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.