After a great week at Meentheena , we headed back to Marble Bar expecting to get a powered site for a couple of nights - well weren't we surprised , they were booked pretty solid - we could get one night powered - there was an amateur gold detectors / prospectors get together , so we took ana unpowered site and got a powered one for the next night .
This is some of the scenery you drive through to get back to Marble Bar .
After a good nights sleep , we packed up and moved 30 m to our powered site , the washing machine was put straight into service .
We had to go back out to the jasper seam just out of town just for another look at this natural wonder . Picture a seam of rock about 30m wide , with ribbons of coloured rock that go off into a mountain either side of the Coongan River . The last couple of photos show the colours better as they are wet .
This is looking back toward Chinamans Pool , the ridge in the left hand side of the photo is the jasper ridge .
Such an amazing sight , has to be seen to be believed . Next we went out to Glen Herring Gorge , it's about 30klms south and took some 4wding to get to the end of the track .
Not knowing what to expect here we wandered down the river bed to the gorge , the gum trees contrasting the red rock & light green spinifex .
Small pools of water appeared , and had great reflections of the coloured rocks
Further down and around the corner and there was a much larger pool and more rock - more volcanic rock , seemingly like lava - a different colour and had lots of other rocks embedded in it .
The cliffs and formations above us were amazing .
And further down was the last major pool before we were out the other side of the gorge .
After a great afternoon cruising the countryside , we headed back to camp , rescued the washing and sat down for a beer .
Next day we fuelled up and headed out to Coongan Pool , it's on the road back to Marble Bar and is next to Dooleena Gorge . We managed to get a great spot right next to the Coongan River - we could watch the schools of fish from our dining table - how good was that !
Next day we headed out to Coppin Gap , again not knowing what to expect , we found our way there through rolling hills and creek beds , ending up beside a huge ridge line with a gap in it - very similar to the gaps in the East & West MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs . We rock hopped and wound our way through the creek bed and emerged at this beautiful pool . It was about 5m deep and cool , and went for about 40m before some rocks blocked it off .
Speaking of rocks , guess what we found here - more Jasper - this whole ridge was made of Jasper just like in Marble Bar - this chunk shows it clearly .
Another little discovery on our travels - how good is this !!!
A 2nd pool extended further to the other side of the gorge - a bit lower in water level , but equally as impressive .
Birdlife was abundant here , with hundreds of painted finches all coming in for a drink . There were hawks , doves & spinifex pidgeons as well as various types of finch .
This gorge wasn't a long as Glen Herring , but still as impressive .
This is it from above , looking out to the north to the flat country .
Back to the ute and some lunch consumed , we headed out to look at the other side of the ridge we'd just wandered through . This is the view of the ridge , the gorge is in the left hand side of the photo .
Time was getting away , and there was another spot we wanted to go to ,Shay Gap , but it was 55klms away and it was already 3:15 pm , so we decided we'd leave that one for another visit .
Another peaceful night's sleep and we wake to this view in the morning - I know , it's a bit tough but someone's got to do it .
We reluctantly packed up before going for a walkup the river , and got chatting to a gentleman who used to work at the Comet Gold Mine in Marble Bar . He told us a few more places we should look at , a few roads to go down etc , would have been nice to have spoken to him a day ago , but wasn't to be - next time . And with that we headed back to Port Hedland to check on phones , emails and anything else we'd missed out on for the last week while we had no phone or internet .
The salt farm beside the road in Port Hedland is an amazing sight in all the red & brown of the town . That's a D10 bulldozer up that salt pile - one of the biggest bulldozers they make - looks like a toy pushing the salt down to be loaded into trucks by an equally large front end loader .
The loader puts 2 scoops of salt into each trailer - so 6 scoops and the triple road train is full ready to go the short distance to the port to be loaded into a ship .
The weekend rolled around and it was time to catch up with Garry & Linda again , not sure how long it will be before we see them again . We enjoyed their company and had a beautiful meal together on Sunday afternoon , even had a fire going as the sun went down .
Tomorrow we are off to one of our favourite free camps , but that will be in the next edition .
Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qvdPFjwNCVl5LxuS6YLHrze-yQs8R3W_&usp=sharing
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