What a result!

It's hard to know where to start, having just finished, but driving into the heart of Paris and seeing our families was one of life's great experiences. A sudden collision of all the stuff we had been through and an overwhelming realisation that we had actually done it. All of the uncertainties, from day one, have only added to that state of wonderment and not a single day was ever taken for granted, each new destination being a milestone in itself.

Our trophy: We found out a week or so ago that our bronze medal (you just have to get to Paris to get it) had been withdrawn as we had left for Estonia a day early and this had thrown the system. Fair enough, but they then also withdrew it from our heroic friends, Hugh and Paul, who had followed the rally about two days behind for 23 days as they had had so many problems. They also were driving a Ford Pilot and had helped us (and lots of others) enormously at the beginning. They are great guys and we decided over a very enjoyable lunch in Gdansk on Monday that we weren't going to stand for this and would create our own trophy. At this point the 'Ford unstoppable car klub' was born and Hugh rang his PA and arranged for 4 trophies to be be inscribed with our names and shipped over to Paris in time for our arrival on Saturday.

When we finally arrived on the small podium in Paris a glum faced organiser (more of which later*) informed us that we didn't have a medal. I had seen Hugh in the crowd as they had arrived before us, and shouted for him to come over, at which point he handed us two enormous silver plated cups and placed them on our bonnet to huge cheers. I had the unbeatable pleasure of telling the organiser that this was our trophy and that she could keep her medals. The timing was perfect - a truly glorious moment! It later sat in the middle of our table during the black-tie awards ceremony in the evening causing much merriment.

*While all of the marshalls and mechanics have been fantastic throughout, there has been an ever increasing resentment of the two main organisers who haven't shown a shred of interest in anyone, and so a rebellious 'naughty schoolboy' culture has developed amongst many of us over the past couple of weeks or so which has been a lot of fun.

Otherwise, highlights: Mongolia will always be the outstanding memory purely because it was so tough, day in day out. Someone described it at the time as like driving across a ploughed field that had been hit by artillery fire, and while there were flatish bits when you had to avoid being grounded in soft sand, that was a pretty fair description for much of it. 10 - 12 hours non stop driving every day, having to concentrate every second, then arriving at a camp site in the evening and sitting in a stupified state of total exhaustion in this mess tent, covered from top to toe in dust eating soup like a tramp and watching these other bedraggled souls staggering in with their airline trays of food. Still lots of laughter and great spirit throughout the tent, and food has rarely tasted better.

We simply had a great time every day, one way or another, whether it was battling across the desert, insisting on getting every border guard to smile before leaving their country, being overtly cheerful to Russian policemen to the point where they would finally give up trying to give us a hard time, or just cruising along enjoying beautiful views and returning waves to endless groups of supporters along the road. We have had thousands of photos taken of us and have got rather used to being Z list celebrities. London in my Golf is going to be a rude awakening...

Final tip for anyone who may do this themselves - choose your co-pilot, or as I like to call him, sack of potatoes, very carefully. I have had the best natured superstar you could hope for and we have talked, laughed and rocked our way across the world without a bad moment. Unbeatable.

Paris

I'm going to let Tim pen the final chapter of the blog. He drove Priscilla manfully into Paris yesterday, which turned out to be an extraordinarily emotional chapter for all of us. And he is driving her back to UK, as I type this.
It has been the once-in-a-lifetime experience that we had both hoped for. We have loved every minute of it, and we were incredibly fortunate to have been able to do it. Here are a few photos from yesterday...





A cheeky (?!) sight as we drove into Paris

Our first sight of our families. Tim's and my family had prepared the letters P R I S C I L L A to welcome us in the Place Vendome.

Tim will explain the cup....

And on into France

Crisscrossing the Moselle River, as we left Germany. Yet more vineyards ahead

Holiday chums? (For those that warned me that "Hugo Upton" was on the rally. Evidence)

What a welcome sight. Paris is in sight now....

Just to add to Tim's comments. Prob our penultimate blog. Definitely an end of term feeling around the whole rally entourage. But today was a relatively easy day. Around 420 kms from Koblenz in Germany to Reims, here in France. (The day before was 560kms from Potsdam to Koblenz).

I returned from my few days in UK to find that my partner has progressed enormously. He can now well and truly multi-task. Drive, map-read, change the ipod playlist, and wave at every girl that vaguely might cast a glance at this rattly old croc (the car, not Tim). All at the same time. Was my position going to be redundant? Happily, after he, while navigating, asked me to do a hairpin U turn on the mtorway yesterday, I think I've earned my place back in the team.

One of the tragedies is that we just don't have time to see much of the beautiful cities we visit. Arrive late, tired. Often work on car etc. Tho, of late, Priscilla has performed like a beauty. Still nervous of any bump, sound etc. But, as we STILL are approached by other contestants who admit that they didn't think our car was going to make it out of the carpark in Beijing, we are keeping our fingers crossed for the 15okms to Paris tomorrow.

Dinner in Reims tonight with Michael Campbell etal, who sadly, with Robin W retired his car way back in Mongolia, and flew home. But has driven out to join us all for the last 2 days. He got a great reception.

Families, friends all heading out now to Paris to see us all arrive at La Place de la Concorde.

Should be fun.

Beijing, 34 days ago, seems a lifetime away.

Reims

Well, here we are in Reims - what about that then? Another day, another country, and nearing the end of this extraordinary jaunt. China and Mongolia seem years away and it's all been a bit tame recently with flat and smooth roads. The endurance has turned from tough driving to trying to wake up and get going early in the morning (Strawberry blond is merciless in this department) after a few too many 'one for the road's. Very enthusiastic hospitality from our fellow travellers is beginning to take it's toll, but good fun.

Paris, all going well, tomorrow. What an incredible and overwhelming feeling that will be, provided the clutch and possible over-heating can handle a long city run.

We will be there.

A quick note of thanks to all of that have posted comments - really kind and fantastically encouraging at the end of some pretty tiring days. Can't wait to see you all.

Now I've got my master technician back, I can chuck something onto this blog thing, so a quick catch-up.

I first noticed that is was a little quieter in the car, less conversation, less dance music and, worst of all, a lot fewer laughs. A little bit more 'where the hell am I?' and then I looked to my left and saw my strawberry-blond co pilotwas no longer with me and had naffed off to Blighty. A rather grumpy German had told his navigator that he was a sack of potatoes in Ullaaam Baatuur which hadn't gone down terribly well and the navigator packed his bags and flew back to the fatherland, so he's been on his own ever since. Well, I've been looking forward to my sack of potatoes returning to me which he finally has this evening. The things he'll do to get out of a bit of map-reading...

it's been a great few days and I've had a lot of support from our fellow travellers. Poland was very beautiful, and it was another weirdly emotional moment passing into Germany today. Another huge milestone for Priscilla who's beginning to think the whole joke's wearing a bit thin. Apart from most of the bodywork, the interior is now giving up the ghost and door surrounds and fabric are all hanging off. If we ever come to sell her, I'm not entirely sure we'll get away with the 'one careful owner' tag.

Beginning to tune in a little to planet earth now, and really looking forward to getting back to everything, but still loving every minute. Us and another Ford Pilot (great guys who have had an unbelievable experience and only been on the rally about 5 days, otherwise running 2 days behind us) are the only two cars not to have got a Bronze medal. Very exciting and we have had heated discussions about who should really be winning our own particular competition!

All good fun and can't believe that the impossible dream of Paris might just come off after all. Clutch still knackered, but otherwise all well and so fingers still firmly crossed.

Stepping back into reality for a few days

I came back to UK for a few days, for something we are working on at Oxygen. That meant, my hero Tim had to do three days of driving, solo. (Looks like he tried to blog yesterday but was thwarted. Ha, so...not just ironing then that you need me for, eh?). He had to do Vilnius to Mj^g*k>@w+b (some unpronounceable town in Poland, from there to Gdansk, and today to Potsdam (outside Berlin).

Rather sweet, I think we've really missed not doing those days together. But needs must. He will comment on his four days, but for my part, it was verrrrry strange getting back into the old routine again. Landing at Heathrow, and driving kate on the M25 in our old Merc estate was rather like an out-of-body experience. Driving to Petersfield? Yes, but hadn't I just driven from Peking? Out of habit I found myself STANDING on the brakes, as we came out of the Heathrow tunnel. That's how you get Priscilla to stop, so instinctively....

Anyhow, as ever England looks just so beautiful, and it was so lovely to see family etc.

Then horror, the reality. Monday morning I have to get on the commuter train to London. Like a goodytwoshoes, I do my prep work for the office, then gaze out of the window and reflect on the last four weeks. Lots of things swirled around, but the ones that stuck....



- the universal generous-spiritedness of ones fellow human beings. Whether in Mongolia or Estonia. Whether fellow competitors or local mechanics. It is incredibly heatening to have experienced that. Some exceptions, of course. The Russian police being the glaring example.. But I have had a lump in my throat on more than one occasion as we we have experienced the genuine glow of warmth, support, and enthusiasm from all the people we have encountered as we have covered all these kilometres .

- The tenacity, the sheer dogged determination shown by many people to keep their cars on the road. Some, sadly had car problems that just were impossible to fix. But many had problems that with a bit of ingenuity, sign language, and losing valuable time in far-flung places, they managed to rejoin the the rally. I think we both take a very valuable lesson from seeing how others overcome adversity.

- Lastly the whole rally circus itself. I sat next to a nice old guy at dinner a week ago. A veteran rally goer. Had I done one before, he asked. No. Would I do another one, he asked? But before I answered, he cautioned me that any other would prob be rather tame after this one. This had been way and above the most challenging he had ever experienced. So methinks, I'll leave it at this one. The rally mechanics, marshalls and medical staff have been a constant support. Always smiling, always willing to help, when sometimes, particularly in Mongolia, they were stretched to absolute breaking point. The organisers though are less impressive. The general view is that they learnt their skills in "customer service" from Russians. We've been on the rally for over 30 days, and nobody has been up to us to welcome us. Friends who were stuck behind the rally for 23 days, yes 23 days, and were they ever contacted by the rally office to check they were ok?! Some of the competitors get v wound up about this. Tim and I, however are on our own rally. We just wanted to get to Paris. We were always bemused by those wanting to get a gymkhana-type rosette/medal to put on ones bedroom wall. Not wrong, but just not for us. Our challenge was that neither of us had ANY idea what went on under the bonnet. Nor did we have any experince of navigating with grid references through deserts etc. But now we've cracked both. We've had a rather puerile campaign recently of trying to amass as many penalty points as possible (co-pilot disappearing to London for three days, hah, that sends the counter off the scale). So we should be the last car to limp across the line in Paris on Saturday, all being well. Can't wait.

Flying solo _all going really well, cant get any text on,so will report soon.

Tale of two Rallies

Cars queuing up to do the Timed sections on gravel roads through the forests

Main square in Tallinn, Estonia where they allowed all the cars to park for a while. Well deserved beer too.

Three photos which just give a tiny impression of the quite extraordinary reception we all got from the Estonian villagers as we did our timed sections yesterday. One of the highlights of the whole trip. Lump in the throat time, getting that show of enthusiasm.

Just to prove that despite not being able to iron, he is very handy with a wrench now.

We left Latvia this morning and have arrived in Lithuania. There are very clearly two groups on this rally now. Those that are keen to win/get medals. And those (?at least half now) that are just wanting to limp into Paris, so are not watching their stopwatches all the time. Guess which rally we are on?

However, we did one off-road trial section this morning, but judged the road surface to be too Mongolia-esque, so hit the main roads after that.

Right call, as when we got to the hotel here and did our inspection, we found that our 5 day old rear shock absorbers had once again punched right through the floor. So we rely again now on the main suspension. Should be ok now on Polish/German/French roads.

Tim has a challenge now, as I fly back to UK tomorrow morning till Wed evening. Work reasons, all positive, but that are just unavoidable. He assures me will cope ok on his own. What a star. He gets a day off in Gdansk on Tues, then I meet him in Berlin/Potsdam for the run till Paris on Saturday.

Great day

What a lovely day we've had. Blue skies, really beautiful countryside, and, just to confuse the marshalls, we have done most of the right things today - time trials down gravel tracks, a couple of circuits round a race track (just what Priscilla was built for...) and got more stamps in our time card than you can shake a stick at. The reception all along the way has been staggering and it seems the deeper one is in the countryside, the better the welcome, so hundreds of people along the route waving with huge smiles and taking photos. Very uplifting stuff and wonderfully encouraging. Roads are new and smooth, and it all feels much more prosperous than Russia. Perhaps for the first time we can thank the EU - at least we can see where the money's going, and our suspension is deeply grateful!

Brilliant to have finally at least partly trained Nigel, but STILL not getting my clothes laid out in the morning as I'm used to. Perhaps the fact that they're the same ones as the day before (and sometimes the day before that) that is the problem. We both commented on what a nice easy day it's been today. Only driving for 9 hours, and it's felt a breeze. Feels incredible to be doing this - we have to pinch ourselves - and loving every minute. Will try and chuck some more photos on later.

Great day

Crossing the border into Estonia

The heros at the backstreet garage in Perm, who worked all night to mend our suspension leaf

Priscilla preening herself in St Petersburg in fron of the Hermitage. Annoyingly (but thoughtfully) the garage there valet cleaned her, so we have no more Gobi desert patina...

On the drive from St P to the border with Estonia. I had expected more churches along the route through Russia, but methinks Mr Stalin wasn't too keen.

Just incredible, that as soon as we enter Estonia, and stop for some "Food" and "Coffee", that lo and behold we find that Daily Bread, like Oxygen, has become a household name globally.

....and this one's for you, H. I am just sick and tired of having to wetnurse your husband. Iron his shirts, pack his bags. I knew he was no mechanic or map-reader, but oh dear...


First of all, a thank you to all who have written comments back to us on the blog. It's been fun doing the blog, and great to hear back from you too.

We crossed into Estonia yesterday. Again feeling slightly like naughty schoolboys we left St Petersburg, 24 hours BEFORE the appointed time. We just felt we had spent 3 days there already getting the car fixed, and were getting cabin fever to move on. I sense the Rally organisers are used to having cars catching up (one/two three days late etc), but not used to people heading off much in advance. We had a great day, tho, as we had no queue at the border.

Wow, once again, the difference when you cross the borders. From pot-holed roads and shabby houses in Russia, to EU-financed smoooooooth tarmac in Estonia. From grumpy service in Russia, to all smiles in Estonia. Etc Etc. (We had start differences on each of the China/Mongolia, the Mongolia/Russia borders too. Fascinating.)

We all head off tomorrow morning to drive to Riga in Latvia. Lots of time trials, and gravel roads, to test Priscilla's new suspension out on. She goes really well now. Maybe she needed 5,000 miles to run herself in?!

We have had our challenges with her (namely would she even be able to make her way out of the Shangri-La car park in Beijing etc), but compared to the extraordinary challenges that some of the drivers/teams have faced/overcome, we have had it easy. Some cars have just had such catastrophic/systemic probs, that retirement was unavoidable, but Tim and I are still dumbstruck and in awe of the challenges that some have overcome, to keep in the rally. People having been a week, yes, A WEEK behind, having been starnded in some god-forsaken town, with no mechanics/support sytem etc, and yet have been able to draw on the incredible ingenuity and goodwill of the locals, (whether Chinese, Mongolian or Russian) to help them on their way. And then, for them to have to drive 28 hours a day to catch up. Inspiring.

Tallinn is charming, and quite rightly is so proud to be a nation-state once again. The cars congregate in the centre of the medieval square in a minute, so we'll post some pics later.

Onward & upward

Perhaps our main lesson over the past week or so is how far you can get in Russia only knowing two words: 'thank you' and 'soup'. One has been slightly more useful than the other, however with a lot of gesticulating we have managed to get the cracked axle welded, spare hydraulics installed after the two huge holes in the back of the car were patched up and everything greased to within an inch of its life. A wonderful feeling.

We are staying in a large grim hotel 25 mins from the city centre (the problem with travelling with 100+ cars is that we have to stay in places with huge carparks - never a good sign), the one redeeming feature being that this fantastic garage is just round the corner. It has been incredible being here ahead of the herd and being able to go straight in and have them setting to work immediately. The mechanics were brilliant and couldn't have been more helpful.

Having had a couple of days off, we are now itchingy to get back on the road and continue the adventure. No idea how many cars are still going, and still not entirely sure how many miles Priscilla feels she has left in her, so nothing taken for granted, but really looking forward to Estonia. As Nigel has mentioned, it has been amazing travelling through the two 'communist' superpowers and seeing the progress, which is staggering. China feels to us the place where things are really moving. Moscow seems to have money coming out of its ears - endless new Hummers, Maybachs, thuggish bodyguards etc. St P appears to have remained pretty much as was. It has the beauty, but the cash is firmly in Moscow. If there was a smileometer it would have shown a slow steady descent throughout the journey so far with the Chinese being the outstanding winners, although the support from passers-by throughout has been incredible. It's been very strange travelling in taxis here and getting no attention, so can't wait to get back in the old jallopy!

Onward & upward

A flavour of Russia

A few pictures from the last week, as we have eaten up the miles in Russia....

The police, and the police stations that dot the whole road network. They pull you over for no reason, and are a law unto themselves in terms of the fringe benefits that they extract from many hapless drivers. Shame.

The reality of suburban Russia. Pretty grim tower blocks, that are identical in every city we have been through

Police, army, nurses....anyone in uniform...all fascinated by the rally.

Camera phones being pointed our way, the whole way from Beijing, all eager to get a glimpse of Tim.

Ditto waves from cars that pass us (and most do). Terrifying sights of drivers balancing their camera phones on the steering wheel, to get pics of each car

Very difficult to convey the essence of Russia. We have been very pleasantly surprised by the generous-heartedness of most we have encountered. And my goodness the country has changed so much since I was last here in 1992. I had only seen Moscow and St P then, so it has been so good to see rural Russia, and some of the smaller cities. The gap between the Moscow rich-kids and the old folk in the run-down villages in Siberia is just so stark, it's raw. But the place is moving. It is absolutely fascinating, knowing that it was a communist superpower 20 years ago. The feared Russian bear.

It has been a complete eye-opener for Tim and I to have been able to see up-close the two countries that in our youth were characterised as the then "Axis of Evil", (namely China and Russia). The warmth from the people of both counties has been extraordinary. Sure, it's influenced because they get a real giggle from seeing these old cars. They often comment that it seems strange to buy an old car like this, when you can get 2 new Japanese cars for the same price. At times, we have been tempted too.

Bizarre scene yesterday in Moscow, seeing a Ferrari dealership and a Ralph Lauren shop, within a stone's throw from the Lubianka (the feared ex HQ of the KGB).

Back to reality tho in St P today, trying to get the garage to fix the apparent crack where the suspension meets the rear axle. More on this later.

Reunited

Our fears that the car might have disappeared without trace and poss ended up in some Russian autojumble....were unfounded. Bizarrely they all seem to covet shiny new BMW's here, than 50 year old Ford Pilots. How can that be?
The sight of the truck coming down the long St Petersburg avenue towards us was just a huge relief. We almost kissed the poor driver who manfully brought her 1500kms, on just dreadful roads almost nonstop for 48 hours. The rest of the rally get here tomorrow night, so we take her to a garage this morning, to try and get her (poss terminal) suspension probs sorted.

Will pen some thoughts on Russia, and some more pics, later.

Spring time!

Well, the good news is that we've finally found the ultimate solution to our cars unreliability (although the engine's been going brilliantly) and how to avoid bouncing and rattling our way across the awful Russian roads - it's called flying, and it's fantastic! Much smoother, and a little faster and can't believe we didn't think of it before. Would have saved a lot of bother....

After approx 26 hours in a run down lorry repair garage in Perm Priscilla finally decided that enough was enough and a rest was needed. The spring was finally repaired by these wonderful mechanics working non-stop through the night (BMW in Hungerford have a lot to learn..), our charades has come on in leaps and bounds, but repairing the large cracks at either end of the axle was a step too far for them. We've now trucked the car straight to St Petersburg, missing out Moscow, and that should give us a couple of days to get someone to sort out the axle and we can then hopefully re-join the rally for what should be a great trip through the Baltic States. In a moment of inspiration we decided to fly. It's a shame to not be driving, but we just couldn't take the risk of the whole of the back of the car suddenly collapsing, and so have had little option. Our experience is still nothing compared to many others, so still counting our blessings.

To be honest it's been lovely stepping out of the travelling circus for a couple of days - one can over-load on war stories and tinkering talk after a while.....

Paris, one way or another, here we come!

Change of plan

Tim will explain....

Uh oh..

Just as we thought the car was really now run in, we have encountered a wee problemo. Driving on Russian tarmac roads is (when you can find them) is particularly hazardous as immense potholes loom up with no warning, and when the road is narrow, and you can't dodge them, even at 20 mph, they make for an awful crunch. It seems we paid the price for one of these yesterday while drining to this city, called Perm. We noticed as we parked at the massive Soviet-style hotel that the car was sitting on her heels a bit. A journey to a recommended backstreet garage, and sure enough, the rear suspension is broken. The main leaf has snapped. One car in front of us in the bay, a glorious 1927 Mercedes, with similar ailment. Won't take long apparently, we got here at 5pm last night, but at 5.30 am this morning, their car is lowered and Priscilla takes her turn. Incredible, these guys are prepared to work all night to get these rally cars back on the road. I stayed with the car, so that Tim could get some sleep to drive today, but it's now 11.30 am and the car is still not finished. They do an amazing job, taking the suspension apart and welding a new leaf in , all on the garage floor, with min safelt equipment. So the rally has moved on and we must catch up. We are not (and cannot be!) in a hurry, and we are in the hands of these kind mechanics, who speak not one word of english. Tim's and my Russian is limited to "thank you", and "soup" so we wrestle a bit when it comes to "shock absorber". Oh well.

More pics and observations about Russia once we are on the road.

Oil change

Well, here we are against many of them, if not all the odds, in Yekaterinburg where the Romanov's met their sad fate in the basement of a house. We have just visited the memorial to them and seen the most moving statue of the family with Nicolas cradling his young son. Driving west has been fascinating as Asian Russia starts becoming European Russia at pretty much this point. The roads are pretty dull with only the odd pot hole or rough patch to liven things up, at which point, without our hydraulic suspension, we bounce along and it becomes just like steering a boat in choppy water. Some things however remain the same and the Russians STILL haven't invented a word for either service or smile. Their inability to even have a stab at either beggars belief and is a constant source of amazement and amusement to us. It seems to be a primarily urban thing, as the country folk are full of waves and heart lifting huge grins and thumbs-up.

We occasionally get pulled over by the police and have found that the best way to totally confound them is to be terribly cheerful and say 'yes thank you' to everything they say - however stern they are being. They eventually give up, maybe take a photo, and let us move on. Another car was fined 3000 rbls (£60) and when I asked why they said they didn't know, but the policeman had a gun! Fair enough, but we'll stick to our strategy for the moment and see how we go.

Today has been another 'rest day' in the loosest sense of the word. More like playing with the car all day day. We have however continued our mechanical education and changed our oil, adjusted the clutch (much better, but not perfect so we keep fingers firmly crossed) and put the side panels back on the car. Right couple of tinkerers we're becoming....

Just got back some clean clothes from the laundry - a worryingly exciting moment, and I can only feel sorry for the filters on the hotel's washing machines. Thinking of hotels, they are extraordinary places. The facade and lobby are always glistening with polished marble etc. You then take a smart lift up to the 4th floor and enter a prison wing with dilapidated floors, grey flaky paint and a bathroom you only enter in desperation. Anyway, it's a thousand times better than a tent in Mongolia, so no complaining.

All really well, and we are taking each day at a time and enjoying it all. Michael and Robin, if you read this, we miss you a lot - any chances of re-joining us in the Baltic states???

Some Russian pictures

Some pictures from when we took a detour today to look at a typical village in Siberia. This is the true underclass in Russia. The state of the housing stock in these villages is grim. But they still smile and wave at us as we pass.

Tim will prob post a blog tomorrow about our Russian experiences....

Some Mongolian pictures

1. Lining up to go through the Mongolian border into Russia

2. A nomad horseman in Mongolia

3. One of the campsites in the desert

Omsk it is

Arrived in Omsk after a 600+ km run through Siberian countryside. Very flat. Lots of trees. And then more trees. Roads a damn sight better than Mongolia ever dreamt of, but you have to be mighty careful of hidden holes, lumps, which as we now have no shock absorbers make you wince when you get it wrong. Which we both do. Tim and I sharing the driving, which makes it so much easier. Some cars are set up with one person doing all the driving. Mad, but each to their own.
We set the alarm this morning to make an early start, having spent all day yesterday preparing the car. Great plan. We then lost half an hour taking the wrong turn out of the car park. Hilarious... but after that we had a happy day crusing through Siberia. Ipod into the music sytem so the miles get eaten up quickly. We left before most cars, as our only gameplan is that we just want to get to Paris. We politely decline to get involved in all the competitive stuff (time trials, penalty points etc), and with 30 cars (out of 130) now looking to have had to withdraw already, we have coined our car as the Tortoise. Anyhow she went ok today.
The reception we get along the route still is extraordinary. Cameras out everwhere.
More Siberia for the next few days, so after the surreal and challenging experience we had in Mogolia, this next few days will prob be relatively boring.

As you can see, we can now publish a few more pics, which give some idea of it all

1. a typical but rather surreal scene where the nomads seem to be able to catch Hollyoaks too.....

2. Michael and Robin who we all sadly miss, as their car packed up

3. Tim taking a "comfort stop" in the desert

The Oxygen brand does indeed seem to be global

Incredible evidence of brand loyalty that we have come across, whilst on our travels. Marketing budget has paid off....

Shake rattle & roll

At last a moment to write a quick note. So much has happened since we last had computer access that it's hard to know where to start. They call this a 'rest day', well it's not what we had in mind at all. I don't know what happened to the lie-in, top up with oil and then a good lunch followed by sight seeing and putting our feet up, but we've spent the entire day removing half of Mongolia's dust from every corner of the car and then bolting back at least some of the parts that have been shaken loose, checked brake pads, put new spark plugs in and re-mounted our radiator fan that had come away from the original mounts on the radiator yesterday causing a hole and leaving us negotiating the city rush hour massively overheating, just making our way to the hotel with steam pouring out of the bonnet. We've now found the clutch is on the way out, so I'm sure that will prove interesting. The mechanics cheerfully say you can easily drive a car without a clutch. Ok, then what do we do when we get to a town then tough guy?

I'm afraid that, contrary to what I'm sure were a lot of peoples expectations(?) , we are not in the running for a 'gold medal' position, but the good news is that we developed a brand new strategy about 4 days ago, and are now going for the maximum penalty points. We're doing pretty well and, having been 4th place in this particular competition N has just told me we have achhieved pole position. Not bad, and we are naturally thrilled.

Our aim is to somehow or other get to Paris and that's quite enough of a challenge. Incredibly pleased to still be going at all in fact. Really sad to loose some great people already and Hugh and Paul who helped us hugely at the beginning (they are driving another Ford Pilot) arrived at 4.00am this morning on the back of a truck having not slept for 5 days.

All good stuff and we are loving every minute. On we limp....

Tough week

Finally, we have arrived in Siberia (Russia), after what was one of the most challenging weeks that both Tim and I feel we have ever been through. In fact the rally organisers and some of the hardened rally participants feel it was one of the most gruelling that they had ever experienced. Not only for the individuals, but more importantly, for the cars. Tragedy struck in that numerous cars did not make the crossing into Russia. Only 87 cars (out of 130) made it under their own steam at the appointed time. Some others (? 10) have been trucked over to get to Russian workshops.
The roads in Mongola were appalling. No words can describe them. It is a very underdeveloped country. I understand now why they are a nomadic race. They pitch their gers (tents)wherever their animals need to graze. Very few villages. No need to travel to villages. No need for roads then! Our cars were just crucified by these conditions. How our own car survived, goodness knows. We got up at dawn from our tents, started doing repair work to just about every nut/bolt/screw that had been shaken loose, then drove all day, with aid of GPS to find our camp site, usually in the dark, buy our fuel, get some food down, and climb into sleeping bag, for a few hours kip, till next day. The scenery in Mongolia is incredible. Harsh, wild, almost lunar at times. The people in the towns were very curious but lacked the charm of the folk in the country. Always delighted to have their photo taken etc.

Abiding memories?
- The incredible reception we have had from locals all along the way. People waving, clapping, and we must have had camera phones clicking at us just everywhere. Policeman using their camera phones. Posing beside our car etc. Soldiers similarly. Hysterical.
- The dust which just got everywhere in the car, and meant everything just got filthy. The brave ones who drove in open cars were a sight to behold at the end of each day.
- Lastly, the contrast between Mongolia and Russia. The place where we crossed the border has only been open since 2004. It is in a remote mountain village where the locals are Khazakh (Khazakhstan is only 100 miles away). It is very primitive, and very dusty. No vegetation. After exiting Mongolia, you drive through ? 5 miles of no-man's-land to the Russian border. Then within 30 mins drive you see the other side of the Altai mountains, which are just idyllic. Picture-postcard, Switzerland-type beauty. TARMAC roads, which I just cannot tell you how much we appreciated.

The cameraderie of the participants is inspiring. Everyone is willing to help. Which makes the tragedy of losing those people who have had to fly home, all the more poignant. We miss them.

So, now back in mobile phone/email contact, we have Russia to cross over the next 10 days. Been working on the car all day today, as we have ? 600 kms to drive tomorrow. She is slow, and is only working on 7 of her 8 cylinders/ Clutch is going. Radiator had a hole. But she's going, so no complaints.

Tim will do a note before we leave. In short, an amazing experience. Loving it.

The Gobi desert

I think we both vaguely remembered something about the Gobi desert from schoolboy geography lessons, but knew not much more than it was somewhere in Asia. On Wed/Thurs we crossed it in Priscilla, and had one of the most memorable drives of our lives. Bizarrely if you look at one of the fold-up maps of the world, and look at Monglia, it quite clearly shows a main road going from Ulan Bataar (the capital) to the Chinese border. The reality is that the road stops halfway, at an old Russian airbase. No more tarmac after that. In fact very few tracks as the wind blows the sand over any tracks pretty quickly, as we found out. In short, we bumped and slid, mostly with no sight of ANYTHING, except sand, the odd camel, and very occasional yurt. We then had the surreal experience of seeing a huge sandstorm descending on us. Scary, as we could barely see beyond the end of the bonnet. Always nervous that the car might die on us. We took it in turns to navigate/drive, but the GPS came up trumps in giving us co-ordinates to head for at regular intervals. Seeing the marshal's flag and car in the swirl of the storm was a magical moment that I shall never regret. The, we eventually found the campsite, and at 11 pm had to pitch our tent. For that, read we had to take them out of their wrappers and read the instructions about to assemble the ruddy things. Ugh, the laughs and frustrations..... Anyhow, we crept into our little one-man tents, and slept like babes, till at 6 am I heard yet more sand beating on my tent. Sand? No, that sounds like rain. Rain in the desert?! Sure was. Incredible, but mercifully it lasted an hour then sunshine returned. Lots of tweaking under the bonnet, adjusting things that were summarised in my "Auto Repair for Dummies" book. Then off again, for an incredible second day, this time across much smoother sand. Magical as you just drive wherever you point the car. No tracks to foll0w. Great driving

We arrived in Ulan Battar at 7pm last night, and spent all day, reapiring damage, servicing things etc. We discovered that the shock absorbers had taken so much grief, that they had burst right through the bodywork. Not reapirable in the time, so the next 30 days will be a bit bumpy. No prob, as many cars have much worse probs. 4 cars (of the 130) already have retired. Lots and lots of stressful people today, worried that their car may not make it. One of the two ambulances following the journey rolled over yesterday. Total loss, and we were one of the first on the scene after it happened. The 2 inside were shaken but not injured.

We have a big send off by the Mongolian Govt in the main square tmrw morning then head west into deepest Mongolia, and head for the border with Russia, which has only been open since 2004. It's very near the Kazakh border too, so it apparenly very Muslim etc. Next blog prob from Russia mid next week. In short, still loving it, but still more challenging than either of us had ever experienced. Astounded that we are building our mechanical knowledge so quickly, and out of necessity. Tremendoous cameraderie amongst the competitors, and the support teams are just heros.

Twists and turns

Cor blimey this malarky can be testing...having been lulled into a false sense of security by an easy and trouble free 1st day, we had the kitchen sink thrown at us yesterday. Having broken down as we arrived for lunch meeting, we spent 5 hours on dusty twisting tracks taking us across dried river beds etc (aprox 6 stops to fix something) then had 180 km on tarmac, the last 90 of which were done at 20mph and stopping every 5 mins. As it got dark we had the toss up of having enough power for the lights or the engine. The lights eventually had to win and it was touch and go all the way. N did a fantastic job driving, and coaxed us along in gear for 400 yards, then coasting for 200 etc until we had to stop for 2 minutes to let the fuel top up again and on we would go once again.

We arrived completely bushwacked and very late, but what an experience and we've had huge support from all our fellow travellers.

Great day today cruising on tarmac and car running beautifully (removed filthy fule filter from the main tank - or at least our new BF's, the support crew did), listening to N's ipod, so couldn't have been more of a contrast. Tomorrow the real fun (?) begins and we will be out of touch in the wilds of Mongolia on nothing but bumpy tracks. An incredible experience already, we're with a fantastic bunch of people, and fingers firmly crossed for the next leg.

more like the real China...

Bizarre scene as the circus of 130 cars hits town, the locals are aghast with the sight of it all. Some of the drivers ham it up with fancy dress, and period dress to match their motors. But there is universal smiling from them all as we pass. (Probably just giggling that we "foreign devils" can only afford funny old bangers, when they drive swish new ones.) But the locals are all out wavingat us at every street corner. Even the police smile and wave. Great atmosphere everywhere. The sights are incredible...as we are right off the beaten track. Yesterday for instance, we had to do a last minute diversion through coal towns (pollution, my goodness), and tiny farming communities. Poverty? sure. But very peaceful atmosphere looking after their crops, animals. I have a very different picture of China, and the Chinese from this trip. All positive. My good ness though, we should all start learning Mandarin, these guys are moving fast.
And now to Priscilla, as we have named the car. Priscilla was not good to us yesterday. Not good at all. My goodness we had a challenging day as we drove from Datong to a yurt encampment in Inner Mongolia. We must have stopped 30 times. BUT...Tim and I have advanced our knowledege of mechanics 100-fold. We changed fuel filters, adjusted alternators, and numerous other tasks. Had to. Result was that we limped home at 11.30 last night, that's about 6 hours after most. But one lot got back at 3.30am. Not fun driving in remote China, when you feel the car is going to die at any minute. But we made it. We slept in a yurt, and woke up to a surreal scene of being waved off by Mongolians, for our drive to Erenhot which is our last town in China before we cross the border into Mongolia tomorrow. The good news is that Priscilla went like a dream today (Tim will explan more about today). I attach a pic which show the scene. Now time for email backlog.

2 tips

There are two tips we are now in the fortunate position of being able to pass on to any would-be rallyers. 1, try and have a car that doesn't need to be worked on until 7.30 pm the night before the start - it's just not a particularly good way of relaxing, and 2, try and avoid being too keen to buy the guys that have helped you out a beer later that evening, leading to a bottle of whisky being demolished and a 2.30 bed time, when you have to be up at 6.00am.

What a fantastic day we've had today though. Just incredible with a big send off at the Great wall and then a wonderful drive with endless cheering and waving crowds along all the roads.
Went to see the Hanging Monastry which is built on stilts into a rock face, and had a great drive all day. We've even managed to map read so far.. A long and dusty day, but staying in a nice hotel in Datong and have covered about 420 Kilometres. An early night seems to be beckoning.

frustratingcity

ok so there are 130 cars here, all set for this epic tour across the wild of china, mongolia, russia and the Baltic States, and there;s only one car that that doeesn't seem to work....and it's ours.

So in 36 degrees of heat all day, we've had more opinions that you can dream of, give us their views on how to fix our car. Vapourisation of fuel, timing of sparkplugs, quality of fuel, Bermuda triangle, Falon Gong, you name it, we have have had it. Every single theory has been thrown at us, so eventually with more of the rally crew round the car, than is feasibly poss to assemble under one bonnet, finally at 1930 we had a Eureka experience, and the car seems to work. Wirth 2 trips round the car park, we feel up'n'running. Both of us now have grey hair. We leave for the Great Wall (the start line) at 6 am. Aaaargh.

I have attached some pics of some of the cars on the rally. Amazing cars. But the car with all the red shirts peering into our bonnet......is ours.

Well, the first 10 minutes were great....

And then we broke down! Absolutely fantastic and horribly familiar. A very kind fellow Ford Pilot driver mucked about with our distributor and we managed to limp from the car pound back to the hotel where a hoard of mechanics spent much of the afternoon playing with the engine and removing the side panels surrounding the engine to help cool it - it now looks like an extremely slow drag car.

Apart from our poor showing, the drive was pretty special, with the roads of Peking covered with an incredible selection of classic cars and masses of looks and waves and cameras marking our progress into the city. There are some truly amazing cars here with quite a few suitably eccentric looking drivers - the leather flying helmet and goggles sort. It's unlikely to be a dull trip, and everyone we have met has been extremely friendly and helpful. Just as well, as we need all the help we can get... The rally starts on Sunday and so we have one more go testing our beast tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Butterflies in stomach....

The short holiday here in China is drawing to a close. We leave Xian to head back to Beijing this morning, having been to see the Terracotta Warriors here. Quite incredible. Kate and Harry go back tomorrow, after what has been an incredible holiday for us all. China is mind-boggling in so many ways, we've just loved it.
Reality about the journey ahead is now biting.
The rally starts on Sunday, when we leave from the start line at the Great Wall. Lots to do before then, however. Today we have to collect loads of official papers from the Chinese authorities (permits, driving licences etc). Tomorrow all the participants collect their cars from the warehouse near the port. First time that we get to see 130+ cars, and the dreaded moment when we press the starter button. Will it fire?! Then on Saturday, we have the formal scrutineering of the cars, and all of the briefings. Lots of chat about car mechanical matters, no doubt, which will leave Tim and I rather silent. Then a hurried recap on how the trip meter works, what do these navigation signs mean, where is the charger for the satellite phone, should we buy some more pot noodles and on and on.

We should be so lucky...

Hard to believe we've got lucky already - here are a couple of chicks we've picked up. They seem to like us, and we haven't the heart to tell them we are leaving on Sunday. ....

Pre-match thoughts from home

First of all, let me make one thing absolutely clear - this was all Barton's idea. When we are broken down and lost and tired and hungry somewhere in the middle of the Gobi desert it will all be entirely his fault. The triumphs, such as finding our way out of Beijing, (I think it best we take our triumphs one step at a time) will almost certainly be down to my remarkable map-reading skills and mastery of the Chinese language.

I see that the Pekingparis website describes this as 'Driving the impossible'. That's pretty much how I would describe driving into Andover - and I've lived 8 miles from it for the past 5 years... So, no mechanical or navigation ability, and a car that has so far failed to negotiate more than 70 miles without breaking down; this has all the makings of an interesting journey.

"Before" pictures

A couple more pics to show our beauty in her gleaming state before she embarked on her ship to China. The photo of the engine bay is particularly for Tim's benefit, to remind him of the HOURS that he spent under that bonnet, in order to get it into the state that it's in. A born-mechanic. (The truth is that I still think he reckons the engine is in the boot). We all head to Beijing this week, and have a few days r'n'r with wives, then go-time. Gulp.

First blog

Your first sneak preview of the beauty we are taking on this adventure. To get a real picture of the event, best you look at www.pekingparis.com