The wrong way was a great way

Today Reg. Mitchel, Maurie and I started at 5.30 just as it was getting light. The early start was caused by yesterday we had come across a guide on his return to Dushanbe and he had agreed to help us find the belt we need to get the Alternator working on Penny. He had told us that due to it being Sunday the shops closed at 4.00pm.

Since Khorugh we had been charging the battery each night from the Landcrusier then driving all day with minimal starts and no electronics running like the GPS.

From our overnight stop there was a choice of 2 routes to take to Dushanbe 285k’s away, so we chose the shortest way on the map. We had been told that is was a 5 to 6 hour trip. About 2 hours in we realized we may have chosen the wrong way as we had only cover 55ks making the drive at least a 10 hour drive, and hadn’t seen any Chinese truck like the day before.

Like most very bad roads the road quality was directly and inversely proportional to the scenery.

It was looking like we would even miss the shops in Dushanbe. After 170k of bed road with more great scenery we came to a nice paved road that look like it would last till the end. At this point we stoped for a break, only to find we had a small weep from our radiator that was fixed with some quick metal and 100mph tape. At the same time Reg and Mitchell discovered that their front tyre was going flat.

After the repairs it was of towards town only to find the pavement didn’t go the whole way to town. It was interspersed with sections of good gravel. All in all the road was to get good enough for us to arrive in Dushanbe just after 2.00pm

The guide Huseyn that we had meet the day before and I had been texting was at the hotel to meet us and take Reg and I to the market.

Huseyn was an absolute fantastic help because he took us to the car and machinery parts market and in 10 mins and 2 shops I had the belts that were exactly what I wanted and didn’t need to make something wrong fit then ten minutes later we had a new tyre for Reg the same brand that was fitted to his Landcruiser so all was good.

On the way back to the Hotel I decided that everyone was too tired after some long rough days and being a bit sick with not a lot of eating to fit the belt tonight. It’s a 3-hour job requiring the gearbox being unbolted to slide back so the belt can go over the clutch housing. Old car are not as simple as modern cars in that department.

That turned into a very wise choice as Dushanbe is a very modern city full ov very modern people and the boys had discovered an Irish bar selling Guinness and really nice food so it was the first good beer since departing Bangkok. Hence we will charge the car from Garry in the morning and do the change another day.

While the beer drinking was caught up on by the others I took the chance to catch up on the to days Blog missed and sorting some photos to include.

Dushanbe is a town that I would spend more time in should I ever return to Tajikistan as it is also a country I would like to look around at more especially more of the mountain areas.

Tomorrow we are off too Uzbekistan, and today was the end of the large rugged mountain scenery for the trip. The scenery will take on a different form of rugged from here.