Tuesday 20 February 2018

Today I got a flat tyre

I have always been aware that a weakness on my go-anywhere chair would be a flat tyre

I have been trying to get to a little cove called Indian Creek. It sits between Shirley Heights and Mamora Bay and is hard to access down miles of rough dirt tracks. On the eastern headland is a complex of buildings that apparently belongs to Eric Clapton




Yesterday I got within 100m of the beach at Indian Creek. The last bit was a steep rough slope with water cut channels making it just too tricky to descend. I probably would have made it down but the assent would have been unlikely. What was running through my head throughout the miles of rough dirt track was ‘what do I do if get a flat tyre’?

I have insurance that covers breakdown in Europe but not for flat tyres. I don't even know how I would have directed breakdown rescue services to come and retrieve me out in the back of Indian Creek as there is nothing there except a flood plane and some fly tipping. 100m before the final descent into Indian Creek I chickened out

I made it back to civilisation in one piece with my wings firmly clipped but without having ended up as that mummy like corpse found days later in the back of nowhere. I survived with nothing worse than sunburnt knees

Today however I get the flat tyre. It came after a bit of local shopping and was caused by a bit of branch I picked up with a thorn piercing the tyre. I picked up the twig and I heard it as it went round and around with the tyre. Like a nail in your tyre I couldn't resist pulling it out when I shouldn't - still I made it home

With my tiny toolkit bought just for the occasion I removed the wheel. Quizzing my landlady I found I had 2 options for repair, one locally, the other 15 miles up the road, so scrounging a lift with my daughter we went in search of repair. What we found was a fantastic garage that just wouldn't exist other than in a third world country. They repaired my tubeless tyre with a bicycle repair patch glued to the inside of the tyre. They did the repair in half an hour and charged me £3 and what had been a major concern was sorted with relative ease

Life is good

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