Crisis update

Waste Water tank disaster,
M32, Kazakhstan
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

We seem to be lurching from one crisis to another at the moment. Having survived the horrendous roads a couple of days ago (see below), we were today plodding merrily along to Turkistan in Southern Kazakhstan when we heard a very loud crash, followed by a horrible grinding noise from the back of the van. We stopped, looked underneath the rear of the van, and noticed that the back rear section of the underside of the van had completely fallen out. It was lying on the tarmac under the van, with a long strip of metal trailing out behind it at the back. Needless to say, this did not make our day, particularly given that we were in the middle of the Kazakh desert at the time.

It turned out that the large waste water tank, which was supposed to be strapped to the underside of our van, is no longer living where it should. The metal bracket which held it in place has completely sheared in two, as has the water pipe which went into the tank. Queue major panic from Helen and some remarkably sensible mechanic work from Michael, who spent the next 45 minutes under the van trying to detach the water tank, before jacking up the van to remove the tank from its new home on the road. All under the watchful eye of the usual curious locals, of course.

So, we now have a large waste water tank wrapped in black bin liners sitting in the back of our van, taking up all the space where we are meant to eat and sleep; a large sheared metal bracket which we have no hope of replacing around here; and a whacking great hole in the bottom of our van where water will presumably gush out if/when we dare to run any water.

Though the bigger crisis is that Michael couldn't find anywhere to watch the start of the Tour de France…..

Two weeks in Ibiza would have been so much easier.