake accommodation, Sky Mirror, was very welcoming. We unloaded the car and drove straight to Lake Tyrell. Rohan, our host, advised sunset is better to be experienced at the viewing platform and sky lounge. Our Kmart gumboots came in handy for our walk in the salty shallow water. The kids were questioning if it was truly ok to walk on the salt lake. I assured them that it was reasonable to do so. They were curious and how the salt encrusted the surface of the lake bed; and tried to harvest it themselves.
The weather was really windy so there were no perfect reflection of pink lake. But I appreciated the solitary enjoyment of this magical dramatic wintery landscape. The clouds billowed like soft silk catching the wind. It reminded me of a ship with layered sails. The rays from the sunset created a golden halo in the silk.
Oh..our visitor from last night was a mouse. It nibbled through our dehydrated soy, dehydrated peas and marshmallows.
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