10am Ponder how to repair Ben's flip flops as we have struck a deal - if I manage to fix his flip flops, he'll reattach the rearview mirror to Matilda which fell off when Karen hit a pot-hole yesterday. We have also managed to negotiate for him to wire our sump guard back to the car - as he is a builder we are all sure it will be a simple, 5 minute job.
10.30am Needle nearly breaks in hand whilst trying to repair Ben's flip flops. Clearly a travel sewing kit will not suffice when taking on rubber soles.
11am Ponder some more about fixing the flip flops - given what's at stake in return, I must get this fixed!
12pm With Sardi's pocket knife in one hand and araldite in the other hand, commence attacking Ben's flip flops.
12.08pm Ben's flip flops are reattached and fixed!
12.15pm Rearview mirror has been reattached to Matilda - with a combination of silicon, araldite and wire, we can see what's driving behind us once again. Hurrah!
12.20pm Matilda is jacked up and repair work under her belly commences. Karen is lying under the car wearing a skirt and feeling very empowered! Ben is dripping in sweat as the 5 minute job has revealed another few hours of work.
1.10pm Front tyres come off revealing just a tad of a problem with Matilda's tracking when compared with the new tyres (you'll see from the photo below what we mean...)
3.30pm Repairs finally fixed, it's time to farewell Chris, Bena nd John who have been brilliant to convoy with. Thanks for a brilliant journey guys - we'll miss you enormously!
3.33pm Karen and Sardi are driving away tearing up about farewelling our friends when the Police us over. Twice. Don't they know to stay well clear of women when they are having an emotional moment!!!!
5.48pm Arrive at border crossing, chuffed wtih ourselves that we've managed to find out and are now a mere 12km away from impending destination for the evening in Uzbekistan. Only minor hitch is that the border is closed. NO!!!!!
6.56pm Arrive at the next closest border crossing point which is open. Sardi gets swamped by locals while minding the car while Karen has the passport control officials on their hands and knees studying their map and have an animated discussion about why are they unable to process tourists at the crossing. This time we don't win and are sent on a 120km detour to the 3rd border crossing point for the day.
8.45pm Arrive at yet another border crossing point and start jumping through the usual hoops of paperwork and questions about marriage.
9.52pm Kazakhstan officials finally let us leave their country... only problem is that the Uzbekistan side of the border has closed one hour earlier so we are stuck in No Man's Land for the night, surrounded by swarming mosquitos and a few random men. Assess the bathroom facility options and quickly determine that the only place where the men can't see us is the one metre gap between our car, the border control gate and the stop sign... so.......................
Just another typical day really.
Getting last minute advice from the boys while practicing my surfing technique...
Sleeping in the car at No Man's Land - not sure if we're more scared of the random men or killer mosquitoes...