Heavenly Beverley : Rocking All Over The World (In Marble Bar)...

Our last night in Marble Bar. The first night we are actually cooking for ourselves. We have been very fortunate. Two dinners at the Ironclad Hotel. A third dinner courtesy of Year 5/6 Teacher to the Stars, Romola Brennan. To say we have had a great time in Marble Bar does not even come close. We have had a rollicking ride in the Hottest Town in Australia.

Next visit to Marble Bar, we will book for the caravan park, so we may remain in the lower, grassier and sheltered section, rather than the Heights, where we are currently parked. And we will have to come back, as we have only just discovered the delectable combination of the tip and the abandoned state battery.

We arrived, dishevelled and dirty, from Carawine Gorge on Friday. We spent the rest of the day washing clothes and washing clothes and washing sheets and washing towels and washing us. Plus, we caught up with Frazer, currently employed at the Community Resource Centre and his mum Romola, a Beverley resident who has relocated to the Pilbara as a teacher. That night, we adjourned to the Ironclad for dinner, so Michael could catch the Eagles game. Against the dreaded enemy Collingwood.

The roof nearly lifted off with the roaring of the very enthusiastic crowd. But there was no misbehaviour and even the local coppers dropped in just to catch up on the score. We met some remarkable characters. Sergeant Ron Walker, a quietly spoken army veteran of Afganistan (and a law graduate) was on his way to surprise his mum in Port Hedland. We were transfixed by his stories. The chicken and mushroom hotpot was a credit to Chef, a ginger-haired Pom who had ended up in a remote Pilbara town.

Saturday, we finished the backlog of washing. And not much else. We were unsure as to the timing of dinner at Chez Romola and Frazer, so Saturday night was eventually spent at the pub. A couple of musos from the Big Smoke, Karen Wallis and Peter Harper, en route to Broome, arrived at the Ironclad well after dark. In a tiny community nearly fifteen hundred kilometres north of Perth, we discovered we had mutual friends - Red Saxguy, Rodney Gibbs and the (in)famous Lawrence Jones. Six degrees of separation...uh no; much closer in Western Australia.

We have packed a great deal into the last two days. We have been to the beautiful heritage buildings, Comet Mine and Marble Bar pool. We listened to, and then felt the thundering noise and shaking of yesterday's earthquake. Margaret, the volunteer on duty at the Tourism Centre, was more than a little shaken by the tremor. We implored her not to succumb to a heart attack out of fright as I wanted to purchase a couple of books!

Gerard, the enthusiastic Comet Mine guide, delivered a very good show, highlighting the history of the mine, the workers and other interesting tales. We were seduced by the beauty of the Marble Bar and the surrounding waters.

Today, we ventured to both lookouts and further afield to find the abandoned Marble Bar State Battery. Michael's knowledge of Google Earth allowed us to locate both the mining centre and (we think) the original tip.

We spent a very happy and satisfying couple of hours tramping around the battery site. By late afternoon, we were ecstatically exhausted. Our only regret is that we couldn't carry some of the treasures we found.

They will have to wait to be added to our collection until our next visit to Marble Bar.