The "A Remarkable Place Known As Marble Bar" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I'm now beginning to realize that my wife and I may miss a rescheduled trip to the island of St. Martin. We originally had made plans to travel in May, but that never happened due to the COVID-19 virus.  And now, it will more than likely be the same with our new plans to visit in mid-October.  Thus, we anticipate having to make a few adjustments once again.  To make up for the disappointment, we have taken to looking at websites that feature beautiful beaches and mouth-watering food.  A few days ago I opened a link to a place known as Marble Bar, Australia.  Town sounded really neat until I began to read about it.  Seems the remote desert outpost, where the temperature soars above 95 degrees Fahrenheit for an average of 200 days a year, calls itself the "hottest town in Australia."  The town got its name from a nearby jasper bar that was mistaken for marble.  The heat waves in the town are hotter and longer than anywhere else on the searing continent.  The town has fewer than 200 residents that just love the fact that the burning earth can melt the soles of shoes and that the water running from the "cold" tap comes out hot.  The past year the town broke its own record by having the thermometer hit at least 113 degrees on 32 days.  Standing outside on a "cool" morning can feel like standing in front of a roaring wood stove.  

The red mark shows where Marble Bar is located on Australia.

So why is all this happening?  Climate Change is the answer!  And, the town on the west side of the island is warming even faster than the rest of the world.  By the end of the century, Marble Bar could be an average of 3 to 4.5 degrees Celsius warmer.  Residents talk about their pride in being able to withstand the scorching heat while sipping a beer in a corrugated iron shack built in the late 1800s which has no air-conditioning.  A local government worker says they really don't want to know if they are going to fry or not.  Most of the residents were drawn to Marble Bar because of the promise of gold.  The entire island is beginning to feel the wrath of climate change with unpredictable and ferocious disasters from flood to drought to the catastrophic bush fires this past summer which razed thousands of homes and destroyed more than a billion animals.  The people who call Marble Bar home already know what others will soon call normal.  The trick is to stay hydrated, keep out of the sun in the hottest hours of the day, and never travel more than 10 minutes by car without water to last days in case of a breakdown.  In 2003 a British tourist perished miles from Marble Bar after his vehicle became bogged down and he left it to look for help.  In 2018 four others died in just two months in the Australian Outback's fiery conditions.  But, for some, the island is paradise.  One 72-year-old former photographer and goldsmith from Italy was lured to the desert since he felt that "nature here is untouched."  Some find the best way to cope with the extreme heat is by working underground.  Murray Millwood has built and runs his own gold mine 165 feet below the surface of Marble Bar where the temperature is a comfortable 80 degrees.  Mr. Millwood said time goes quick underground since "There's no sun to torment you."  After reading about this remote place on earth I felt so lucky to be able to visit a place like St. Martin where the temperature averages between 75-80 degrees year round.  So, if I don't get there in mid-October, I can wait until the spring of 2021.  At least I don't have to endure the scorching heat found in Marble Bar.  But, life is a journey with its ups and downs and after just going through a terrible "down", I'm hoping for a welcome "up" in the near future.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.