After leaving the bush campsite by the Murray River, we moved on to Ouyen to buy supplies for our plan of few days exploring the Pink Lakes.
The Pink Lakes are located west of Ouyen & north of Underbool. The Murray-Sunset NP is between Mildura and Ouyen and South Australia. It is in northwest Victoria and about 550km from Melbourne and 400km from Adelaide.
The turn off is at Linga, which is about 10km west of Underbool. It is then about another 13km on a gravel road to the Pink Lakes Camping Areas. Both Lake Becking camp ground and Lake Crosbie CG were rather full when we arrived. The campgrounds provided basic facilities such as tables, toilets and a tapwater, which required a treatment, or BYO drinking water.
Park's Info on the Pink Lakes
Our neighbour's tentsite at Lake Crosbie CG
Allan's metal tent
Lake Crosbie CG at dawn
We did a few days of walking in the Pink Lakes area. These include:
Day One:
The Lake Crosbie loop (around the lake) is an easy 6km walk, which starts and finishes at Lake Crosbie CG. We headed west, then north, and back south. Near the northern edge of the lake, there are an old site of Salt Lake Workshops and the remains of a timber track, which has been turned into an outdoor museum.
The Lake Hardy Nature Walk is about 1.5hrs
The Lake Becking loop: This was as a short walk to catch up with late afternoon sun.
The Lake Becking loop: This was as a short walk to catch up with late afternoon sun.
(This walk brought back great memories! Lake Becking is the start and finish of a 3 day circuit, also known as "Sunset Remote Walking Track" in the Murray-Sunset NP. Five years ago, I spent three and a half days on this walk. A collection of the photographs for the slide show was on the jAlbum website, however it has expired now, and I will try to have it going again when motivated to do so. Love a comeback for this extended walk too).
Day Two:
In the morning we took the drive to Mt Crozier, which requires 4WD vehicles because some tracks are very sandy. At Mt Crozier campground/carpark, we met two friendly locals, who joined us for the walk up to Mt Crozier, where they enjoyed taking photos with us. Cell phone reception was good up there. While trying to find the walk-in campsite, where I had camped 5 years ago, I saw an exciting way to get back to the car, and so did not want to miss the chance; therefore, the finding was discontinued.
After leaving Mt Crozier, Allan "enjoyed" a wild drive on the sandy tracks, which tested his new car's limits, which had been purchased to celebrate one of the most important years of his life: age of 60 and retirement after over 3 decades of paid work. I worked in Australia for about 24 years and I am few years younger than Allan. Many of the tracks around Mt Crozier are unsuitable for 4WD cars without a winch and high ground clearance, especially during summer.
For the rest of the day, we went for a walk at Lake Kenyon and then finished with the Pioneer Drive
We packed up and left the next day.