Hard fly over Hindukus (Thursday March 25th 2004)
Altynai very quickly flew over Pakistan and began to get close to Kabul over Afghanistan. Hindukus is ahead of her. Iristu probably stopped at little river near Kabul plain only about 10 kilometers from the town.
More detailed about Altynai now: since yesterday afternoon till this evening, she flew around 570 kilometers - she speeded up obviously - and now approaches along the trace that she had followed on her way to the wintering place.
There are questions around Iristu's travel. We have his coordinates taken on March 22 (Monday) late morning - he stayed at the border of Afghanistan - on yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) when the satellites recorded him near Kabul. There were more than two day between gaining these coordinates but he reached only 130 kilometers by that time and, moreover, turned significantly west. It seems like he flew up over Hindukus but the weather did not allow him to overcome it. It makes me even believe that flew quite far northward and then got back to southwest... Even when watching Czech storks we've came across complication during their fly over Pyrenees (and Hindukus is even harder) or returning from Sahara where the sand storm blew. But who knows, perhaps he only adjusted the direction and now is just taking a rest. Let's hope nobody with gun notices him... As a whole, the flatness I threatened with yesterday is now gone.