I’m dictating this from on top of a mountain. I can see the Earthroamer way below, parked at a truck stop. Pip has just given me a wave.
Since the last posting we spent most of the day waiting at the location to which we had been towed to the night before. Alexey went off to Taldyqorghan to see if he could get a vehicle to tow us, but he had no luck. He managed to buy a couple of newspapers, and by looking at some of the advertisements in the newspapers he phoned a truck company in Almaty. Hopefully they are sending a truck to pick us up. It is now 7.08 pm where we are, and the truck is due in about an hour.
We decided to move from where we had been dropped the night before (after our tow in the pitch darkness up a huge hill). We waved down another truck and a very pleasant, smiling truck driver attached our tow rope and off we went – for about 20 kilometres over hill and dale. In fact, we climbed a mountain range and have now stopped at a small truck stop, half way down the range.
About to start our second tow
It was quite difficult being towed because without the engine going there is no power steering or power brakes. This means that the Earthroamer (the whole 7 tonnes of it) is incredibly difficult to steer and very difficult to stop. Going down the hills I had to keep the brakes on, and going up the hills it was a wonder that the tow rope didn’t break. We were towed at a very low speed to avoid damaging the transmission.
We spent about 40 minutes being towed, and paid the friendly truck driver AUD $50. That’s 5,000 Tenge in the local currency.
It was fiercely hot where we stopped before. It looked to be around about the century mark in Fahrenheit terms. Fortunately the batteries are holding out well, and where we have now stopped we have plugged into 220 volt power and have the air conditioner running. If you want to see our location on Google Earth, we are at N 44º 47’ 02.59” E 078 º 05’ 04.88” – you can click here for a picture, you can see the red roofs of the truck stop.
After a dinner of chicken legs at the local restaurant, I decided to walk up to the top of the mountain. I can see Taldyqorghan to the north and it seems to be a large irrigation area – I think it was part of Khrushchev’s plan in the 60s.
Now here is a bit of good news. I have always loved the service you get from American companies. Everyone knows I like Cessna aircraft – everything from the little Cessna 182s to the Citations. The service you get is incredible. Well, this vehicle is a US built Ford F550. When I advised Ford in Melbourne that I was having problems, suddenly the phone rang hot. I’ve been rung by people everywhere from Melbourne to America to Dubai, and Ford is out to get this vehicle repaired as quickly as possible.
When it comes to service, American companies are definitely the best. When I bought the vehicle in Denver, I hardly expected that I would ring up for my first roadside assist on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
We are hoping to have a safe journey tonight back to Almaty – I’m not quite sure where we will be riding. We will keep you posted on how long it will take to get our Earthroamer going again. Then we have to see if we still have time to head to Mongolia and into Russia before the snow comes. Then again, that’s adventure.
