Dis die einde vir ons!

Baie jammer om te se maar hier is die storie. Omdat die naweek 'n bietjie van 'n mors van tyd was, met die vakansie dag op die Saterdag en dan die Sondag, kon ons eers op Maandag begin soek vir 'n agteras. Hulle het wel een gevind en al die modifikasies gedoen maar (ek verstaan nie heeltemal nie) iets met die dryfas en die konneksie met die ratkas te doen, het nie mooi gewerk nie. Ons het eers 21:30 op Dinsdag by die huis aangekom, en is toe 04:30 op die Woensdag op. Die oorpakkery het 'n tydjie geneem en ons is toe omtrent 6:00 oppad.

It was wonderful driving out of the town with a minimum of cars but we were only gone about 20 km when we smelt burning. Robert checked and thought it was the one rear brake so he released it a bit and off we went. 6km later we smelt burning and realized it was coming from under by 'beautifully' built - in box between our seats ( for holding our water bottles, pens, satellite phone, rally books etc.) i even saw a small flame. Robert grabed the water bottle and doused the flame and I removed the box to find the carpet under the box had melted!

It was too early to phone Ariunaa at Nomads being 07:30. At the moment she works from 8:30 till 22:00 in the office! We tried to tell her that all we needed was a tow but she did notseem to understand so we sat were we were ( on a road under construction) until the road builders came to push us over to the other side where they were not working yet. Robert disconnected the drive shaft and then there we sat, posing for photographs through the window of the car. People stopped there cars and came to take snaps -- we felt like real celebrities in a car that couldn't move an inch!

At last they came to tow us back and when we got back to the hotel we booked our flight to Moskow. We will spend about 9 days in Russia (Moskow and StPetersburg) and then fly to Germany where we will pick up a hire car. We then plan to drive to Salzburg and Vienna and if we can get across the border, to meet the rally group in Bratislava, Slovakia which is right on the Slovakia/Austrian border. We will continue as troop followers from there to Paris.

A very big disappointment, but if this is the biggest disappointment in my life, I am a lucky girl!

I will not be blogging again while a tourist, as that is not of interest to anyone but oneself. I will however do a bit more when we meet up with them again on the 24th.

Showing Robert and the main Mongolian helper with our bent axle. We now have a good idea what caused it --- traveling over far worse roads than you can imagine (far,far worse than any in SA in spite of the fact that Robert felt the roads in our remote areas areas are the worst ever) and for hours on end, slightly too long shock absorbers (have I got it right?) , carrying far too much weight (no matter how large the boot is) and then trying to drive too fast (the times set are very fast for the conditions of the road). That is as I see it!

Sorry everyone. We're sorry we've let everyone down as well as ourselves!

Goodbye for now!