First day of our ‘big’ adventure and we only made it some 300km. Just as we were leaving the small town of Tullamore our Tyre Pressure Management System (TPMS) started beeping very loudly. Oh no! A flat tyre!

The TPMS was able to tell us it was the outside rear passenger tyre and the error message said ‘Rapid Air Loss’ accompanied by an ear-piercing alarm. The tyre was very quickly flat.

We were able to turn around and limp back into Tullamore where a very friendly bloke at the service station offered to help and called the local mechanic who obligingly came to help change the tyre.

One thing we learnt from this is to always check the nuts are not tightened too tight and are able to be undone by hand. The nuts were on so tight the fellow had to get his compressor rattle gun to undo them. We were just fortunate he had all the right gear.

The kids made use of the time to play in the very good playground opposite the servo and Katie had a snooze in her car.

We were finally able to get going about 4.30pm and headed straight to our cousins place just on the outskirts of Dubbo. We were all very glad to get there. What a long day!