We slept on and off in our Earthroamer beside the busy highway and woke to another fine but hot day. Dick was up early making phone calls around the world, speaking to Ford in Australia and in Dubai and checking in with our office in Sydney. We tried getting in touch with the Ford dealer in Almaty but it seems they are still on holiday from yesterday, a national holiday in Kazakhstan and no one was answering the phones.
Bill Swails from Earthroamer in Denver rang to see how we were going – sadly nowhere! Alexey got busy on his mobile phone and rang his friend, Dalil’ in Almaty who started looking for a bigger truck to come and get us. Eventually his friend found a trailer that he said would take the Earthroamer but he was having trouble finding a truck to tow it. A few more hours later we got the message that he had found a truck but the driver had been drinking on the holiday and could not drive. Eventually after a few more hours – by now it is around 2.30pm we received the message that a driver had been found. During this time we also spoke to Rustem from the Australian Consul who also gave us great assistance. The Ford agent in Dubai, where many of these Ford F550s are used, rang and put us in touch with the service manager of the Almaty Ford Dealer at his home. They would be open for business tomorrow, Saturday and were ready to help us – we just had to get our Earthroamer to Almaty!!
Things started to seem brighter. We heard that the Almaty dealer has a diagnostic computer to find out what is wrong with our vehicle and we have the contact details of the service people of Ford in Dubai who know our vehicle type well.
As the temperature started to rise this morning Dick noticed a group of trees offering us shade at the truck stop and as there were no cars or trucks parked in the way at that time, we quickly put the vehicle in neutral, took the brake off and we pushed it down the slight hill to the trees. This offered us a nice place to sit and wait out the day. Dick went off walking in the hills and I got out our folding chairs and relaxed in the shade reading the very interesting book by Gerald Stone about the decline of Channel 9.
All during the day friendly Kazakhs came up to say hello and offer us help or a lift. They are such extremely friendly and likeable people. They often get out their mobile phones and take photos of us beside the Earthroamer…I take a few of them too!!
It is now 7.30pm and the sun is disappearing as we sit and wait for the truck and trailer to appear. We had a very tasty dinner in the café beside us of lamb shazlik, fresh bread and a lady eating at the table near us gave us some fresh tomatoes to eat. Every now and then a bus pulls up and people climb out. They all gather near our vehicle and say hello and seem fascinated to know that we are from Australia.
At 10pm in the pitch blackness of night the truck and trailer arrived. They backed the trailer – a huge low loader used to transport bulldozers around the country, in front of the Earthroamer. As they lowered the ramps Dick immediately realized that there was no way the winch on the front of the Earthroamer had the power to pull the 7 ton vehicle up the 45 degree angle of the ramps. Dick also realized that the underneath of the Earthroamer would hit the floor of the low loader if the front wheels had managed to get up the ramp onto the low loader with the rear wheels still down on the ramp. We were all very tired and had an awful feeling of hopelessness. Alexey’s friend Dalil had gone to so much trouble on our behalf finding this low loader and he had driven all the way out to us in his own car. The Kazakhs were saying it’s OK but we felt strongly that it wasn’t. Our Earthroamer only had a mechanical problem at this time and we certainly didn’t want to inflict structural damage to its chassis. We were also concerned with the height of the Earthroamer on top of the low loader fitting under the bridges that we had travelled under from Almaty. They had signs giving the total height of 4.5meters and we knew the Earthroamer was 3.3m plus the height of the low loader which seemed to be at least 1.5m, totalling 4.8m. We could imagine having to check each bridge in the dark at around 3am and 4am – it was all too risky.
The first and failed attempt at 10.30pm – you can see how steep the ramps are
Sadly we made the decision that this wouldn’t work so we thanked the truck driver, paid him the agreed $1,600US (not quite as expensive as the failed batteries to Moscow) and sent him back to Almaty empty. We also thanked Dalil’ for all his help and paid him $100US for his fuel and he returned to his family in Almaty. By now it was 11.30pm and we were exhausted and feeling depressed.