Mungo Outback Conservation Journey

Arrive in Mildura and check in to the Quality Hotel Mildura Grand from 2pm. Meet your guide in the hotel lobby at 6pm for a 30-minute tour briefing, followed by an optional dinner with the group to get acquainted. Overnight: Mildura. Meals: None.

After breakfast, head south from Mildura to spend the day in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, a 48,000-hectare Ramsar-listed park on the Murray floodplain that extends into the red sand dunes of the mallee. Search the ephemeral lakes and dryland vegetation for the elusive mallee emu-wren and malleefowl and watch for parrots, cockatoos and reptiles, including the shy, beautifully marked sand goanna. Traverse the centre of the park through sand dunes and open vistas on the return to Mildura. Overnight: Mildura. Meals: B/L.

Breakfast at the hotel, then explore the Murray River and its billabongs, where parrots and cockatoos arrive out of the desert in search of food and water. In the afternoon, head into the arid lands towards Lake Mungo, entering the 2,400-square-kilometre Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area and walking along Willandra Creek, the ancient fossilised watercourse that gave the system its name and has been dry for 18,000 years. Arrive at Mungo Lodge in time for sunset over the dry lakebed, with first sightings of western grey and red kangaroos along the way. Overnight: Mungo Lodge. Meals: B/L/D.

Drive across the dry bed of Lake Mungo to the lunettes — wind-curved sand dunes that have eroded to reveal the campfires, cooking places and the longest continuous human occupation site on earth. Walk a 'story line' through 50,000 years of Aboriginal history, with interpretation in collaboration with Traditional Owners. Stop often to look for birds and to learn about the desert vegetation. Out of respect for Traditional Owners, the most sensitive burial sites are not visited. Overnight: Mungo Lodge. Meals: B/L/D.

A second full day exploring Mungo National Park through dense mallee, cypress pine and buloke woodlands, mulga scrub and vast saltbush plains. Watch for pink cockatoo, occasional cockatiel, crested bellbird and white-backed swallow, and for raptors including spotted harrier, black falcon, grey falcon and wedge-tailed eagle. Climb high into the Mungo dune field for views across the desert. Emus, western grey kangaroos and red kangaroos are abundant in this country. Overnight: Mungo Lodge. Meals: B/L/D.

After breakfast, depart Mungo Lodge for Mildura, stopping at the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers in Wentworth. Drop-off at Mildura airport around 12pm and Mildura town around 12.30pm in time for afternoon onward travel. Meals: B.