Not at all what we expected.

Today is a rest day in Khorugh, and just as well for a few people in the group.

We arrived in town after yesterday’s fantastic drive down the river, expecting to arrive in a town with a large police and military presence and very traditional dress codes for the resident in this part of the world. Considering the events that had almost stoped our visit at the time of Visa applications.

What a surprise to find a town with the young people dressed in a lot of very modern western clothes and not at all the traditional cover of arms, legs and hair

The manager of the company that did all our booking for accommodation meet us too check our satisfaction with all the arrangements so far and showed us one of the best restaurants in town for Dinner last night. That however has turned out to be a bit of a disaster for a three of our group getting very sick in the middle of the night and 2 more going down today. So all in all the rest day was most handy for the sick and infirm.

It gave me a chance to get a local data card for my Ipad too get all the previous blog posts out as you know.

First thing this morning Maurie and I filled with fuel, and got oil before making arrangements for grease, oil and filter change along with and check over from the rough roads of the last few days on Penny.

After the service the morning was spent getting the blog up to date intermingled with emails about getting my gearbox cleared into Uzbekistan. The long shot of that looks like we wont be able to clear our gearbox till the 4^th of Oct, which is a week and a half after we leave Uzbekistan. I have advised my agent in Uzbekistan to get the box returned to the sender. We have done 2000 tough Kilometres on the box since our fix in Hotan. We have checked it twice as well as today and we feel that the fix will get us to Helsinki. The truth of the mater is that if we cant get our box in Uzbekistan by next Tuesday it has to get us to Helsinki. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

The healthy amongst us ate at a nice place overlooking the river so it will be the Go for tonight for the people ready to put the nosebag on.

Late in the afternoon Frank and I went for a drive to get everyone bottled water for tomorrow and Penny decided to present me with a minor challenge. The alternator light came on so upon investigation I found that the Alternator drive belt had broken so for the next couple of days we wont get a charge and swap batteries with Frank’s Landcruiser till we can get a belt in Dushanbe

An update early in the morning before posting and departure!

The health of the groups is that dreaded whatever has got a couple more of us including me. I’m up  early so I’ll get  this out before we head off for the day.

Till next time with some more photos thank you all t  are enjoying the blog.