We set off to Marble Bar after the storm passed. This was our fastest pack up ever, less than an hour, we packed up before the storm hit 80 Mile Beach. We are definitely in road train country now, we were passed by 2 road trains today, we were going 100kph, so how fast were they going? The landscape in still pretty flat and bushy with a few rocky outcrops. We hear that Marble Bar is the hottest town in Australia.... 160 consecutive days back in 1942-43 38 deg and hotter, gave this town the honour. It's very windy here when we arrive and HOT.
We settle in to the only van park in this town of approx 200 residents (400 in outlying areas). We venture down town to the pub as you do, $16 for a rum and a bourbon, ouch! That's a bit different to the $8 a shout we were paying at RSL in Broome. We decide to crack the Hoochery, Ord River Rum back at camp, a very nice drop we might add. At this small park it's just us and another couple in a van and one permanent resident van, so we do our usual and spread out and settle in. We do a self drive tour in the morning, first stop is Marble Bar Pool.
We were previously told by a fellow traveller, they were a bit disappointed in the Marble pools, that was until they realised you have to wet the rocks, so we had the heads up. It would be spectacular to see the rocks when it was raining, with all the colours showing. It is actually Jasper rock, however early settlers mistook it for Marble, hence Marble Bar was named. It is illegal to take any Jasper from this area which falls across the Coongan River, however there is Jasper deposit site (left) down the road and down a narrow rocky road, where people can fossick to their little hearts content.
We visited the Comet Gold Mine founded in 1936 and the tourist/museum centre, 7.5 kms out of Marble Bar. I noticed on the wall was a story of Charles Kingsford Smith marrying a local girl in Marble Bar. Didn't say anything about his aviation days, maybe it's a different chap. We went further down the dirt road (good dirt road) in search of Glen Herring Gorge, but with no signage about, decide to head back to town via the flying fox (right). The wire in foreground had a number of white balloons attached acrossed the dry Coongan river bed.
They say it doesn't rain here much, tends to go around the hills, however it does flood here as the waters come down from catchments in nearby areas. It would be great to see the Coongan river in flood as it is a very wide river in places. We stopped off at Marble Pools on the way back for a cool off swim. Also visited Chinamen Pool, which was pretty dry and water stagnant, but pretty spot. Lots of cows around. We're noticing more flies here too. Back in town we jump on the treddlies to take the heritage trail round town.
The most impressive is the Government Building (above) Built of local stone in 1895 and is still providing accommodation for Police, Wardens Court, Mining Registrar etc. They have and Anzac and Pioneer memorial walls, old church, town well, lookout, some sites just have a plaque, no remaining building, leave it to your imagination. This is a sleepy little place, not many people wandering the streets, just some local kids. On right pic taken from water tank, we treddled up there to (okay I walked a bit).
You can see our little blue tent in bottom half centre. Margaret the caretaker their a lovely lady been here 6 years and loves it.... you gotta love the quiet life and the heat we feel. Previously she had driven taxis in Port Hedland for 18 of the 19 years her and hubby spent there. Seen some changes over that time. Here I am descending from the look out. I win the prize for eating the first fly! When we were going up, I caught it between my teeth, shook my head and swallowed it.........okay not really the damn thing just flew in and kept going, that'll teach me for having my mouth open at the wrong time!!
Before we head off we went out to Marble Pool to take some more photos, this time we take a bucket with us so we can cut loose on wetting the rocks down and exploring all the colours. This pic at right is not wet. We could bore you with a numerous pics taken here but we won't, just a couple. Can't believe we met a lady later who visited here and didn't wet the rocks, thought they were spectacular as they were..... She has really missed out.
It was Saturday and we went to fill up at the Road house, it was closed.....closed every Saturday. Lucky there is another servo in town or we might have been stuck for a day. As we leave we check the temperature displayed on a digital sign in the park. Currently 38.1 deg at 8am in the morning! I guess the locals are used to it, but we decide this is not on our list of places we could live.
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