My first ever driving tour as a Sydney guide was an absolute doozy.

I was booked to drive two clients from Sydney airport to their hotel, for a quick luggage drop and refresh before heading back out for a city tour ending at Bondi Beach. 

But you know what they say about the best laid plans. 

Lessons I Learned On The Road: Keep Calm & Carry On

Unfortunately, just as we left Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport the Mercedes sprinter van I’d been allocated for the day by my new tour company ran clean out of AdBlue.

I clocked the warning light on my way to the Terminal 1 pick up, called it in, and was told to pray it didn’t go into ‘limp mode’ before I made it to the nearest service station that stocked AdBlue. 

But it did go into limp mode, pretty much as soon as we hit the highway.

What is AdBlue?

AdBlue is a fluid used to reduce harmful exhaust emissions in modern diesel vehicles.

It’s not fuel or an additive - it’s actually a clear, non-toxic, and slightly ammonia-smelling mix of 67.5% deionised water and 32.5% urea (a synthetic version of what’s found in urine).

It’s injected into the exhaust system (not the engine) as part of the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system to react with the nitrogen oxide gasses produced by diesel engines and convert them into harmless nitrogen and water vapour.

Fuel makes the engine go, AdBlue cleans what comes out.

Normally when a Mercedes sprinter van runs low you’ll get warnings and a countdown telling you how many km grace you have left before the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. 

At the time, this tour company had apparently never encountered this issue before so there was no tracking or protocols in place and through sheer bad luck the van I’d been allocated for my first ever tour had been counting down unchecked - until this fateful morning…

*dramatic music plays in the distance*

What’s Limp Mode On A Mercedes Sprinter Van?

When a vehicle finally runs completely empty the system escalates, which in this case meant the van entered limp mode (aka reduced power mode), the van’s way of protecting itself when emissions rules are about to be violated.

To avert this the van deliberately limits performance with reduced engine power. It becomes incredibly sluggish and won’t accelerate properly, if at all (especially uphill, speaking from experience). 

There’s also a 20 km/h speed limit, restricted gear changes to contend with, and an ominous, sweat-inducing countdown to the van not restarting at all after a certain number of km or ignition cycles!!

Incredibly painful with clients on board, but this isn’t just mechanical, it’s legally enforced emissions compliance designed to force drivers to fix the issue rather than keep going without AdBlue.

Getting Back To That Private Sydney City Tour 

So at this point I’m pulled over on the highway, merely 100m past the airport my clients just left after an 18 hour flight to Day 1 Of The Holiday Of A Lifetime - with my hazard lights on, and some pretty important decisions to make.

I figure I have exactly 12 seconds to freak out internally, gather myself, and then get my guests back on track. 

The company I worked with on this tour specialises in private luxury touring, so the clients have always invested a significant amount of their time, money, hopes and dreams in a tour that’s supposed to blow them away.

Not blow a gasket.

To prepare, I spent 3 weeks training, shadowing senior tour guides, and studying Indigenous Australian history and culture, and the events and ongoing impact of the British invasion on January 26 1788. 

Mixing my metaphors here but while I didn’t expect to hit an iceberg on my first ever tour - unexpected roadblocks are exactly what I trained for.

So here’s what I did:

I hopped out of the car leaving the engine and aircon running and called NRMA roadside assistance out of earshot, then I called the office, and then I called an Uber Black to pick up my clients and get them safely and comfortably to their hotel ahead of me. 

Great plan, no notes, and it would have been an epic end to a medium-sized blip - if only the van hadn’t run completely out of AdBlue and needed to be towed back to the depot out west in the middle of woop woop for a full diagnostic reset!!!

And if it hadn’t taken THREE different NRMA guys over 4 hours to figure this out… one of whom stopped for a leisurely pie at Harry’s Café De Wheels on his way out to me, as I sat impatiently in a faulty metal box, in sweltering heat, on the side of the highway, when I should’ve been enjoying lunch at a prestigious Sydney sailing club. 

I digress. 

Epilogue

To my clients’ credit they took the twists and turns of this day in their stride, enjoyed the more chilled, slower paced refresh time than the original tour schedule had allowed for, and even took a walk around the Rocks markets (probably in a bid to stay awake and one step ahead of the jetlag, which is why clients usually book these half day tours straight off the plane from the US). 

When I finally made it to their hotel with a new van we spent the afternoon exploring Sydney from some of my favourite viewpoints at Observatory Hill and on to Dudley Page Reserve after swapping brunch for dinner at that yacht club - and before finishing up with a spectacular sunset at Bondi and The Gap. 

I dropped them home a whole seven hours later than planned - but with the tour completed, the day turned around, and, I like to think, an adventurous holiday that got kicked off colourfully with a story they’re still dining out on. 

Notable mentions go to:

Harry’s Café De Wheels for luring in the NRMA driver and proving that despite the AdBlue shenanigans I actually did know my Sydney recos - because I had JUST told my clients how good their pies are before we broke down, and then I had the above screen shot to prove my point which still crack me up to this day.

The tow truck driver who had to abandon the tow truck at the final hurdle when it wouldn’t fit down the only street we could possibly take to the depot because of the very specific way two cars had parked on a random curve - meaning he had to drive the van the last km in limp mode and then leg it back to the truck (😭I literally shook my fist at the sky at this point come on now universe WTH did I ever do to you?? 🤣).

The perilous Sydney storm that broke out when I was finally on my way home and nearly wiped me clean off the Wakehurst Parkway.

And to my kids who kept my spirits up, cheered me on with pep talks, and  bought me donuts for when I finally made it home. 

Keep Calm & Carry On 

Of course I was too wired to sleep when I got home, so instead I debriefed the day for myself.

What struck me the most was this Lesson I Learned On The Road: the ability to pinpoint the exact moment where I could have panicked but didn’t, and how that was the exact moment my plan came together.

A really important lesson to learn on any day of the week, but especially poignant on the morning of the first of many wild and unpredictable tour guiding adventures around my favourite stomping ground of #PrettyCitySydney.