Retyred
Worn out
Obvious shockingly bad headline out of the way, I’ve now used up 2 tyres. One died in spectacular fashion a few weeks back after hitting some metal on the road which sliced clean through the tyre, tube and one of the beads. The second one has been significantly less dramatic – just plain worn out from lots of use.
I was wearing through the rubber in patches and riding on the belt underneath. I knew the flat would happen eventually but the tyre lasted a few days longer than I expected. I had even started hoping to make it to Cairns but fell just 2 days short which wasn’t bad going at all. It happened near a walking trail so I locked up out of plain view to a tree and went for a little bush walk to a lake. I brought a book and lay out reading for a few hours. Not a bad way to spend a morning. Soon after I reached Townsville, it’s not a very pretty place and being a Sunday it was pretty dead so after wandering about for a few hours I left again.
I’d been to a tourist information desk and they gave me a list of lots of free campsites along the next 50km out of Townsville so I kept going until I was bored of riding (my ass was too sore to go on) and stopped at one. 2 old couples with their campervans had a massive fire blazing and the music cranked up all night playing some of the worst cheeseball music imaginable drinking their boxes of ‘goon’. It was different from most camping area but they had free electric BBQ’s so I stuck the pots on that and cooked up a storm. Had sausages, a bit of steak, noodles and veg with some impossibly sweet and juicy pineapple for desert.
Have I mentioned that I’m enjoying this trip?