THREE PUNCTURE DAY?!😩Well And Truly Over It
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Day 161. 54km (80655kms 7yrs)
What a nightmare this choice of campsite was! Not only was I so sweaty all night I had to give up all fear of predators - scorpion and male human - and sleep naked with the fly unzipped to try to catch any sort of breeze. Not in recent memory have I had such a wakeful and unpleasant night. And in the early pre-dawn light I saw my rear tyre was flat.
Having pulled some spikes of the the dry prickly thistle out of the tyre the previous night I was was pretty sure what had caused it. So as the sun rose - and with barely any water as I’d drunk a litre or two overnight - I set about finding and fixing the puncture. Fortunately I was able to detect the leak by holding the tube up to my cheek, patched it, checked for other holes, and tested the patch with a little water. My tyres - though only at 7000kms are in a very sorry way. The tread has been falling off in diamond-shaped chunks since I first took them into the desert and so I replaced my rear tyre now with the foldable spare I’ve been carrying.
Leaving my camp I pushed Gibbo gingerly back along the thistle-lined track taking great care to avoid rolling over any of the plants. At the bitumen I checked the tyres once more removing a thistle spike from the back, and watched obsessively both tyres as I rode. It wasn’t long before I began to think the rear tyre was deflating, and sure enough it had become squishy. I cursed those stupid thistles.
At a work site in the middle of not very much I was lucky to have access to a tap and set about my second puncture fix of the day. My fear at this point was that my previous patch hadn’t worked because I now had no new tubes and only a little of that questionable glue remaining. But ‘luckily’ it was a new puncture. Possibly caused by the thistle I’d newly pulled out at the roadside, or possibly by small piece of glass lodged in the newly installed but 7000km old tyre.
As I prepared to set off once more now two punctures deep into a day with neither coffee nor breakfast yet my heart sank to find the front tyre a little softer that it should have been. But with scarcely enough glue for one more patch I pumped it and pushed off. I just couldn’t deal with this now physically or emotionally.
Desirous of being on the main road and not the back country lanes for any more puncture drama I cut across the fields to the highway hoping this track wouldn’t lead to my next undoing. The next 40kms I pushed into a menacingly strong sidewind obsessively watched both tyres.
A motorcyclist ignored half a dozen non mercis before finally leaving me alone - I’m still feeling quite tense around young men on motorbikes, but a nice motorist handed me a bottle of cold water relay-style in a reminder of how kind people are around here.
Desperate for this day to end I was gutted to find the auberge on the southern end of town closed for renovations. 5km across town my luck finally changed and I checked into an air-conditioned en suite room with wifi for 18 dinar(€5). I had a bath, drank the remainder of my wine and tried not to think about punctures.
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#tunisia #biketouring #travel
My god, those thorns are a nightmare! Good you got the aircon upgrade and a bath. Hopefully no more punctures for a while. Guy on the bike was persistant.
Thank you! Yeah tough day all round 😣
I like when you say "Macha'Allah" !
I appreciate it ❤
Thank you! I feel like I’m using it the wrong context sometimes, but I like how it sounds. I use it like ‘fantastic!’ ☺️
@@helsonwheels no on the contrary, I love when you takes the initiative to greet in Arabic or Tunisian dialect specially when you say Salamou alaykom.
We as Tunisian, we appreciate that foreigners speak our language.. 🥰
Oh good, thank you. Yeah my French is better than my Arabic but it also feels weird to address people in the old colonial language.. 😬
so I’ll keep trying my best in Arabic 😁
Wow, those thorns have to be so frustrating! Maybe this is balancing the good luck you've had recently. I'd probably be ready to move on to somewhere I won't have to contend with those thistles. Both of your older, wire-bead tires (Marathons?) look much older and dryer than you say in the video. Harsh conditions!
Yes!! The crazy thing is they’ve been looking this aged for about half their current lifespan! The depth of the tread is ok, but the diamond pattern is peeling off in chunks 🫣
Hello
You have amazed me with your perseverance and determination.
Because i haven't seen anyone do what you do yet
I wish i had 1% of what you have.
machallah aalik and good luck👍
Thank you very much! But I have to tell you there are many solo tourers like me. Just maybe they don’t feel the need to broadcast it 😆
@@helsonwheels I know this.
But a woman crossing a country she does not know alone and camping in semi-empty areas is not normal at all
If this indicates anything, it truly indicates extreme courage, strength of character, and love of adventure
machallah aalik and may God be with you
@zaafraner thank you very much for your encouraging words! Much appreciated 😊
Hey, how u doing?
I guess u had a hard day.....
Take care on u always, big hug, good luck. 😊😉🌸
Thank you 😊 yes. Very tough day 🥺
@@helsonwheels good luck
@billybilly7243 thank you!! 🍀🍀🍀
@@helsonwheels 🌹🌹🌹
@billybilly7243 ☺️
Tunisia I am guessing. French , slow cadence , not France that I can see. Thought I heard some Arabic but could be mistaken
Yeah I’m English so I speak bad French and some Arabic words 🙂
They say bad things come in threes, so you should be ok now. BTW, what is the new tire?
Here’s hoping! 🤞🏼
I’m away from the bike at the mo, I’ll try to remember to check for you what tyre it is
It’s a schwalbe almotion 🙂
@@helsonwheels Thanks. One of the ones I will look at.
@markperry222 no worries ☺️