Newcastle Waters rest area > Dunmarra campsite (78km, 3h40)

This is one of my worse cycling experience today. Everything was perfect until I had that bloody “puncture”… That single, tiny, blood, little hole made my day unforgettable. I had two solutions to fix it, an easy one and a tricky one: I’ve chosen the tricky one. It did work but not without pain in the ass (if I can say that).

Map.

Newcastle Waters Cycling

Elevation.

Let’s start from the beginning, when that day starts nicely.

I could wake up even more early but that’s ok.

The rest area is still quiet.

Like the previous night, this one was full of caravan again.

Hopla, the sun is just rising and I’m nearly ready to go.

This is how full is the place.

The other side…

Yop! ready! Dunmarra, 77km, easy :-)

The water is more and more present now. And the animals like that.

I feel in Africa :-)

I’m close to 20km done, I will have a rest soon.

Like now :-)

More water means bigger trees :-)

I’ve done about 15km since I’ve had my break and the road did not turn at all! (That’s behind me now).

And that’s front of me!

Finally, after more than 30km riding, there is a turn right! few!

Just when I decided to stop for the 60km break I realised my front tyre was flat… Noooo! please, why now!

The hole is just were the stichies are which means there is something I’ve done wrong.

Effectively, the stitchies rone out the inner tube by friction. I could see many marks on the inner tube where the stitches were in contact with. I’ve patched the tiny hole and protect with electric tape the inside of the tyre. This is hard to see here but that’s what I’ve done.

After about 20 minutes, pround of me, I’m back on the road. 1.6km later, my front tyre is flat again… What! Is my tape protection failed? Is it another puncture? Back on a side of the road, I put everything apart again and realised that the patch I had did not work as I tried to cover the hole plus another with one path. Rah! I took it off, clean the inner tube and put a new patch right on the top off the hole. As soon as I was ready to go again (I was not even back on the road) the tyre was flat again, AGAIN! I’m losing my patience… It’s now getting hot and I’m hungry. I don’t want to cook here because the ground is covered with ash. I put sunscreen right after my first reparation and my feet or now covered with ash and dirt. I really feel like homeless now. So what do I do? I could use my new tyre with a new inner tube to make things easy but I don’t want that. This tyre still like new, almost. I’ve done maybe 3500km when I could do 10000km with it. ANd just because of a bloody hole I rode in a month ago I’m gonna waste $75. No, no and no!
For the third time, I pulled everything apart to realised that this bloody patch did no work. Those patch are pre-glued which make them very easy to use. Find the hole, clean it and around, use a bit of sandpaper and patch it! The actual problem is the diameter of the inner tube I’m using (it’s a proper schwalbe and the right size) is originally very tiny and can expand a lot. But those patch don’t handle that extension and fail. I looked in my bag and found one last “old fashion patch” with the last bit of glue. If this solution does not work I will have to change my tyre and the inner tube. Finger crossed, I take off the old one, clean again, apply that new patch and wait 5 minutes. This is my last chance!

Finally, an hour and a half later after my first flat, I’m back on the road. I did not inflate the tyre to hard because I’m concern about that patch that could fail anytime. Come on! 17km and I will be in Dunmarra. I will have a nice fatty lunch with a coke and an ice cream! And I will pitch my tent for two nights in that cheap campsite. The English told me that the price is $8 per night but for him, because he was cycling, it was $5! I’m not going in campsites normally but at that price, I respect :-) Come on bloody tyre! be nice and make it to Dunmarra!

Wouhouu! This “old fashion patch” did his job very well :-) I’ve made it! I was cycling, my head down, looking only to the tyre where it touches the ground. I was pissed off and did not say “Hey” to any other cars… sorry… What a relief!

I needed a nice treat to start and got a tiny can of coke during I was waiting for a fish n’ chips. But, wait a minute, where is the other half? $10 for this?

I’ve booked the campsite for two nights and got one night for free. One night was $8 for me, not 5$… but staying three nights brung back the price to $5 per nights so I’m happy. I will have a big rest. My other concern is I don’t have much food with me and the next supermarket might be in Mataranka which is 2 to 3 days away from here. I’m gonna eat rice and pasta for every meal included breakfast. And I run out of sweet stuff! This is all I can buy here but the price is, wow, crazy! I’ve asked to the staff if I could help at something and have some free meal in exchange but they did not have anything for me.

It’s around 2pm, I’m still hungry and my tent is pithed. I found a nice shady spot under a tree and because I’m the only one in a tent, I’ve got space around me compare to the caravan that are all next to each other. I will do a visit tomorrow! For now, lazy, lazy lazy :-)

2 thoughts on “Newcastle Waters rest area > Dunmarra campsite (78km, 3h40)

  1. C’est vrai ! Tu supprimes les vaches, tu mets des éléphants, des girafes et des gnous … et c’est l’Afrique ! Lol.
    Pas trop cuites les frites hein ?

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