During our two months in Darwin, John mentioned a few times that his denture plate was breaking. More than a few times I suggested he go and have it repaired but he told me it would be fine until we got home in two or three months. Fast forward to Cape Keraudren and I heard John exclaim “oh no!”. Yes, his plate had snapped in half. He had half a mouth of top teeth; the other half were in his hand. Beautiful Cape Keraudren was on the beach, miles from anywhere with no phone range. What to do?
Port Hedland was the nearest large town so we took off for the two hour drive. As it was a Sunday, we thought it best to see if we could camp at the South Hedland Golf Club where we had stayed previously. It turned out to be full due to a golf competition – the competitors had brought their caravans – but, maybe because of John’s lopsided, gumsy grin, she allowed us to stay. The only place to park though was next to the bins and it was very smelly.
We were keen to get away from the smell and sort out John’s teeth so we had early showers and drove into Port Hedland for breakfast and then the emergency denture place. It wasn’t a great morning for us because all the cafes we drove to were either closed or non-existent. Someone pointed the way to The Dome so we ended up there. Breakfast was fine, coffee was awful.
We arrived at the denture place right on nine o’clock. The girl was lovely but explained that she would have to send John’s dentures away to be repaired. We thanked her and tried a local dentist and got the same response. We couldn’t hang around for a week or two; John was unable to eat anything other than scrambled eggs. We asked where we would find someone who could fix his plate on the spot and were told – Geraldton. Geraldton is less than two hours from home! It looked like we had no choice but to cut our trip short and head for home.
We had made some plans we didn’t want to change. First to visit the small town of Marble Bar which we see on the weather map on tv every night because it is usually the hottest town in Australia. And to meet up with friends in Exmouth. We didn’t want to cancel so we decided that we would keep these arrangements and from Exmouth we would head straight home.
It was a three hour drive to Marble Bar, passing nothing but long road trains heading to and from the town which mines lithium, gold, iron ore and manganese.
We didn’t know what to expect in Marble Bar but it was a very small, quiet town with very little happening. We had hoped to find a supermarket but there was just a small shop that only opened for a few hours on certain days. Sunday was not one of the days. So we headed to the Iron Clad Hotel (which had been around since 1893) in the hope of some lunch.
We walked into a very warm, friendly and quirky bar. It almost felt like going back in time. The barman was very welcoming. We sat out in the beer garden with John enjoying a cold beer and me a white wine. As John was very limited in what he could eat, we decided to share some Thai chicken curry and rice (with John mostly having the rice) and some Tiramasu for dessert. The chef assured us it was the best Tiramasu in Marble Bar! Of course it was the only Tiramasu in town, but it was delicious. We dragged ourselves away to get back onto the road as there was nowhere to stay or shop. We really enjoyed our couple of hours in Marble Bar and can tick it off our bucket list!
We looked for somewhere to camp on the side of the road but it was very hot and the flies were horrendous. We thought we might stay at Nanaturra Roadhouse, do some washing and use their wifi to try and book somewhere for the next night. However, they did not have wifi or a laundry so we kept going. We found a free camp with toilets and pulled in there. It was busy with caravanners and John got chatting to a few. As usual, we went to bed with the sun and woke up with the sun.
It was school holidays and we know how busy Exmouth gets with young families. It is one of the very few towns that does not allow free camping within its shire so we had no idea where we would camp. Everywhere we tried was full. Luckily our friend, Emma said we could camp in their driveway so that is what we did.
We have been to Exmouth before but not really explored it. Emma remedied that by taking us for a scenic drive which we really enjoyed. I particularly liked the visitors’ centre in Exmouth as it had a lovely shop and cafe.
It was lovely to catch up with Emma, Beau and the children as we hadn’t seen them in a while.
Emma had a rare couple of hours away from mum duties, and the three of us went out for dinner. It was great to catch up with all the news.
We left the next morning but decided to check out Turquoise Bay before leaving town. We had been there some years ago on a very windy day. The weather was perfect so off we went. It did not disappoint. The beach and the water were beautiful.
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