Newman

We took the mostly dirt road from Marble Bar to Newman. The initial part was quite corrugated. We tend to got a LOT slower than most traffic on dirt roads, and at some points we were going slow enough to check things on the side of the road that had come off other faster moving vehicles. In the past we have picked up a number of useful things, but unfortunately there was not much of value this time. We did find a few road train signs half buried in the sand in various states of bent-ness and kept the best one as a spare sheet of aluminium (or maybe it will just become a souvenir!).

Going so slow also meant it was really easy to stop and take photos of the amazing views.

The further south we went the more the road improved, and south of Nullagine there were a lot of roadworks. I didn't think to take any photos as we were going through the sections where they had all the machinery, but it seemed they were taking out most of the undulations and making it into a bitumen road capable of withstanding constant quad trucks of iron ore coming out of the mines. They certainly know how to build decent roads out here.

As we got closer to Newman there was more evidence of the mines that surround it. 

We had planned for five nights in the caravan park in Newman to catch up on work and have the car serviced. We went for a short drive around the town one afternoon.

Unfortunately... but also fortunately... they found an oil leak when they did the service. They thought it was the rear engine seal, and if it got worse it could compromise the clutch, which we certainly didn't want to happen while towing a 3.5 ton van. So we booked the can in for another full day, but they called mid morning to say it wasn't the rear engine seal and that they would need it overnight. 

We were in an allocated caravan park site, but it was booked by other people from the following day, so we would need to move. A couple of phone calls later and we had organised a tow truck for the next morning to move us over the the overflow area. It turned out that there were five or six other vehicles all waiting for parts or repairs of some sort!

We've now done a few hundred kms, and its running well, so we're very thankful!

Marble Bar and surrounds

We spent a night at the Des Streckfuss Rest Area on our way to Marble Bar. There was a waterhole out the back which the White-plumed Honeyeaters kept coming down to drink from.

We woke up to some rain in the night and the cloud hung around in the morning.

We planned to start our next round of intensive marking at the caravan park in Marble Bar. 

The creek near the caravan park.

It was a short drive out of town to the bar (of jasper, not marble!).

Australasian Grebe

A little further up the river is Chinaman's Pool, which was even more interesting.

The colour really stood out when the rocks were wet.

The power of the recent flood was evident. The concrete slab survived, mostly intact... 

One afternoon after work we went for a drive out to Doolena Gorge.

Intermediate Egrets

Carawine Gorge was a couple of hours away. We had initially planned to stay there two nights and cut across to Nullagine but reviews suggested tyres needed to be let right down to not get bogged in the river rock/sand. We no longer have a rear diff locker (increasing the risk of getting bogged) and letting down/pumping up tyres takes a lot longer now we have a TPMS fitted, and part of the road to Nullagine showed as being closed on the East Pilbara Shire website, so we decided against taking the van out there as we would have to come back almost to Marble Bar again before heading south. It was a long day trip, but well worth the effort. We even put the kayaks in as it's the first waterway without the threat of crocodiles we've seen.

Dazz noticed an unusual green bush on the side of the river and as he got closer he noticed something red.

Tomatoes! They obviously sprouted from someones' kitchen scraps.

Grey Shrike-thrush

Painted Finch

Reflections in the Nullagine River on our way back to Marble Bar.