Comms failure

 A short drive was in prospect for today, so we decided to add a bit of culture into the mix and visit Burana Tower which had been recommended by our friends Shona and Njck, who travelled these parts only a couple of weeks ago. As has become customary, we lost each other almost as soon as we left the hotel. Bishkek, remember, has some truly terrible traffic and to add to this many roads are blocked for repair, which confuses Waze no end. Various sneaky manoeuvres were observed and conducted and we arrived at Burana Tower separately. The Vauxhall was first, naturally. We waited for the others to arrive and checked Find My Friends to see how far they were. The Rolls arrived from a completely unexpected direction and after quite a delay Nigel made it. But where were Ham and David? FMF reported them as not leaving the hotel. This confused us. Several theories were developed, chewed upon, adjusted, worried, gnawed at, rejected and started again. Possibilities included: abducted by aliens; broken down in a comms black spot; incident involving police who confiscated phones; phones stolen and the one unmentionable thought which we won’t mention. In good Top Gear fashion we decided they were grown up and they would make it to the guest house eventually. We determined to keep going but not before meeting Shona and Nick’s guide who saw the cars and waved us down. 

We continued to call Ham and David with no success and started to wonder what would happen if they didn’t turn up at the guesthouse. This was a thought too bleak to contemplate for long, so we thought of other things instead. 

A quick stop at a corn-on-the-cob stall replenished our hungry tums and we entered the mountains once more for yet another stunning drive. 

On arrival at our destination who should we find? Ham and David! For reasons not identified they had no working phones between the two of them and decided to hot foot it to the guesthouse rather than follow us on our detour. Well! All that worry for nothing. They were stopped by the police though and asked for papers and passports (this is a first) so our predictions were not wholly fanciful. 

Short but spectacular drive in prospect tomorrow.