Our poor car had been trying to tell us she was not happy for weeks, but our untrained eye did not spot her signs. After putting two and two together, with the help of Dupont racing we spotted the pattern. The eggy smell, now getting worse, the fizzing of the battery and the fact that she was now unable to hold charge even after long journeys all pointed to one complaint. Bogus Battery. For now we were just jump starting it every time until we could stop and work out what to do.
We reached Astrakhan two nights ago, a bit later than intented so decided to search for a cheap hotel then drive on to the Kazakhstan border the next day. Luckily the first place we tried was a winner. An air conditioned double room with wifi and the most bling shower known to man complete with an internal mirror, lighting, moveable shower head, large ceiling shower head and water massager for only about £26 a night. Thanks to my superb directions the Alex's managed to join us at the hotel a few minutes later, with the other half of their convoy, Sam and James in a sexual mustard Dawoo Matiz.
We caught up swapped stories over Russian vodka and were joined by the Hotel security guard who spoke no English but managed to convey that his wife was at the hospital about to give birth. As the evening continued he then received a phonecall which obviously informed him that the baby had been born! A boy as indicated by him waving his finger down between his legs. It seemed a shame that he couldn't be there for the birth but we believe that he wasnt allowed due to shift work. We joined him in a Russian toast (which involed a double shot of vodka and two slices of sausage, one to sniff before and after the shot, and the other concealed in the same hand to sneakily eat under the guise of the second sniffing ) after which he wandered off and returned with a whiteish dribble down the front of his shirt. I was later informed he had just vomited next to Duponts Nissan.
Eventually we decided we should get some sleep and retired. The next morning we were faced with the reality of the amount of miles we were going to have to cover in a very short space of time if we were still to continue our desired route. JP had worked out that we had about 5,000 still left to do in only 17days which is the end of our Russian visas which realistically would not be enough time to do Uzbekistan. The Alex's and Team Matiz (Don't know their team name so thats what they shall be known as for now) didn't have Uzbek visas anyway so essentially we faced the decision of splitting up the newly formed convoy of four to go down to Uzbekistan, or missing it out and continuing across Kaz with them.
We left that decision for later as we still had our broken battery to worry about. Eight heads better than two we checked the battery and concluded it had somehow been leaking and needed topping up with distilled battery water. Unsure how we would find this we called over another security guard from the hotel and began pointing and guesturing to the battery. Luckily we evetually got our point across and five mintues later he ran back with a bottle of just what we needed, not even wanting any money for it! We topped it up, hoped for the best and got on the road towards Kaz.
The border crossing was quite speedy as crossings go and we were out the other side by the afternoon. Things were going swimmingly until the roads took a sudden turn for the worse and I dropped the side of our car into a minature canyon. The hub cap went flying past the cars behind and upon inspection the wheel had incurred an almighty dent. Surprisingly the tyre did not appear to have been damaged so we performed a formula 1speedy wheel change,chucked the damaged tyre in the back and continued on with one eye open for a garage that might be able to knock the dent out.
We headed off the main road in search of the sea and came across the most picturesque beach (pictures to follow when we manage to get wifi) complete with crazing cattle and camels. Unfortunately the water was only ankle high as far as the eye could see, so there was no chance for swimming but it did make for some stunning photos.
Yesterday didn't start particularly early with everyone wanting to get more photos of everything but eventually we got on the road in our now standard formation: us leading, Dupont racing bringing up the rear (being the only teams with walkie talkies) and the others somewhere in the middle. We drove gingerly on the pitted roads eventually making our way to a town where we found a garage that mended our tyre free of charge,petrol,and a very friendly local who gave me a cowboy hat and drove us all into town to find a cafe,then back ouut onto the main road when we were done! He also gave us some extremeely valuable advice about the state of the roads and basically advised us to steer clear of a route we may have almost certainly taken.
By this point we came to the realisation that we were not going to make it down to Uzbek without extending our Russian visas (something we couldn't afford or be bothered to do) or seriously damaging our cars by driving as fast as the locals on the melted roads. Decision made to all stick together we made a plan to head north through Kaz, dip down to Almaty if we have the time then back up into Russia and so on.
Last night we were lucky enough to find a camping spot by a large river but we managed to tear ourselves away for a bit of an earlier start this morning.
We just stopped for petrol a few moments ago and attracted some interest from a couple of policemen who had also pulled in. They seemed friendly enough so we had a little chat told him of our plans,had some fun running infront of the fancy speed radar guns they had pointing out from behing the windscreen,then went on our merry way. Seconds from pulling out from the petrol station we passed some more policemen who pulled us over. We didn't have our lights on, a legal requirement that we were told about yesterday but Justin decided he'd rather ignore. We showed them all our documents but it appeared that all they wanted was $50. We played dumb guessing that there would not be a cash point that they could force us to take money from in the near vicinity, and tried to get away with giving them about £3 worth of local currency. It worked a treat, they obviously got bored and waved us on.
Motoring on once more our aim is to get to Oral in a few hours then maybe the capital later today or tomorrow morning. Just need to pick up some Vodka to soak in our watermelon and happy days.
Morale: Good
Car: Seemingly much happier and no longer requiging jump starts
Current Thought: There is a reason why all the locals drive 4x4s.
Miles: 5,197ish
No comments:
Post a Comment