August 22
Day 39
We lingered long on the banks of the de Grey. Another river bathe anbd some quiet observations of eagles and hawks and bee-eaters as they swooped, glided and darted, respectively, around the paperbarks. 
The drive along the rest of the Boreline Road was as beautiful as it had begun. The mulla-mulla was in full bloom. Their purple swathes presented an outback version of Provincial lavender fields. The early morning light added to the beauty of the scenery.
Marble Bar is ‘Australia’s hottest town’, well, we had to call in. The delightful woman at the tourist information did a fantastic job of selling the sights and delight of Marble Bar. She was so good that when we left we were thinking of staying the night. We tried to sort out the issue with my computer. The guy at the community centre was delightfully helpful, but no success. – still a paperweight.
After the disappointment we needed to bolster our reserves. The tourist information woman had practically insisted that we at least visited the Ironclad Hotel. It is, she told us, listed in the top ten of Australia’s most iconic pubs. It is certainly a ‘country pub’. It is completely constructed of corrugated iron – at least half still unrusted. I thought the hotel was named after the galvanised iron of which is constructed, but rather, it is named after one of he richest mines of marble Bar’s hey day.
The beer is frosty cold – but comes in bottles and cans rather than from a tap; which were conspicuously absent. The steak sandwich took two beers to arrive. The steak was local, tender and tasty. Much to Mark’s diappointment, and my amusement, the bar was not constucted of marble.
Next stop, the Marble Bar. The Marble Bar was originally thought to be marble, but is in fact, jasper. The jasper is red and is present in striking bands through the white quartz and darker bands of some other stone. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as in the picture we were shown, but once we splashed it with river water, the colours shone. In the wet and the afternoon light, it would be spectacular. By now we had realised that we did not need to spend a night at the Marble Bar Caravan Park. We bade farewell to Australia’s hottest town and continued on our way.
The drive continued prettily until we heard a strange sound as we drove over one of the concreted floodways. On inspection we discovered the cause. The other back car tyre was not only blown, it was shredded! What a mess. The side of a narrow gravel road in the late afternoon heat is not the ideal place to be changing a tyre. But we were in the country.
The first car drove straight past, but every other car (mining vehicles) that came by stopped to see that we were okay. The first of these, stopped anyway and lent us a hand. He had tools that made the job easier and two blokes is always better than one in such a situation. Before too long we were road worthy again and our new friend was on to Nullagine for a cold beer.
Wild Dog Creek is our destination for tonight. It proved to be a pretty spot alongside a lagoon/wetland formed by the unfortunately named creek. This was to be our last night of pretty outback camping for this trip. We lit a fire and made the most of the unfiltered night so alive all around us.
Round the Next Bend 