(Daniel) As if this country wasn’t hard enough, today really freaked me out, but here we are at the end of it, so I guess that I have that to be thankful for!  We headed off this morning after I changed the fuel filter, solving the power loss problem.  And waved goodbye to the hotel staff before fuelling up in a shell garage and heading towards Dera Gazi Khan, a small city on the way to Lahore.  Everything seemed to go well, as we drove out of town, and through an amazing village. Then on towards the Afghanistan border.

However we just kept going towards Afghanistan and were nearly at the border crossing when we realized that we must have missed a turning somewhere.  We turned around and drove back along the road, overtaking a lorry on the dirt side.  I went quite hard over some bumps and suddenly felt like we were about to flip over, the wolf pulled back sharply and veered hard on the road, I stopped and could see that the trailer was on it’s side.  I jumped out and realized that we were missing a wheel, and that on closer inspection the axle spindle had snapped.

This was bad, unrepairable on the roadside, it would need either a new axle or welding, which would probably not be strong enough to continue very far.  As we looked at the damage many people arrived to help.  A crowds formed and fortunately a policemen appeared, and stop things from getting to crowded.  I couldn’t see the side of the trailer that was on the floor, but could imagine that it didn’t look good under there.  When I looked back at the road, I noticed that the contents of the brakes were scattered everywhere, and that some bits were cracked including the pads.  It didn’t look good.  One of the Men who was there told us that he could arrange a flatbed truck with a crane to lift the trailer and take it back to Quetta for repair.  He said that we would not find a new axle, but that it could be welded, and we should be back on the road within a few hours.  This sounded good, and to my surprise that flatbed was on scene within another ten minutes.  Bear in mind that we are in the middle of nowhere, 50kms outside the city!  We agreed a price with the flatbed driver and he lifted the trailer onto the back, along with the wheel and the bits and pieces of brakes that I had managed to find.

We then drove back to Quetta, and to a garage that the other man had obviously recommended.  The boss in there took a look at the work, and we agreed that he would hammer out the wheel arch, wled the axle and skim it back to size, then repair the brakes by welding the pads back together, and reshoeing them.  He would have to make some of the components again, as they had gone missing, but this didn’t seem to faze him.  The quote for the work was 1700 rupees, a total of 24 dollars, or £12, I didn’t bother negotiating and asked him to proceed asap.  Then I dropped Rowan and Gabbs back to the Bloom Star, and we checked in again, then we ate lunch and I returned alone to the garage to supervise the work on the trailer.  It took longer than they expected, but I must say that the quality of the work was ideal, just enough for expedition quality and extremely cheap!  The workshop was staffed by an army of apprentices, some looked as young as ten years old.  But they all mucked in, and the work was completed in time for some evening tea at 6pm.  After thanking everyone individually I hooked the trailer back up and drove to the hotel. 

We went back to the same local restaurant, and then Rowan and I went and picked up some more beer to celebrate our repair, and quick recovery!  Before I left, many people told me that the trailer would be the thorn in my side from the start of this trip, and they were right, I will put thought now to my options should the trailer continue to go wrong, as it is more and more likely each time we repair it

Distance Driven 100kms

(Nick) After the drama over the last two days, I received word from Daniel again this evening. He managed to flip the trailer on the extremely bad roads from Quetta to Lahore.

1st message: "Flipped the trailer today on bad roads. Have fixed it now. Snapped axle lost a wheel dents and scrapes. Lost some of the brake mechanism. Big crash when it went"

I then asked for a more detailed report on the damage done.

2nd message: "As I said fixed it now. So no problems, welded axle and repaired everything else, fixed brakes etc too. This is the second major problem in a week. Need to consider plan to send the trailer home early, it is a liability. Starting out for Lahore again tomorrow."

3rd message: " By the way. The fuel filter worked. Got the power back, hence flipping trailer! It's amazing what 50 dollars can buy here!"

On the plus side, everyone in the region is very nice and helpful. It would seem that from one problem, to the next!!

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