Had we known at the start of the day what events were ahead of us we may have simply stayed in bed; but that's not how life works. So we set off this morning thinking (even planning) on being in the village of Haptagay (Хаптагай) about 30 km south of, and across the Lena river from, Yakutsk by evening.

Todays road was the roughest so far. Some really rough potholed sections that forced us down to 5-10 miles per hour and continued for miles, and more "under construction" sections than on the previous days. By early afternoon our average speed was down around 22 mph (35 km/h) and then we were given a reprieve of a long section of good gravel before another long and very rough section of construction.

That's where the road finally KO'd the vehicle.

Fortunately for us, (the future of our trip and the continued existence of our vehicle) we were traveling very slowly and on a rare piece of smoothish road when the drivers side mount that holds the camper box to the truck frame gave way and instantly the camper box tilted to the passengers side threatening to either fall off the truck or pull the truck over with it.

To say that we were stunned by our predicament would be a massive understatement. Frankly I did not know where to start or what to do. But thanks to the friends we have made in Russia we at least had a starting point. Call Vladimir in Vladivostok to get in touch with his friend Alexander who was waiting for us in Haptagay.

The story of the rescue has already been told in brief in the post for April 27th. But it is worth stressing two aspects of the incident and the subsequent rescue.

Nina and I both believe that had the mount broken at a less opportune time we could easily have had the house/camper fall off the truck and probably pull the truck over with it so we felt lucky that the incident did not cause any injuries.

Secondly it is difficult to imagine how we would have moved forward on solving our problem without the tremendous support and assistance from our new Yakutia friend Alexander and his numerous friends and family members (particularly Ivan, pictured with me above who was instrumental in rescuing us from the roadside) that have contributed at one time or another to looking after us.