Len and Hazel's Travels: Marble Bar 03-05 October 2013

Marble Bar was always one of those places that we thought we might as well go to since we were in the neighborhood - what's another couple of hundred k's? Not knowing much about the place, we planned to stay overnight and be on our way the next day. Well, colour us surprised! Turns out there is a bit to see around the town: Marble Bar and Chinaman Pools; The Comet Mine museum; The Solar power farm; The Ironclad Hotel (and no, the reason we stayed the extra day was not because of the size of the hangovers we had after spending some quality time with the local bar flies...); The old WW2 secret airbase at Corunna Downs. The list goes on and on, but most of all it is a nice, friendly, quiet sleepy little place which proved a nice change after Port Headland. It is HOT though, which is hardly surprising when it holds the record as the hottest town in Australia with 160 consecutive days above 37.8 degrees C (100 F) in 1923/24. It has been over 40 C each day we have been here.
Had dinner and a few (then a few more) drinks at the Ironclad Hotel which has not changed much since it first opened in 1889. A great pub, with good food (the current chefs are two French backpackers (well they have a caravan) marooned here until they can afford to get their broken Hi-

ace fixed, and icy cold beer. The duty manager/barkeep is a young Danish girl doing here second stint in Marble Bar - she hopes to see the rest of the country one day... The other bar flies included the day shift barmaid (not much other nightlife for yet another French backpacker); a past grand champion rodeo rider; a couple of farriers; various indigenous locals and travelers (who were all very nice to talk to); and two brothers who were collecting seeds from native trees to sell to the mining companies for use in re-vegetation of old mine sites. A very ecclectic and interesting lot, one and all.
The old air base was also interesting. No buildings remain. Just some of the cement slabs and bits and pieces of rubbish, but the landing strips, taxiways and aircraft dispersal revetments are all still there and appear to be being regularly maintained. It's just a pity that there are no signs to indicate what is what. You do still get a good sense of the isolation and harsh conditions the RAAF and USAAF people stationed here had to cope with.
Off to Karajini National Park tomorrow for some more gorge walks and swimming :-)
Prado Spotto scores are now Len 221, Hazel 219.