Wednesday 14 October 2009

Menindee Lakes - Kinchega National Park


From Mutawintji we ducked back into Broken Hill for some supplies and then headed out to Menindee lakes, arriving before the dreaded sunset roo-suicide time.

Menindee lakes is one of the most depressing national parks in Australia. It has gone from being a bustling water recreation area attracting large numbers of people for fishing, boating, water skiing etc. to a dry scrubby wasteland ('Lake' Menindee pictured above). The caravan park owners are going out of business, all that is missing is tumbleweeds. It reminded me of Lake Natimuk in Victoria, for those who know it.

The three large lakes are all dry - according to the woman in the Broken Hill visitors centre they have been dry for about 14 years. The only water left is in Copi Hollow 'lake', really more of a pond, and in the Darling river.

We drove into Kinchega national park and camped on the banks of the Darling, which was actually really nice. The river is milky due to silt, but is still quite pretty, and bordered by gigantic old gum trees. There were a few campers dotted along the river, and we passed some people fishing.

It was a nice place to spend the night, and the next day we made the dash all the way back to Adelaide and home.

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