Ride Day 12 - Rawnsley Park to Wilpena Pound - Blinman or Bust by Bike

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At less than 29 kms distance, the ride from Rawnsley Park to Wilpena Pound was by far the shortest of my planned routes. I think when I planned the routes, I thought that Jill and I (and the dog) might meet up at Wilpena Pound in the afternoon to walk some of the fantastic trails there. That thinking was wrong, though, since dogs aren't allowed in the Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park. As it turned out, the short day worked out well, since I was a little fatigued from two previous days of long rides and some of the Rawnsley-Wilpena trail was very rocky and slow going (see photo). Better to save my energy for a very long ride on the next (final day). It also turned out I was delayed in setting out on this day's ride due to discovery of a flat tire -- my only flat of the entire Mawson Trail. I noticed just before setting off that the front tire was two thirds flat. Luckily, this meant I could do any needed repair under the shade of our cabin porch, not out in full sun somewhere in the bush. As it turns out, I didn't exactly need to repair anything. After removing the inner tube, I felt around the inside of the tire and found the source of the flat, which was a very small, but strong and sharp thorn (though *not* a caltrop needle). I had lots of liquid sealant in my tubes which should have self-repaired the hole, but this couldn't happen as the thorn was so well-imbedded in the tire, that each time the wheel rolled around it re-punctured the same hole in the tube. I carefully took the thorn out with a tweezers; then I pumped up the tube to find the leak, then held the leak downwards so that gravity would send all the liquid sealant that direction. Within a minute or two, the hole was re-sealed. Then I put the tube and tire back on the wheel and set off on the short day's ride.

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