поломка двигателя

28.06.2014

On our way from Kuygan to the Kunawski Bridge, in the middle of the hot, dry and very sunny steppe, we have a breakdown ...
We just drive along the road. It's not far to our next study point anymore. We were chatting in the car the whole time, but now it's quite and everybody looks out the window. Ayan is driving the Prado and follows Azim, who is driving in his own car in front of us. Suddenly we hear a really loud bang and the front window gets splashed.
Ayan pulls over very calmly, stops and we all get out.

Exploded bonnet



Azim is managing to find somebody, who could picks up the Prado and fix it.



Clare



Ayan a little bit sad ...



"Poor Prado ..."

The Prado is finished. It won't move by itself anymore ...
But we are lucky, because now we are not far from Aral Tobe, which is a really small village at the Ili river. It is 30 km downstream from the Kunawski Bridge. The relatives of Viktor, who borrowed the Prado to us, are living here. Azim gets to reach Viktors uncle. He will tow the Prado. But he won't be able to fix it, because in Aral Tobe is no garage neither there are replacement parts ...
Ayan stays with the Prado. And we all drive to Aral Tobe, so Ruslan can manage the towing of the Prado with Viktors uncle. Afterwards Azims brings Clare, Niels and me to the Kunawski Bridge. Azim will drive to Almaty now, try to find a new bonnet and come back tomorrow morning to fix the Prado.

This night Niels, Clare and me will spend at the Kunawski Bridge.



First we build up our tents and the camp for the next 4 days.

In the evening Niels helps Clare and me to find suitable plots for our data collection. We go exploring the landscape around the riverside. Here we find a dense and species rich Tugai forest, where will be my first observation tomorrow morning. Some kilometers further away from the river, where the ground water level is deeper, we find Tamarix shrub vegetation. There also will occur one of my bird observations. The other two observations at the Kunawski Bridge will be located directly at the river, in the water and on the island patches.

Niels and Clare

After all this excitement today, our excursion throught the dense and thorny vegeation as well as a nice dinner of noodles and tomato sauce cooked over open fire, Niels, Clare and me relax at the fire having a beer. We will go to bed soon, because the next day will start very early with sunrise.

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