After
our free breakfast we set out through wheat fields and crater pocked
hills. We arrived at Muamg Khoun for lunch beneath a 400 yr old Buddhist
Stupa surrounded by wildflowers.
Chris
had put my tyres on his bike as we can buy inner tubes to fit his
wheels. Unfortunately my tyres were still slipping on his wheels pulling
at the valve. He spent the lunch hour coating the sidewalls in puncture
repair glue in an attempt to prevent the wheels slipping and causing
another valve failure.
After lunch we climbed a big pass with awesome views over the mountains.
We
had just started to look for a camp spot on the way down when Chris's
tyre went flat. The glue idea had failed. We spent a while debating what
to do... could we buy new tyres from anywhere? Or a big bag of inner
tubes? Could we use tape or superglue to stick the wheel to the rim?
After 20 minutes, Chris said: 'we could use the spare tyre'. I couldn't
believe he'd gone to the effort of gluing the old one on before
considering this but (he said) 'it's only for direst of emergencies'. I
felt we had reached this point.
Thankfully
the puncture had occurred next to a maze of footpaths in the
undergrowth on a flat shoulder of land; perfect for camping.
We hauled the bikes down, changed the tyres and managed to get in our tent with dinner before a massive thunderstorm struck.
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