Get over it

 

 We did get down the smooth, steep, wet cobblestones. Slowly.

 Now for the ride into Baku. 100m and the clutch doesn't feel right at all. 2km and it hasn't got any better. Oh dear... 

Stop at a petrol station and try and ask locals to if they have a truck or transit van and would be willing to take us to Baku. They have no English, us no Azeri. One guy seems to understand but nobody interested. Baku still 300km away and lots of police on the road and none of the vehicles around us looks particularly roadworthy - but they did at least work!

The guy that seemed to understand our predicament told us to ring 156 but our telephones didn't do anything. But his did and there was someone at the other end that understood and we agreed some dollars. In a little bit more than an hour we got a flat bed breakdown truck; it seems that 156 is like the AA.

 

The Harley had been slow- the breakdown truck was slower. The driver offered us cigarettes and we offered him mints in return. He preferred the cigarettes. We all listened  to what seemed to be Azerbaijan fusion Bangla rap. Yes...... 

 We stopped for lunch and managed to communicate that we would have the same as him. Sign language and pencil sketches. Then Baku. The roads were an awful lot better now and we picked up speed and not just down hill. We navigated through Baku with Paul holding his Garmin and hoping the battery did not run out. It took six  hours to get to the Harley dealer. We unloaded the bike and said our bye-byes and thank-yous to the lorry driver, who now had to drive all the way back. Hopefully the tip made it worthwhile for him.

The clutch was stripped down. It was clear that some of the plates were no longer, not only clear but smelled as they were no more too. It was what we thought.

The Harley guys don't have any spares. Ordering some more would take 3 to 4 days for them to come. Our Turkmenistan visa starts on the 16th, tomorrow and only lasts ten days, by which time we need to have got there and got out.

Tuesday morning, the first day of our Turkmenistan visa, we wave good- bye to the rest of our travelling companions rather sadly. It was not just our bike, Jeannot's no longer had a functioning starter, so it was going to be a group push to  get him going every time he stops from now on - and he's aiming for Tibet and then Beijing - all stops to be on the tops of hills for him from now on.

Clearly our trip might be over now; thinking caps on...