Leaving Broome & the Kimberley behind we have started to head south towards the Pilbara. Once again we travelled through the open plains. Something about these open spaces that Tony & I love but then when we have had enough the coast beckons.
Our first stopover was in a free camp where we caught up with some caravanning friends made during our stay at Kunnunnurra & again in Derby. We had a great welcoming committee from Neita & Ray as well as Lynn & Joe. The other couple, Terry & Pam were the proud owners of the purple fun bus, "Mutton Dressed up as Lamb.
Lots of motorhomes, especially converted buses, have been given some creative names, we have only seen a few caravans with a nickname - we must be the conservative ones? I forgot to ask about the fluffy toys!
After another enjoyable happy hour discussing everything from "nothing much, to the black sheep of the QLD family Kevin R to of course, the inevitable, FOOTY, we enjoyed another beautiful sunset. Amazing how good the silhouette of a dunny & shelter shed looks at this time of night.
Turning off the Great Northern Hwy to Marble Bar the landscape changed & iron ore country along with the mining trucks were our companions.
Marble Bars claim to fame dates back to the 1930's when they had around 130 consecutive days where temperature didn't fall below 37.6 deg. It is still in the Guiness Book of Records. The town does not have a lot going for it as a town to reside in however it is an interesting stopover. I am sure the locals love their town.
The servo come supermarket come PO services the town with essentials. The other servo (out of diesel note on pump) provides the other essentials, take away & pizza.
Sat morning at 11am nothing was open & not a car in the street.
Gold mining is still active in the area & a prospector told us there is still some gold in "them there hills"!!
The town was named from a large ridge of stone on the outskirts of town. It is actually Jasper not Marble, and a beautiful modern war memorial has two polished faced slabs of the coloured sedimentary rock standing sentinel before the flag pole.
Buildings in the town are few & the only ones of note are the Police Station/Court House, Iron Clad Pub & RC Church all for different reasons as you will see in the photos below.
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| Police Station |
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| Iron Clad Pub |
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| Roman Catholic Church |
A day trip out to Coppins Gap was an enjoyable trip despite having to share a pretty good dirt road with mining trucks. Some beautiful scenery on the way & various wildflowers are starting to announce the coming of spring so we might get lucky & see more as we keep travelling further south where the flowers are more abundant.
Already wattle has been lining the roadside in colours varying from milky creams to golden yellows. Some plants tough it out amongst the rocks & unashamedly produce brilliant balls of fluff above small hard leaves while other wattle flowers hang gracefully on strands like yellow feather dusters.
The destination beckons along a red dirt track. This is the only gap in a 100km rock wall.
The reward at the end of the road.
Posted with Blogsy
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