Sunday 30th September: Auski Road House – Marble Bar 247 km Kath lead

Leaving Auski we headed north along the Great Northern Highway for 100km before turning east and toward Marble Bar. Along the way we stopped at Glen Herring Gorge, quite a small gorge tucked away on a narrow, rough track. Meet a kiwi couple who are living and working in Newman with their 2 kids, (1 is actually an Aussie) who we meet up with again latter on at another scenic spot then yet again at camp. The temperature is now consistently between 30 – 35 degrees. We came to Comet Gold Mine which has now closed with only a souvenir shop/museum still remaining. Apparently only 10% of the gold could be recovered from the rock but with new technologies they are now able to extract 80-90% so chances are they will reprocess all the tailings and may even reopen the mine. Reaching Marble Bar, which is officially recorded as being the hottest town in Australia we visited Marble Bar Pool & Chinamans Pool - a couple of water pools along the river (now mostly dry) where we had a very late lunch. We called in at a solar power station with over 2,000 solar panels and at a quintessential pub for a quick drink. Parked outside was a 4x4 with 2 old Suzuki’s in tow that are used for rounding up cattle. They were certainly battle worn and a little scarred. Then it was off to the camp ground where the mid-afternoon temperature was 35 degrees.