However, there is one cambered corner that retains water, which churns to mud, so the road is closed to all but 4wd less than 3 tonne.

After a couple of days we make our escape.

The first significant European settlement in the north west of WA.

A port, supporting the gold rush.

Complete with renovated school house.

For some reason I'm a bit amused by the fireplace in the corner.

Its winter and I'm still in shorts and tee-shirt.

Now a cafe and venue for events.

Yes m'lud!

This one doubles as a museum, principally about the Hall family.

There's a fireplace and chimney at this end of the building. But nowhere else. While there are wide eaves/verandahs for shade there are also gutters to catch rain. Old habits die hard.

The buildings are made either of local bluestone (ironstone) or "shell limestone", which we think is a conglomerate with shells in it.

We remain however in our constant state of confusion as we have passed some operations of "WA Limestone". Perhaps the company has diversified.

The schoolhouse, customs house and courthouse are dressed bluestone. I'm not sure what the corners are. The post office is a partly dressed softer, unidentifiable to us, stone. There were a couple of other buildings of partly dressed conglomerate faced with cement.

Renovation has been helped by local mining companies.

I could imagine being a lighthouse keeper ...... looks like the house is still there ....

or is it an old leprasarium? There was one near that the police managed.

We can see iron ore being loaded by conveyor belt.

No camping.

But applications for a 48 hr camp at Cossack have been repeatedly made.

A memorable pub, but for all the wrong reasons. A dysfunctional and violent clientele. And way back then the caravan park was a bit iffy.

Roebourne is a very different place 40 years on.

This is the old jail ... lean head to left to see it as it really is.

We camped about 70km upstream. And of course we are quietly pleased we moved from George Gorge before the rain arrived.

We didn't stop to see if water was still flowing here. Suffice to know there's lots of it.

This is where the Great Northern Highway joins from the south.

There is a steady merry-go-round of road trains carrying ore to Port Hedland. This one is empty, headed south.

We've been toddling along at about 80 km/hr. The trains travel around 85-90 km/hr. We thought it was easier, and more sensible, to travel faster than argue .... we just joined the traffic stream at a suitable distance.

No cooling towers.

And of course we are reminded of salt mines in China and the taxation of salt.

We also cross another iron ore rail line. This time its the Roy Hill line. The mine is about 300km SE of Port Hedland.

The road junction is illuminated at night.

We are headed towards Marble Bar. And a bit further south to a geological site.

Just a small detour before we continue towards Broome.

If we keep going past Marble Bar we would reach Nullagine, which is where we joined this road on our journey from the east.

Just two days short of seven weeks meandering around the Pilbara. Longer than we intended, it must be interesting.

Shaw River.

Nothing particularly special, apart from lots of birds and a pool left from the recent rain.

This is really a white necked heron. Its neck is in shadow.

Two of them took flight from the pool when I disturbed them .... as I'm unfortunately wont to do.

We are camped about 2.5km west of the turnoff to the North Pole. Not the real one (obviously). North Pole, and nearby Panorama, are in the Gorge Range, which is separated from the Hamersley Range by the Fortescue River.

In the North Pole part of the Strelley Pool (geological) Formation there are older stromatolite fossils than we have previously seen. Heavily protected by law so we are headed to a publicly accessible, documented, site about 60km south of Marble Bar. 

Heard a few during the night but not too intrusive.

There are also honey-eaters, a couple of blue-winged kookaburras, and a few calls we don't recognise.