The team needs to head north today to Nurus which is the closest big town before the border to Kazakhstan. Whilst the original plan foresaw to travel from Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan and then to Iran this had to be abandoned due to the wisdom of the Turkmenistan government which refused visas for team Lipstick. Speaking to travellers along the road this seems to be a common problem and there is no logical explanation why Turkmenistan does not offer Visas for foreign tourists.
Therefor the plan now is to travel to Kazakhstan and then cross the Caspian sea by ferry and reach Azerbeijan before entering Iran.
The first call of the day was to find Diesel but again the first few petrol stations just laughed and shook their heads “ NO Diesel “ .
So the boys went out of town hoping to find suitable petrol stations along the way but some 24 km out of town all of a sudden the left front break failed totally.
To avoid further risks the boys made a U-turn back to Bukhara and stopped at what looked like a petrol station. With very or non existing knowledge of the Russian language the team was able to convince a young petrol attendant that Diesel is a high priority for them.
Talking with hands and mouth the boy called a taxi driver close by to ask for his advice and with a broad smile the taxi driver indicated that he has a friend who has a friend who drives a truck which has some Diesel in the tank…
So Andre got into the taxi after having emptied the 2 jerry cans -which Lipstick had on the roofrack- into Lipsticks tank and went off whilst Willy ws trying to get rid of the Diesel in his mouth as it was his turn to suck the Diesel through the pipe from Jerry can into the tank – his shirt also needed to be changed.
Andre came proudly back producing 2 full Jerry Cans of diesel from the friend of a friend and it was now time to ask the taxi driver and the young petrol attendant whether they can assists with new breakpads for the left front tyre of Lipstick.
Again the taxi driver mentioned that there is another friend who is a Toyota specialist and that Lipstick should follow him through the heavy orning traffic in Bukhara.
Keeping in close distance to the taxi driver in front Willy suddenly lost control over the steering wheel which stopped responding.!?
What a disaster in middle of big traffic and the taxi driver is way ahead on the horizon.Having stopped Lipstick and trying to put it into gear the team realised that this is also no longer possible.
No what? Willy changed the gear mechanisme from high to low gear and this seemd to fuction however at very low speed and thanks to all powers to be the taxi driver realised that Lipstick has fallen behind and made a U – Turn to fetch them again.
Limping through town on low gear and totally inaccurate steering thenboys reached a backyard garage after an awfull 15 minutes drive on the outskirts of Bukhara.
Amazingly the garage owners 14 year old son could speak fairly good English and in no time produced a set of brandnewdiskpads for the fron breaks.
Having dismantled the right front wheel one could see that the right hand pads were still in perfect conditions but when the left wheel was taken off the disaster became a bit clearer …
The whole wheel hub seemed to have come loose and this caused it to disconnect from the steering mechanisme which explained the steering problem – the loosed hub wandering to the inside and to the outside also caused the brake pads to having been ground to zero and running metal to metal.
After dismantling the hub one could realise that the 2 nuts which hold the hub in place did become loose and one can only imagine what could have happened if that would have happened at Lipstick’s preferred speed of 140km/h…..
Trying to put the old nuts back was unsuccesfull as the threads had been destroyed totally..
The only solution which the taxe driver suggested was that he can try to contact one of his other friends who might have new nuts in stock on this Saturday afternoon.
Off he went and after some 45 minutes he returned with a huge smile on his face producing brand new lock nuts for a Toyota Ladcruiser 100 series!
Viva bang ho and high five to all friends of taxi drivers around the world!
Half an hour later Lipstick was “on the road again” with enough Diesel , new brake pads and a tightly secured left fron wheel hub.
The drive to Nurus was pleasant but again through rough roads at first leading to a beautifull new road which ended some 130km before Nurusand became pothole alley again..