Diary: Friday 28 January 2000

Friday 28 January 2000

Awoke to find the thermometer indicating that the temperature was –26 Degrees Celsius!!!!!!!!!!!! Landrover started with a struggle, but would do little more than a tick over! Fred lit the camping stove under the fuel tank for half an hour and we were off, all beit slowly. Following the advice of the locals, at the next fuel station we put 5 litres petrol into the diesel tank. Advice also confirmed by our technical expert at Perkins Engines, Peterborough (Cheers Dave!). All I can say is that the situation did not deteriorate – we did, however, have to stop periodically to immerse the fuel filter in boiling water to unblock it. Thank goodness we bought that 12 Volt kettle! We limped the next 260km to Erzurum (and over a 2160m pass) and thankfully located a rather comfortable hotel to prepare ourselves for onward journey through Iran and Pakistan. Erzurum is a lovely town with a somewhat ‘provincial’ feel. Plenty of eateries and friendly people. Everyone was keen to help.