Catch up time
again.
Sunday 16th June -
Port Hedland to Des Streckfuss Rest Area - 126km
The turn off to Marble Bar is about 50km
East of Port Hedland along the Great Northern Highway. I never rush to get
moving, so left Port Hedland about lunch time and headed for the Des Streckfuss
rest area to stay for the night before heading into Marble Bar the next morning. I can never understand why some people rush off early in the morning when, like me, they are not traveling
to any set timetable. There are stray animals and wildlife all
along the highway and it is not wise to travel too early or late in the
afternoon. The highway is littered
with dead cattle and kangaroos - most of them probably the result of being hit by road
trains.
The first 70 kilometres heading towards
Marble Bar is flat uninteresting scrub land, then the rugged brown and green
hills of the Pilbara start to appear on the horizon as you travel further
inland. The highway crosses
several rivers along the way and there are flood markers all along the road,
and in some parts the road is actually built on the river bed, so in the wet
season it would be impossible to get through. In a few places there were pools of water lapping at
the edge of the bitumen, probably the result of very heavy unseasonal rains
which fell a couple of weeks ago.
Monday 17th June -
Des Streckfuss Rest Area to Marble Bar (79km) then return to Grey River Rest Area on Great Northern
Highway - 268km all up.
Marble Bar is a very small town with just a
few houses, a police station and a few other government agencies as well as a
roadhouse which is also the post office, bank, general store and petrol
station. After looking around I
drove about 4km out of town to a very pretty spot called Chinaman’s Pool, which
is an expanse of water at the bottom of a gorge. There were water birds everywhere including a pelican, and
the trees were full of cockatoos.
It was a lovely oasis in the middle of nowhere. I stayed for about an hour and had
lunch then made the 80 km trip back to the Des Streckfuss Rest Area where I was going to stay again for the night before heading back out on to the highway the following day, but when I
arrived there was a group of aborigines who had
settled in to have a few drinks, so I decided the wisest thing to do would be
to head back out on to the highway and drive to the next rest stop which is the Grey River Rest Area. It is very pretty on the edge of the river, so I decided to have a break for a couple of days before heading off again.
I have the van booked in for service at
Broome on the 28th June, so I am not in any rush to move on. Broome is about five to six hundred
kilometres away and at this time of year everywhere is usually booked out, but
apparently there are overflow areas set aside in a few areas, so hopefully I
won’t have any problem finding somewhere to stop for a few days.
Tuesday 18th June
It is a bit coolish with light rain on
and off today, so a good reason to stay put and have a rest before heading off
again. The forecast is for sunny
weather again tomorrow.
Wednesday 19th June - Grey River Rest Area to Pardoo Roadhouse - 75km
I was filling up with fuel at the Roadhouse earlier today when I made the snap decision to stay here for the night. It is only $15 per night and because of the cloudy weather the past couple of days I thought it would be a good idea to plug into power overnight and top up the batteries. It is quite a nice little spot in behind the Roadhouse with several grassy caravan sites. They even have a couple of washing machines, so I decided to strip my bed and do a couple of loads of washing. I had intended to do my washing in Port Hedland, but surprisingly they don't have any laundromats, so it was good to be able to catch up with it here.
Des Streckfuss Rest Area:
Approaching Marble Bar:
Government Buildings in Marble Bar. Built 120 years ago:
Marble Bar Gym:
Main street, Marble Bar:
Chinaman's Pool:
De Grey River rest area:
Parked behind Pardoo Roadhouse:
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