Day 27

Distance Covered: 258 miles

Total Distance Covered:  5517 miles

We were rudely awakened much earlier than desired by a knock on the van door, assuming the worst we nervously opened the door to find one of the MR teams from Samarkand outside. After supplying them with directions to the Kazakh border and declining the offer to convoy (as we were headed to Kyrgyzstan) we decided to Carpe Diem and head out then and there. Again making great time, stopping only for a quick dip in a mountain stream, we were cut down in our prime for a second day running. This time by a recurrence of out power issues on a particularly steep mountain pass. Having crawled along at 20mph all the way to the top we re-evaluated the situation and after fiddling about for a bit under the bonnet we were back to a reasonable power so we decided to press on. The rest of the journey to the border was uneventful except for being stopped by speed traps twice and twice getting away scot free by playing the confused tourist card very heavily (the tried and tested method has now been adapted to include some very dubious acting and facial hair rubbing). Finding the border closed until 7am we camped outside the gate and after exchanging sweets for grapes with some locals got to bed early to try and cross asap.