Canning Stock Route Day 1 - Perth to South Paynes Find

This morning we awoke to grey skies threatening rain and a flat tyre with just 2hrs to go before the media event to send us off on the ExplorATHON at Jandakot Airport.

Needless, to say, it was not a great start. The reason for the flat tyre was that yesterday we had a whole new set of tyres fitted and I had specifically asked the fitters to find the rim with the leak and dispose of it. They seemed to think that none of them were leaking - but today's flat just proved them wrong.

Problem was finding another Toyota GXL rim. We tried another 2 from "the shed" and finally had to buy a new one (after the media event). All this actually took place via numerous trips between Hillarys, Midland and Jandakot and our departure time of 11am consequently became 2.30pm.

Leaving Perth in winter usually means at least a full day's drive to get past the rain. There were only the 2 cars in our convoy and thankfully our 2 ½ year old daughter Leah loves travelling so it hardly mattered when or where we stopped. Our travelling companions Chris and Graeme were excellent company and very patient so before long we were enjoying the open road, even though we were just tar-blasting this section to get onto the Canning as quickly as possible (Chris's 5.6L Chevy modified Patrol was the one doing all the blasting).

To make up for missed time we grabbed a burger from a roadhouse in Dalwallinu for dinner and drove on until 7.30pm and pitched camp in a dry area 20km south of Paynes Find.