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