BREAKDOWNS

[kit carr]

another breakdown, but this time of communication

I think it was on CA131, as I think Dippy was alongside laughing as we sat on the roof of the houseboat.

It must have have been fireworks season, as there seemed to be lots of fireworks about.

We bought a stack of sky rockets, and figured, logically, that they would look better if we watched from a distance. It was decided that we would let the house boy paddle out into the lake and set them off from about 10 metres away.

We gave him the fireworks, and the instructions and went up on to the roof to watch.

He was very keen to have some fun with these fireworks, and was looking forward to  having a play with them at our expense.

It soon became clear that we had omitted one  particular instruction, which was obvious to us experienced sky rocketeers, but obviously no obvious to our shikara wallah.

Shikaras have a roof which covers more than half of the boat, and it never occurred to us that he would set the skyrockets off under the roof. But he did.

There were sparks and flames and explosions for what seemed like a very long time, but probably wasn't. It was so funny that we never thought initially to check on the condition of the shikara wallah.

He turned out medium rare, but was OK the next day as far as we could see.

I'm pretty sure it was Dippy with me, as the ride up the hill in Habib's Jeep seems to be combined with the sky rockets. I think that's when we bought the rockets, but I am not sure now if the poor driver hiding in the back and uttering a low moan of sheer panic was the shikara wallah. I hope not.

but that's another story.

[SIMON ARMS]

Kit I remember when Mike and I arrived into Kabul west bound with a group of "Christian Youth" and I think you were rebuliding or had just finished rebuilding the 510 Perkins. I remember very well the look on your face in the hotel one night when we had some of the young ladies busy with the roller. It just shows that everybody can be trained to do something useful.
We had had our fair share of mechanical problems but the situation improved after we requested that the Titanic didn't get a mention in morning prayers.

Simon

[marilynhanerstahl]

I see that you are referring to Robo.  Does anyone know his whereabouts?  He was the courier on a London Katmandu 1977 trip I took with The Overlanders.  Would love to catch up after all these years!  He was an awesome courier.  Also the driver, Jim Allen?  Great guys!  Great time!  Thanks in advance for any help:
[e-mail]