Finally had to deal with a flat tyre. But it wasn’t ours. Read on…

Today was the first real day of summer in eastern Melbourne, after a few drizzly days. I decided to get out in the nature and go for a walk, at the base of the Dandenong Ranges, at the 1000 Steps Kakoda Walk.

I managed to park right near the entrance, between two of the typical gigantic utes that barely fit in parking spaces.

Beautiful place. So green. Killer steps. It’s much worse than it looks in the photos – honest 😞.

I think I did 1000 steps. I only made it half way up, turned around and came back down, hoping that none of the children and older people who passed me realised that I didn’t go all the way to the top. 🤫 I may need to get more fit.

Back at the carpark, I found three flat tyres. It wasn’t our Tesla. It was a Mazda CX-9. The young couple driving it had missed the turn into the carpark, taken the next turn, which happens to have unforgiving road spikes to make it exit only. Three flat tyres! 😮😖.

Three kookaburras watched our dismay and courteously managed not to laugh.

I tried to help by contacting a few emergency tyre replacement services. Most didn’t answer. One eventually answered, quoted $600 total to come out, replace, including tyre purchase, but they couldn’t do it until tomorrow morning. Very disappointing services all round. In the end, the couple contacted RACV and organised a tow truck (flat bed, I presume) that would take the car and them home, at a cost of about $550, and that’s before tyres and fitting. Ouch!

I always fear those national park one way spikes.

The other day we passed a few cars on the way to Emerald who had blown a tyre or two on fresh pot holes after the rain.

Fortunately, we haven’t yet had to deal with a flat tyre on our Tesla. We don’t have a spare tyre. The Mazda today has a spare tyre, but that of course didn’t help with multiple tyres blown. My hope is that if/when we do get a puncture, that Tesla, via app’s built in service, will be a lot more responsive than the other services were today.