Tashkent calling

(from 1 August 2009)

Yes, finally an update I hear you cry. Communication is a little haphazard in these parts but hopefully you have been getting daily updates and information about our progress from the website www.bernardsbigtrip.com, which Graham has been twittering on, I am told on a daily basis, or should that be tweeting?

After 25 days, on and off the road we are resting, which is very welcome to all and more necessary to some than others. The road has not always been smoothe, as those of you who know the tragic tails of breakdowns in Zurich and Rosenheim and border crossings in Moldova and Ukraine will already know. It's reassuring to know, however, that Bernard is so strong (according to the lovely Florian at the Rosenheim Landrover Garage - a prince among mechanics) he is the only car ever to have been driven with a broken upper cam shaft. I hear the gasps of appreciation at my technical knowledge there, for those of you that don't know; the cam shaft lives under the shiney silver metal thing with bolts on in the middle of the engine and holds very important other metal bits in place.

However, since the Germans saved us in Rosenheim, touching Wood, things have gone very well mechanically. Bernard has even managed to survive several hundred kilometres of my kack handed driving - Graham assured me that diesels are practically impossible to stall and I think we've safely laid that myth to rest. My driving can't have been that bad however as unlike Graham the police don't stop me. Which has been lucky so far as there is first class stamp stuck over the big L on my provisional license. My plan is to say that this is an acknowledgement from Her Majesty that I passed my test first time - the irony.

We've been through some pretty remarkable places and as you will see from the updated route, not all of them planned. Romania was amazing and beautiful, we like to think we camped very close to Dracula's castle, and indeed we all lost a significant amount of blood to vampire mosquitos - though the schnapps we drank meant they probably woke up with hangovers. Crossing the border from Romania to Ukraine was interesting as we ended up in Moldova not Ukraine - bit of a suprise. The following journey throught the swamps of the Danube delta and thick clouds of mosquitoes, to a place called Izmail (we nick-named the village of the damned), in pitch dark however was pretty scary. I think Izmail is badly in need of a sherif. And Bernard looked like fly paper afterwards.

Ukaine and Russia were fun, lots of port cities, vodka, beers and mixing with the locals. You can still really see the communist past in the country side and rundown towns of Ukraine. Volgograd was pretty impressive too - monumental, full of old communist monuments and buildings and of course lots of references to the Battle. However there is absolutely nothing left that refers to Stalin. When you see or speak to him please ask Graham about Dogmash.

Kazakhstan and the steppe where a completely different landscape and I immediately felt the bridge from west to east had been crossed. The topography did not really change until we arrived in Tashkent although we passed from a number of different terrains. Kazakhstan brought some interesting camping oppotunitities and our first (and only) camp cooked meal. Uzbekistan brought a more open and friendly local population who where only too happy to assist us in drinking our vodka, all our vodka.

Unfortunately Uzbekistan also brought us the one thing that we were dreading, though sort of expecting, the shits. For me, this developed into accute gastro enteritis, and penchant for wearing nappies. Fortunately I was saved by the full force of former Soviet medicine in the form of a visitation from Dr Svetlana, her grandson translator and her needle whielding nurse. She pumped me full of some stockpile of drugs and antibiotics, probably from from post nuclear stockpile, that has got me back on my feet. Though i know have faint glow like the Readybreak Boy.

Hoping to complete some visa paperwork now and enjoy the fleshpots of Tashkent, as long as they have toilets.

All the best and love to you all

E x