Episode 15

L has decided that I should write something about what I've been doing since we got back here to the Oasis Guest House. Well, to be honest none of us have done very much though L does keep threatening to give me a wash it hasn’t yet happened. I am a disgrace she says.

David spent quite a while working out what was wrong with the gear box, not really sure if he decided on any one thing but a series of possibilities. The car spent a while in the garage and we even slept in there a couple of night with it over the pit.

Finally D decided that he would order a new gearbox or a reconditioned one. He spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a supplier anywhere in the world. He posted lots of queries on a Land Rover forum and after many days got a few responses. Eventually he did find a supplier in the UK. Then they wanted the gearbox number. This proved extremely difficult to find apparently, and quite amusing from my point of view.

First D scrambled under the car where it’s parked in the Oasis yard. It’s just dirt and gravel, no concrete, oily from all the vehicles that have parked here over time, quite wet from the storms we had been having most days. Luckily we weren’t parked in any puddles. As you can imagine there isn’t a lot of room under there so it’s not the most comfortable of positions. D found some numbers but couldn’t read them, still after a lot of discussion with others here it was decided that he could use the reversing camera to film the numbers and take a photo of the screen showing the numbers. This proved to work eventually though it wasn’t an easy thing to do and the number came out mirror reversed.

After all this trouble and another day or two the reply came back that these weren’t the right numbers. So he looked again, found something else and repeated the process with the camera, that turned out not to be right either. Then he insisted that there was not another plate with numbers. All the while L is asking if she could get under and have a look, D wouldn’t have any of that.

Eventually the suppliers e-mailed a video showing where to find this plate, and you guessed it; it was hidden behind many other pipes and bits and pieces that first had to be removed. Even then it couldn’t be found until D cleaned off the whole area, it was hidden under oil soaked mud that was stuck to the surface. Much swearing and cursing took place, the air was blue.

When the plate was clean D still couldn’t read it, he couldn’t get in the right position and the camera idea didn’t work because the numbers were etched and too indistinct. So then it was decided that L being smaller might be able to do a better job, with her eyes, strewth the situation was really desperate. Well L scrambled under and low and behold she could get right up near the thing, then after trying several pairs of glasses managed to read the number. That was a relief: I must say that L scrambling under the car is quite entertaining from my point of view.

So finally the gearbox was ordered and the company persuaded to dispatch it a speedier time frame. It was still a few days before that happened. Now at least we believe it to be on it’s way. It could in fact be arriving in Ulan Baatar today: DHL the courier company gave an itinerary for it advising of it’s arrival here on the 27th, only thing is they didn’t state what month or year. We will have to wait until Monday to see if it has arrived and go to customs to do the paperwork, pay the duty and taxes and collect it. Customs duty is charged on the shipment costs too, now that’s a good lark isn’t it.

Meanwhile there have been many comings and goings here at the Oasis. There was a group from the UK came in by air. About 7 of them, they had hired Honda motorcycles flown in from the UK too. These were small Hondas like posties bikes at home. They then spent two days clearing them through customs and a few more days checking them out for potential mechanical problems then they were off one Friday afternoon.

There are many bikers here, its a popular place to stay while they do repairs to their bikes and have spares flown in from Europe or the US. If their bikes have broken down while travelling in Mongolia then they truck them here to repair them. Nearly all are 'dirt’ bikes, in fact all have been dirt bikes this year, no big road bikes. Many of these bikers were sceptical about the little Hondas being able to stand up to the rough conditions of the Mongolian roads, however, everyone wished them well when they set off.

Five days later George and Ed, two of this Honda group arrived back at the Oasis early one morning. Georges’ bike needed a new engine, it had done the big end. It was also the day the ‘black market’ the huge market here in Ulan Baatar was closed so not the best day to be looking for a new engine. He did howeve, find a new Chinese bike with the same engine or one that would do, not sure which, and purchased that for $350 US, brought it back to the hostel, whipped out the motor, sold the rest to the caretaker here whose own bike was very rusted and set off with Ed back to join their group about 600k’s out, about a 16 hour truck ride. Let’s hope they have no more problems.

Then there was Andrew who along with a few others had been out riding along the tracks when he had an accident. I don’t really know how it happened just that he ended with a badly broken ankle. His mates had to organize a truck to bring him and his bike back here, along with one of the mates. After getting medical attention here, the doctors conferred with some of their colleagues in Hong Kong and it was decided that he should head back to the UK where he could get the best specialist treatment available.

Since then, that was nearly 2 weeks ago, his ankle has been operated on but it was in such a bad condition that it will be at least 6 months before he is allowed to put it to the ground again. Probably the best part of two years before he can get back on a motorcycle:

Now you’d think that with the car just sitting in the yard here nothing more could go wrong. WRONG! One morning the car’s battery was totally flat, not even enough umph to light the interior light. This is a new battery, barely 8 weeks ago D had bought it in Sweden. Again internet forums were consulted and the consensus of opinion seemed to be that it was a dud battery. So again it was replaced. This is getting very monotonous:

In the meantime my humans have applied for and got their Russian transit visas, they will need these no matter whether they head into other parts of Central Asia or just back to the UK. David is not too convinced that the new gear box will fix all his transmission problems, he still feels that there is some electrical problems there too that caused the initial thing with the gears not changing when they should. Our friend Heather in the UK has posted some small bits to us, but not sure how long they will take, the cost of using DHL for these little bits wasn’t practical:

We were getting storms and rain most days but not for about 4 days now so all the puddles have dried up and the dust in the air is making L sneeze a great deal, not to mention how grubby it’s making me. We have still had the big dark clouds come over and lots of thunder just no rain. It has also turned very hot, high 30’s

I wish I could tell you some very exciting stuff but my imagination is not that good. There are some very interesting people here both with motor bikes and in vehicles, who have done a vast amount of travelling. It seems to be a place where ‘our’ sort of traveller meet up, discuss where to do, what to do, and the best way to go about it. They share loads of information, so it is far from boring.

© Lynette Regan 27th July 2013-07-27