Johnny doesn’t want a roof over his head - he’s happy in Western Australia’s out of the way places, sleeping under the stars.

Cutting through Karijini National Park, the scenery on the road from Newman to Paraburdoo is pretty special, with dramatic scenery at every turn.

We discovered this awesome bush camp north of Newman. We’d been trying to get to another one we’d heard about but found this one on the way! Running water in the Pilbara is a rare find so it was blissful to have fresh water next to our camp. The only sounds were frogs, cicadas, the ‘babbling brook’, and the breeze through the trees…that was until the helicopter appeared, passing overhead several times one morning, locating cattle during the annual muster.

As far as possible on our meander around Western Australia, we’ve chosen to take the unsealed backroads and have discovered so many amazing spots along the way. When I mentioned on social media where we were and where we were heading next, I got a couple of messages from friends telling us how to find the most beautiful little swimming spot.

Marble Bar is officially Australia’s hottest town, holding the record with 161 consecutive days over 37.8C (100F). Fortunately it was a very manageable 32 degrees when we were there recently. This outback town is named for its jasper which the early explorers believed to be marble. There’s more photos of the jasper patterns and colours in an earlier blog post.

With a rich history of gold mining, Marble Bar still draws gold prospectors from far and wide, hoping to find their fortune.

Early explorers in the Pilbara mistook the jasper outcrops for marble, and called the new town Marble Bar. The colours in the rocks around Marble Bar Pool are unbelievable, especially if you pour a little water over them to bring out their vibrancy.

Five men walked into a bar - an Aussie, an American, a Canadian a Norwegian, and Spaniard…they told us they were a team of five NASA scientists who are working on the Mars landing next year. We thought we might meet some interesting people in Marble Bar’s famous Iron Clad Hotel, but this was most unexpected!

When we were up in Wyndham I photographed some beautiful gouldian finches. That sparked a passion for bird photography so finding this little bush camp beside a billabong near Marble Bar was a real treat…the birdlife was phenomenal. I spent the late afternoon and early morning, standing as still as possible, observing and occasionally photographing the rainbow bee-eaters, white-plumed honeyeaters and the tiny black-fronted dotterels. It’s a steep learning curve photographing birds - and a big lesson in patience - but I’m loving it!

We spent a few days camping at Port Smith on our way up to Broome. A time of mud maps in red dust, and footprints on pristine white beaches; lagoons and mangroves and the feeling that we'd arrived in crocodile country; low, low tides and sand patterns; and so many brolgas.

Living in Denmark and spending the last few months quietly meandering through the Wheatbelt and station country, approaching Port Hedland was an assault on the senses! The outback gave way to multi-lane highways, zigzagging railway tracks, a sky full of wires, and very large machinery operating everywhere you looked. In other words, plenty of new things to point my camera at!