SAMARKAND ETC

The internet hook up in these parts is horrendous so sorry for the long silence. Samarkand was lovely as we had a day off to sight see and shop. Yes Emma I bought the Suzanai’s 3 in fact so you can all choose. We had a great day and then left at 4:30am for the border to enter Turkmenistan! Breakfast at that hour is not pleasant. The temperature rose as we arrived at the border, 37 degrees and many people were suffering from Travellers tummy, it was pretty awful. We were lucky and were allotted one of the better hotels last night but our room was like a furnace and we were so tired. Today WE DROVE ANOTHER 630KMS to Ashgabad and tomorrow we dress appropriately and cross into Iran. Turkmenistan is mainly desert, hot and dry with very little vegetation, Uzbekistan on the other hand was quite cultivated the main yield seemed to be cotton. Cars are still going from place to place by truck, even if the roads have improved. Lloyd described these last few days as driving vast distances on poor roads in extreme heat nursing along an old car! I hope to be able to connect in Iran.

TASHKENT

Yesterday was a long and difficult one. We almost made the 700kms. without a puncture but alas just before Shymkent we had puncture #12We decided to leave it in a tire shop and check into the hotel! alas the hotel was further than we thought and Lloyd somehow found his way there and back. I was waiting outside the hotel for him when I heard a commotion and Flora was stuck over a culvert! It was very dark and hard to spot, however with the help of several local men we managed to move her without damage. Today we arrived in Tashkent after 3 hours at the border. There was much stamping of paperwork, and I was moved 4 times into different lines to be processed each time starting at the back of the line! Then Lloyd was stuck on the Kasakstan side with the car whilst I was in Usbekistan, so we passed papers to each other through the gate! Tashkent is a l.arge bustling city with European shops and the part that we are in is quite affluentMuch different to what I had expected. Tomorrow we are off to Samarkand and our last day off. We hope to do some sightseeingand shopping.

More Photos!

A few more photos of Flora have been unearthed! It is wonderful to be able to see her in action. Thanks again to Colin for finding these for us.

The last we heard Flora and crew were about to embark on a 700+ km drive to Shymkent in Kazakhstan. For the Canadians out there that is further than driving from Vancouver to Calgary in one day. (That one clocks in at about 671 km). Luckily, the next few days after this have much shorter distances.

Enjoy the photos!

Punctures seem to be the main thing plaguing Flora. To date, they have had eleven. Wonder what number this one is?

Luckily, it looks like it is not all camping and auto garages! Can you spot Lloyd in his white shirt, beer in hand? Looks quite at home!

Some photos

Hello everyone - Emma here again! I thought I would post a few photos of Flora in action. These were kindly posted to the comments section by someone named Colin. Thank you Colin! Some of you may not have seen them yet.

Also if you haven't visited the Peking to Paris website yet you should! They post daily rally reports, have some great video journals and update the race standings daily. Presently it looks like Car 41 is in 26th position overall! Not bad old girl! The Peking to Paris website will also link you directly to the Skytag site where you can see the car's GPS position.

Enjoy!

Car 41 surrounded by goats in Mongolia

At the start of the race, before the dirt and all the punctures!

DAY 12

*****Hello everyone, Emma here. This post was sent to us by email about a week ago when Flora & Crew were having a hard time connecting to the internet. Sarah originally posted it in the comments section but I will now post it here as well. Logically, it should appear before the last post, so it is one out of order. Enjoy! ********

This is our last night for camping for a while. I can’t say that I shall be sorry .Our daily routine has been up at 5-30am, brush teeth, use the lovely tent loos, no water to wash your face only a wet one! Pack up the tent and the car rush into breakfast and grab yet another egg of some sort, lukewarm tea and then hit the road for the first check in point. Lunch is eaten in the car whilst hurtling down ridged and stony tracks. Tonight we are camped on the Mongolia, Russia border. We are all hoping that tomorrow will not take 9 hours as it did last time As we still have 518kms to travel after that. We are in good spirits and so far Flora is performing . We do have trouble getting up the hills at altitude but Lloyd stops, I jump out and put a rock under the rear wheel and then he charges ahead and I run to catch up, simple really.WE will be in touch hopefully within the next day or two.

ALMATY

Arrived here to a 5 star hotel after many long days driving, camping and staying in bad hotels! We are doing fine except for the punctures again, 3 yesterday. However nothing compared to other peoples stories. ! car burnt to the ground, luckily they escaped in time. Another crew were left in the cdesert and had to morse code a local shepherd to rescue them. Someone spent 2 days on a truck sleeping in their car. Kazakstan is quite depressed and driving through the villages was like something out of the industrial revolution. Today we spent trying to buy inner tubes not easy especially when you don't speak the language. My school dramas lessons came in handy!! Off to Samarkand in 2 days.

DAY 5 REST DAY

I thought I should add that yesterday we approached a bluff which was deep sand, we made 3 attempts but to no avail, Flora just couldn;t make it. Everyone else was roaring passed which didn't help. Eventually we decided to bush wack acroos the scrub and made it to the top. Alas we have also had 2 punctures which really slowed us down and the car is running very rich so we stopped by the side of the road into Ulaan Bataar and cleaned 12 spark plugs!! I am learning a lot about car mechanics.The scenery here is quite similar to Southern Saskatchewan but it is very hot!! Tomorrow we start 6 nights of camping!! Will be in touch after that.