Surprise (Tuesday 10th September 2002)
Petr and Roman quickly and predictably flew over Kazakhstan to the southwest. Petr reached almost 230 kilometers after taking rest near Irtys river, and Roman, who set off on Saturday, reached 360 kilometers (!) and so got ahead of Petr. They are probably going to fly west round Pamir and Hindukus.
Katerina is a big surprise. I've pondered over Sunday's data from Toulose, but now there's no doubt: yesterday, she flew from the Issyk-Kul lake to the east-north-east and stopped after about two hundered kilometers in east Kazakhstan! In other words, she flew backalong her Sunday's trace...How to explain? The weather does not offer any explanation (the air was clear, only a mild winds etc.) and to try to find it out somewhere else seems premature...