Le Velo's first flat tire and another walk in Davis Bay

Soccer World Cup MANIA has invaded the Sunshine Coast, so I decide to take the bike to go grocery shopping.  At the end of a steep downhill section (going almost 60 km/h), I hear a very strange loud voice from my rear wheel.  I slow down and what do I see?  A flat tire. 

I almost had become convinced that my tires were super-duper-puncture-proof, so I had not even bothered to take my tire repair kit with me.  STUPID !  Fortunately Denise came to my rescue and transported me and the crippled bike back to base. THANK YOU Denise !!

Back at home I finally see what had caused my tire to deflate.  A friggin NAIL !

20 minutes later, the old inner tube has been replaced by one of the two spare ones that I have been carrying around since I left Brest, and I start my second attempt of the day to get to the store.

My first stop is a Canadian Tire store to buy a vulcanizing kit for patching the old inner tube.  After a friendly store clerk has directed me towards the back of the store where they keep the kits, a rule-following clerk points out to me:  "Sir, You must leave your backpack at the front."  'No'.  "It is store policy" 'Feel free to follow me around'  "If you would like to do additional shopping, you MUST leave your backpack in the front"  'I don't trust you with my backpack'.   Anyway, I have what I came for and decide to cycle to Davis Bay to get away from the little meany grey people.

And a good choice that was ;-)

Anyone who has seen the pictures of France knows that I have no choice in situations like this ;-)

The water was not even knee-deep, but the amount of plant life under the water was amazing!

The view from my temporary island

When the tide comes in, it does so rather quickly; my island is sinking !

When it is time to fix the punctured inner tube at home, I decide to take a staged photograph of the nail: No wonder it made such a noise while my rear tire deflated ;-)