Well as we all know nothing goes quite to plan on these trips. We left Mount Magnet after refuelling and headed north along the Great Northern Highway with the intention of going to Cue and from there out to Walga Rock (extremely extensive example of aboriginal rock art painted on Australia’s second biggest monolith) and to the ghost town of Big Bell which is situated near the Big Bell Gold Mine. However, an errant set of pliers laying on the highway at a point where on coming traffic didn’t allow me to dodge it, managed to pierce the sidewall of one tyre on the rear right hand side. This means that we can’t go out on those gravel roads without a spare and Cue, with its population of 300, doesn’t have a tyre service (or much of anything else other than impressive old buildings)
We plan to head to the pub for tea tonight and we will free camp in the RV Overnight camp area at the back of the main street before moving on to Meekatharra tomorrow to get a replacement tyre. Looks like we will just have to come back here at some later time. Still, as we are well prepared, changing wheels comes relatively easy (even if it seems they get heavier as I get older)
One unusual building is the rather grand looking Masonic Lodge, built in 1892 from corrugated iron. It was active up until 1979 when the local lodge was disbanded due to lack of membership.
It seems a shame that all these old buildings are quickly reaching their use by date although one entrepreneur is trying to let shops with the assurance that the owner is renovating all the shops in the building. By the look of the building from the rear lane, he may be being a little optimistic.