The following morning I awoke at 0600, and prepared breakfast before breaking camp and heading to the bus office, where our parcel awaited. Whilst we were packing up I noticed several pieces of Reebar hammered into the ground and it was not long before I realised that we were actually in a “minefield” of the stuff. How I managed to miss driving over one during the night and ripping a tyre is a damn miracle.
The package was duly collected and signed for, and then we proceeded to Mr. Singh’s garage.
Two white men in a town like Hayma attract attention, and we were gathering a large audience. As there were other customers wanting attention, the work on the Streaky’s Disco was delayed slightly but it soon got under way.
Our suspicions of a blown cylinder head gasket were confirmed and removing both heads from the V8 motor took some time with the frequent interruptions by locals wanting work done too, plus it was Friday.
Once the heads were removed we checked them for being flat and level, and it did not look good. A friend of Mr. Singh’s had a workshop with equipment for skimming the heads so he was called to help out, but it was now getting near prayer time and as he was a Moslem, would not be free until after lunchtime Friday prayer. Streaky managed to convince him to do a short prayer and true to his word the guy pitched up not long after 1300 and started the work.
Once the first head was skimmed we took it back to Mr. Singh’s garage and reassembly began. I collected the second head about an hour later and during the re-assembly drove off to find a better camp site and collect firewood.
The vehicle was up and running around 2000, it had taken 12 hours to do the whole job, with Streaky doing most of the work with his own tools except the head skimming of course.
Once everything was packed away, Streaky paid Mr. Singh and helpers then we were on our way to a second night camping near Hayma. Some celebratory drinks were consumed after our meal in a local restaurant.
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