No sooner did we hit the bitumen after leaving Tambina creek, we came across a mine site and then the road changed into gravel. We had about 82 km of unsealed road to get into Marble Bar. We were fortunate not to meet any road trains but a few 4x4's on this rough gravel road. Saw two dead camels in a gravel pit. The scenery heading into Marble Bar was just absolutely stunning.

The first place we went to when entering Marble Bar was the Flying Fox lookout. This flying fox cross's the Coongan River, the cableway spans 327 metres and is used by hydrographers during flood times, to measure the velocity of the water flow. This information is used for road and bridge designs.

Our next stop was the jasper rock deposit, here you can fossick and collect you own piece of jasper. It was a jasper rock deposit found by pioneers that were mistaken for marble and hence the town was named Marble Bar. Two lovely swimming holes just on the outskirts of town were stunning, Marble Bar Pool and Chinamans Pool, a walk around town checked out the museum and a drive up to the lookout to view the stunning surrounding area.

Leaving Marble Bar we drive across a massive plateau surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges

Driving through Dooleena Gorge we leave the mountain ranges behind we are now on open barren plains, with the occasional large bulbous ant hill and many floodway crossings. Cattle are roaming unfenced and at one stage a quick braking to avoid three that were close to the road and behind shrubs, thank god the brakes were done prior to this trip. The bitumen road is great between Marble Bar and Port Hedland.

We hit the Great Northern Highway and turn north 1km and free camped at split rock. On dusk we were hit with midges for the first time, so an early night in DABUS. Thankful of our daily dose of mega b, we had no reaction to the midges in the morning. Heading into Port Hedland to purchase some supplies and Pepsi...... we still had another emergency bottle still stashed under the bed. It's amazing to see the iron ore trains heading into town. These trains carry 35000 tonnes of iron ore in the 132 carriages that we counted. The road was busy with road trains until we turned off the Great Northern Highway onto the North West Coastal Highway. Stopped for the night at Whim Creek pub, caught up with campers heading north and discussed the gravel roads we wanted to travel on.... they said we shouldn't have any problems. No cooking today, enjoying a meal at the pub. We had watched a solo lady traveller heading into the pub with her guitar and not long after we entered the pub she was leaving, we mentioned that we thought she was going to play a few tunes....... 'nahhh' she said... 'no-one in here'... 'hello we're here'... so she strapped on her guitar and belted out one of her own songs. Great song and voice but left after one song....We ordered a glass of white and red wine. Nope sorry no glasses of red but you can buy a bottle of the Whim Creek pub classic red....mmmmm great sales ploy.... so Alan had to buy a bottle......but you get to take it with you.

One leaving the Pub's free camping ground the following morning we drove out to Balla Balla Pool, where they say if you get a stick, at night time and run it through the water, the water glows. The road was is great condition but when we arrive the one kilometer stretch along the pool was packed, some campers looked like they were staying for months at a time, it was a shame but we decided to move on. The next couple of campsites were either too close to the highway or too steep for DABUS to get out of. We turned off the highway onto the Roebourne-Wittenoom Road and stopped at Kialrah Pool on the Oakover River. We were fortunate to be the first to arrive at what is only a small pool of water and got the sight right above the water. One other van arrived and on dusk we enjoyed watching the brahma cattle come down to get water. Whilst having breakfast the next morning we enjoyed watching the many finches flying near us, throughout the shrubs.

Heading into Roebourne we went to the lookout, where six aboriginal metal statues look out over their lands and we enjoyed the stunning scenery. We moved onto Wickham to check out the Rio Tinto Iron Ore Mining, lookout and beach area.

We are now in search of where Red Dog is buried….heading out to Cossack.. we missed the turn off but went onto Cossack, which we had seen this area back in 2015, so a quick drive around and back to our search.

Yes we found the track off the side of the road, drove in and on turning DABUS around, we saw the glint of the plague. Stopping we were happy that we had found it. Red dog was buried in this area, after dying on 22nd November 1979 by red dogs vet, Rick Fenny, who took him for his last drive. The plague was erected in 2014. Mission accomplished……

The weather is a comfortable 30 degrees so we decided to head out to Cleaverville beach camping, not able to get a beachfront sight but still our site is certainly pleasant looking over the water. The tides are 5 plus metres and we enjoyed a walk along the beach at low tide and sighted these weird animal tracks in the sand, we had no idea what had caused these strange tracks. Our first night, after dinner and dishes, we had the fire going and turned off the outside light to enjoy the night sky and about 20 minutes after the light was off, Alan had something crawling up his leg. Thankfully we both had long pants, due to the midges, anyhow Lorelle's feet quickly flew off the sand, Alan flicked his leg and the outside light went back on promptly and we went in search of the culprit. We found it about a metre away from the fire, a large hermit crab. The strange tracks on the sand have now been explained. We are enjoying the sunny days overlooking this beautiful beach.

On our last morning at Cleaverville there was not a breathe of wind, we were very surprised to get attacked by bloody midges. We take Mega B religiously every day, our concoction was put on but nothing was going to stop the little b*****s. So we were glad to be vacating this spot.

Into Karratha to do some washing and stocking up on supplies, we were in the plaza when Alan took some bread back to the bus and on his return he bumped into Sheryl whom we had met back in 2015 at Quondong Point, north of Broome, WA with her husband Brian. We later met them both again at Tom Price, where we had booked into the same mine tour, then again at Shell Beach near Monkey Mia and the last time was in Kalgoorlie where we all enjoyed watching the 2015 Grand Final. We hadn't caught up with them since, so a nice surprise. They are staying with their son at Pannawonica and invited us to catch up with them there.

We decided as the weather is nice to hang around the coast for a while longer, so we headed south and are now enjoying Gnoorea (40 mile beach) south of Karratha, paying $15 per night.