Camping couple stunned by 'out of this world' Aussie tourist site: 'Mars in Australia'
The world heritage listed national park is located in NSW although scores of travellers admit they didn't know it existed.
A travel-obsessed couple has uncovered "Mars in Australia" – or at least that's what it looks like according to visitors. Camping enthusiasts Chelsea and Ethan Drummond couldn't believe their eyes when visiting Mungo National Park in NSW before sharing awe-inducing footage of their incredible stay online.
The Victorian couple, who recently married, visited the world heritage listed site in March but shared snippets from their travels on social media recently.
"It's such an incredible place," Chelsea, 25, told Yahoo News Australia. "It really is other-worldly".
The 25-year-old travelled to the site from Geelong with her husband and her parents. While visitors can take a tour of the amazing landscape, the couple, along with Chelsea's parents just "did it ourselves".
"There's a 70km self-guided drive that you can do around the National Park, and we just did that. We did that on two separate days just to make sure we could see everything," she said.
They stayed in a campground just outside the park in a custom-made camper, about a 15-minute drive from the visitor centre.
'Hidden gem' captured on camera during camping visit
Footage from their visit shows the Willandra Lakes area — a dried-up lake bed the site is known for. Tourists often visit at sunset, or like the Drummonds, at sunrise.
"It's just one of those hidden gems, it's a really historical location. Just seeing thousands or millions of years of corrosion is pretty amazing" Chelsea said.
Unlike Ethan who was visiting for the first time, Chelsea had been before with her parents as a child. "We spent most of our school holidays on little trips around Australia," she explained.
"But I really wanted to show Ethan, who hadn't travelled much, some of the places I'd been to and Mungo was one of them. It's really such a special spot".
Where is Mungo National Park national park?
Mungo National Park, located in NSW, is a 10.5-hour drive from Sydney and just 6.5 hours from Melbourne. Those visiting from Adelaide can get there in just under seven hours while Mildura, Victoria is just about a 1.5-hour drive from the national park via unsealed roads.
It's made up of dried-up lake beds and sand dunes and is rich in Aboriginal history.
While a 4WD isn't required, as "all routes into Mungo National Park are good quality, two-wheel-drive unsealed roads", according to Visit NSW, having one can certainly help.
Chelsea and Ethan travelled in a regular all-wheel drive but their parents had a 4WD which could help them if they ran into any trouble.
"We definitely took all the precautions that we could," she said, like deflating their tyres to do some sand driving. "But we knew our car could handle it," she added.
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Aussies in awe of 'breathtaking' national park
Online, other Aussies couldn't believe a place like Mungo existed with some describing it as "insane" and breathtaking" with Chelsea admitting places in Australia like this "are not talked about enough"
"This scenery is out of this world," said the caption on another TikTok page, resharing Chelsea's content.
"We can guarantee you'll be hard-pressed to find many other places (on planet Earth!) that look like this," the caption continued on the "Australia" tourism page known for sharing prime locations across the country.
"So many people don't even know that most of our national parks have campgrounds within them where you can stay for cheap, sometimes $15 a night," Chelsea told Yahoo "You can go and visit so many beautiful places On a budget while working full-time".
Although she admits she has seen an increase in Aussies choosing local trips over international travel in recent years. "It's really cool to see so many more people getting out and [exploring Australia]".
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