Having booked the caravan in to have a tyre checked at 8:00am, we set the alarm for 6:00am.
It was still dark when we opened the door but it was not raining.
By the time we were ready to hitch the car and caravan, dark clouds had returned but today the weather was kind, it didn’t rain.
We were early at the Port Lincoln Bridgestone dealer and were lucky that the tire fitter was also a little early.
When the suspect tyre was removed, it was confirmed that it was the repair done in Tennant Creek that was leaking. We were informed that the patch used was too small and too much rubber on the inside of the tyre had been removed exposing part of the inner casing. The fitter advised that he would not be comfortable in repairing the repair and due to the age and the amount of wear on the tyres, we should consider getting another replacement tyre. We checked the dates on the tyres and noted they were all just short of 5 years and now looking a little worse for wear with the trip. They have done just over 40,000k’s.
After taking a lot of factors into consideration, we decided to have all of the running tyres on the caravan replaced. We now have Bridgestone AT tyres on the caravan and they have a slightly higher load rating than our old tyres.
We departed Port Lincoln just after 9:15am and headed towards Whyalla, our intended lunch and refueling stop. About 60k’s short of Whyalla, “He” decided to stop and have a rest. For the first time this trip, “He” was tired from driving. Fifteen minutes later we continued.
We hit a slight headwind after leaving Whyalla which impacted slightly on our fuel burn but the headwind was replaced with a sidewind shortly after the intersection with the Eyre Highway.
We completed our circle as we passed through the intersection of the Eyre and Stuart Highways. It has taken us 82 days to do so.
Overnight was at the Big4 where we were able to stay hitched up.