To fix the broken storage box we had to find some cable tightners. We set off to find them but first had to deal with the police. There was a small stretch of the road where you had to drive 20 km/hr. We were driving over 30 km/hr. The young policeman had Rudy sit in his car and then the negotiations started. He wanted to see all the papers. In the end the only one he needed was the driving licence. After first getting back all the original papers Rudy managed to give him a copy of the driving licence. If things got out of hand then that could be left behind. In the end the deal was amicably settled with a package of stroop wafels. The search for the “span banden” could begin. At every car part shop we got closer. The last man stepped into our bus and we drove to the car parts bazaar. In the first shop we found the tightners. They were enormously big, made for trucks. No smaller ones were available so we took it. In the evening we fitted them to the box but the 10 m tape needs to be shortened and the hooks are far too big. We will have to try and find a smaller one.

The road to Turkistan was smooth driven for a change. We made great progress and got to the city around 15:00 hrs. It is a modern show city with large streets and nice looking new buildings. The main attraction is the Yasaui Mausoleum. A shrine from 1390 for one of the Turkistan Islamic scholars. It’s outside is not completed i.e. the red brick and scaffolding poles are still visible. The rear and sides are however completely covered with beautiful ceramic tiles. One wonders if it should still be finished after 600 years or leave it as is.

Some 70 km outside of town in the direction of Shymkent, we found a nice camping spot amongst the fields. The farmers were ploughing the land. Water is fed to the fields via irrigation channels. The area is a lot greener then we had seen for several days. The temperature in day time is slowly creeping up. Now it got to 33 deg so we are happy that the air conditioning in the car still works. At night the temperature stay high till around 21:30 when the wind stops and it suddenly drops.