Lake Mungo to Menindee

Submitted: Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007 at 22:09
ThreadID: 49377 Views:7030 Replies:3 FollowUps:1
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Last week we travelled from Mildura to Mungo , Menindee and Broken Hill.
I have been along that route many times and decided to try a different way.
There are a lot of roadworks along the Arumpo road at the moment. It normally isn’t the best road because of a lot of roadtrains going out to Arumpo to the mine, and they chop up the road a bit.
The road is being realigned in some areas and also upgraded, though still unsealed for 80 odd Kms to Mungo.
The National Parks are making a few changes at Mungo, putting in walkways at various points and apparently the plan is to put a boarded walkway right up to the top of the dunes in the near future.
For mine, that will take away a lot of the interest in walking around the Walls of China.
It will make it like walking along a pier or jetty, with long lines of people playing follow the leader.

From Mungo, we travelled through Lake Leaghur and then through Lake Garnpang and into Pooncarie, rather than go through Top Hut. This way is , in my opinion a more scenic way to Pooncarie, although a bit longer than through Top Hut. The two lakes are virtually next to Mungo, but the vegetation is quite different. After the lakes, you travel through various communities of Belah and Sheoak trees, and the scenery changes quite frequently.
We stopped at the Numbuccurra Waterholes, I suspect this may have been a coach station in the earlier days of the stagecoaches going to Menindee and Broken Hill. I have to do some more checking though.

From Pooncarie, we went across the bridge to the west side of the Darling River and followed the Polia Road through to Lake Tandou. Again, an interesting drive because of the variations in scenery and vegetation, and you also get quite close to the river in a few places.
After Lake Tandou, it is only a short drive to Kinchega National Park where there are numerous campsites along the River Drive.

For those of you who want a nice drive from Mungo to Menindee, try this way.
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Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 01:20

Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 01:20
Would be much better IMHO than the direct route, nearly vibrated the doors off the Patrol on the Menindee Road, I am sure I saw them moving at least 8 inches
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Reply By: Member - GRANT HID(NSW) - Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 06:33

Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 06:33
Hi Dave B,We are looking at doing a simailar run how long did you spend doing mungo to minindee on that route?
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Follow Up By: Dave B (NSW) - Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 09:25

Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 09:25
G'day Grant, we stopped and looked at quite a few things on the way, and don't think I got over 80 K's.
We also camped overnight on the way.
There are a lot of areas where there are no roadside fences, so the sheep and lambs were scurrying across the road occasionally, so we just took our time.
We stopped at Pooncarie Wharf for a while too.
I guess you could do it in about 5 hours very comfortably.
One thing, there was virtually no traffic and the roads were in good condition, not as bad as Bonz had experienced on the other road.

Dave
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Reply By: TH - Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 12:46

Thursday, Sep 06, 2007 at 12:46
Did same trip in early August. I wholeheartedly agree that it is a very interesting and scenic way to travel from Mungo to Menindee.
We camped in Kinchega. I think we only saw 1 vehicle between Mungo and Pooncarie and 1 between Pooncarie and Kinchega. It does take a bit longer but if you're not in a hurray it doesn't matter.
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