This post intentionally left blank

Good morning and evening, followers of Clive and Ces.

This is Peter here, Clive´s ghost post writer in Switzerland.    Today was a double whammy.   Clive texted me to say that he and Ces were very well, but much too shattered to write a blog this evening (ie. Sat 11-Sep-2010).   He said that he´d write one while waiting (for hours and hours) at the Mongolian border.   I said "No sweat, I´ll create a placeholder".

Little did I know that my drive from Stelvio (for the annual Lotus gathering) to the Dolomites would leave me with an internet-free evening.   So apologies to those of you who couldn´t face a weekend without knowing the gory details of Clive´s P2P progress.

In consolation, Clive and Ces should be in Mongolia this evening.   With an emerging democracy, Mongolia will have no qualms about internet access.   But with an emerging infrastructure (especially in Clive and Ces´ yuert tent), access to the internet might be little more than aspirational.

Just as the teams in the P2P have to be resourceful (like the Australians who made one big-end shim from a Sprite can and another using the wafer thin aluminium from a cigarette packet), we ghost-post-writers also have to be resourceful.    So with the benefit the landlady´s laptop, but without any carrier pidgeon from Clive, I resorted to reading the official site´s daily reports.   In it, I discovered that Clive and Ces had a failed coil today in Mongolia, that their spare coil was a dud, but that the mobile support unit was able to get them going again.

More excitingly, I discovered that their yuert tent is within metres of a stop on the Trans-Siberian railway.   So next year, when Karen and I are scheduled to do the Trans-Sib, we´ll keep an eye out for discarded 1938 Chevy bits and pieces.

For those of you who like spinning your globes or opening your Times Altas across the dining table, I leave you with a map of their course on Day 1 (Beijing to the start at The Great Wall and then onto Daihai ... this was the day when timings were cancelled) and Day 2 (Daihai to Erenhot, both in China, for which we do not have the gory details).

Day 3 (Sunday 12th) runs from Erenhot China to Sainshand in Mongolia ... see map below.

Fingers crossed for an offical report from the front line tomorrow ..... ciao for now ... cos I gotta give the laptop back to the accommodating landlady.

Peter (on behalf of Clive and Ces)

The Great Wall .....

After a 5am wake-up call, we loaded the car and went for breakfast.   In rallying, breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day, because it's from the breakfast buffet selection that you make your DIY lunch doggy bag!   We arrived for breakfast at 6.30am and from what was left, we realised that we were getting rusty .... we ended up with 2 dry baguettes for our mobile lunch.

Finally, after months of planning, car building and form filling we eventually arrived at the start line ... which was alongside The Great Wall of China ... as you can see from the piccies below.

The traffic on the way to the start had been horrendous and this caused the start to be delayed by an hour and, worse still, all the timings for the day had to be cancelled.   So the day became a transit leg to tonight's hotel in Daihai, China.

After an hour or so, the traffic started to thin out and the never-ending stream of lorries began to disappear, meaning that we could at last open the taps on Fugly and see how 6 weeks at sea had effected him.   I am pleased to report that, even on 93 octane fuel, he didn't miss a beat and pulled strongly.   But he did get through an alarming amount of the aforementioned fuel!

Way in the back of my mind, it re-ignited the concern that we may not have the correct fuel tanks for this job.   In any event, it's too late to make any changes now.    As I mentioned in an earlier post, we'll find out the correct answer soon enough.

While on mechanical topics, I've noticed a minor oil leak from the gearbox spline that connects to the propshaft but at this moment in time it's really not a worry.    All-in-all the car's running very well and feels very strong.

When we arrived at the hotel, Ces started working through her daily maintenance sheet and then asked a somewhat tricky question.  

"If the jack is pumped up all the way ... and it still can't lift the car ... does that matter?"   

To say that I became anxious would be an understatement ... until I realised how tired we both were ... and that we simply needed to move the jack nearer to the rear suspension hangers ... and Fugly rose off the ground.    Breathe in, breathe out, relax!   Not the easiest thing to do when it's still 28 degrees!

Tomorrow, we head to another city in China ... called Erenhot ... still enroute to Mongolia.

Total distance today was 398 kms and tomorrow will be 509 kms.   The distances are growing all the time.    I already feel quite tired and it's only day one!  
(take courage Clive, day 1 is always tough ... adrenalin, excitement, etc ... you'll get trail-hardened shortly, and then you'll be loving it ... shame that Clive can't see my words of encouragement cos he's still in internet-constrained China ... Peter)

Later people.

CD & Ces

Kick his balls. No! the ones on the lawn!

Last night we all gathered for cocktails on the hotel lawn, which reminded me of an old Jasper Carrot joke that involves an over-amourous dog, a policeman's leg and a tennis ball, but that's another story...

Anyway back to events in Beijing....

Today (Thursday) we prepared the car for scrutineering and I also spanner-checked every bolt and gave every jubilee clip another turn after yesterday's 'incident' at the warehouse collection point.  The car seems tight and ready.  My biggest concern is whether or not we have big enough fuel tanks.  We're running with 120 litres of fuel and this seems to be as close to the limit as you want to be with a thirsty 4.0 litre engine.   I guess that only time and the Gobi desert will tell.

The car park at the hotel has been competely taken over by the rally and was a hive of activity throughout the day.

Even Ces has now finally agreed that we're ready and her fiddling and fretting has stopped.

We sat through a 2 hour briefing this afternoon which was vitally important but confirmed that my jet-lag has now finally passed!   We covered breakdowns, borders, policemen and accidents.   I hope we meet and need none of the above.

The car is now fully loaded with water, food, GPS navigation systems, satellite telephone, iPod, clothes, tools and spares.   

All it needs now is us!

We're required to be at The Great Wall by 7.30am tomorrow ... ready for our 8.34am start.    Despite the gala dinner tonight, it will be early-to-bed and (I hope) another solid night's sleep.

I wonder if any of you would like to make a prediction ....about the content of any of tomorrow's uploaded pics?

To finish first, first you have to finish!  

(hmmm ... given the comment about a night's sleep and the contents of the photos, this expression should be amended to ... "to finish first, first you have to finish,, and to do that, you have to start!" ... Peter)
CD & Ces

UPDATE: bicycles up to 10 million ... and blog posts up to 2

Well blog fans, here's another brief update for Wednesday 8th September.


After a short introduction and briefing given by the Chief of Beijing Traffic Police, we were duly given our Chinese driving licences and local car registration plates.  I particularly liked the fact that we were properly saluted ... twice ... by a Senior Office.

We were then transported by coach to collect our cars from a warehouse facility near the airport.

As you can see the warehouse was jam-packed with all our cars and some 40 minutes after arriving I was able to pull forward and out of the fume-filled hangar.

As I did so I could see from the looks on the locals' faces that something was wrong with Fugly ...

I can only assume that during transit the bottom radiator hose had worked loose because, as I queued to exit the warehouse, Fugly promptly dumped the entire contents of his radiator.  After an initial surge of panic and scanning the block for a crack, I saw the bottom hose hanging off.   I re-attached the hose, scrounged a huge amount of water and we were away into the Chinese traffic ... hoping that all would now be well.

We're now back at the hotel.   Along the way, we were waved at by most of the population of Beijing.   These are the most welcoming and friendly people that I have ever encountered on an Endurance rally .... Let's hope this spririt of friendship continues throughout the entire route!

We are now off to a cocktail party with free drinks, which is good because my initial calculation of 65 pence per pint turned out to be £6.50. (Bloody Nora!! ... Peter)   My British army t-shirt and quick-dry trousers are a sight to behold!

Tomorrow is scrutineering and then final prep before the rally proper starts on Friday.    My hope is that we have already suffered our quota of mechanical mishaps for the entire trip!

CD & Ces

There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing.......

Once again I was wide awake this morning at 4am local time before eventually going back to sleep at 7am, to then find my 9am start an almost impossible feat.   Ces has made the transition fairly smoothly and has managed to snore her way through the whole night.

I feel I should point out that due to some Internet issues, I cannot access my blogsite directly from Beijing (what a surprise!), so instead my text is emailed to a friend in Switzerland who is posting the comments on my behalf.   So a big thank you to Peter Horan.   Consequently I get to make comments about Ces' snoring now and then and by the time she gets to read them, I can blame Peter for inserting some additional unapproved text!  (Clive doesn't realise that censorship by an Irisman, albeit living in rule-bound Switzerland, is far more unpredictable than censorship by Chinese Internet police ... Peter)

Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, we booked a car and guide from the hotel and visited Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City ... everything we needed to know was explained by our local guide 'Alice'.

Tian'anmen Square is an impressive area in the centre of Beijing used for parades, government days, etc and it appears to have mass coach tours. The numbers of tourists, mostly Chinese, are closely matched by the security present to ensure our safety. We asked Alice who all the plain clothed people alongside the soldiers were, but she said she didn't know ... she'd asked them on previous visits and they wouldn't tell her.

2 scary characters

2 other scary characters

The Forbidden City was significantly rebuilt/restored prior to the 2008 Olympics and is a very impressive range of buildings spread over an enormous area, which is 'amazing' as Alice repeatedly exclaimed.  There is an 'amazing' collection of historic articles on display from the time of the last emporer and at times it really did feel like a filmset.  As special guests we were taken to a quiet area, which by coincidence led into an art-gallery where we met the last decendant of the last emporer, who for a fee could write our name in local calligraphy.  It was such a shame that Ces and I had limited space in our car and had to decline, because my love for craft is well known ..... .

taking tea in the garden

After the walking tour of 3 hours, we returned to the comfort of our air-conditioned hotel car and started our journey back to Shangri-La (the hotel, not the heavenly place of old).   On the way Alice asked if we'd like to take part in a very special tea tasting.   I had a special drink on my mind alright but it wasn't tea.   Anyway Ces said we'd love to and a few moments later we were slurping tea like professionals. I did have a WAV sound file of this but to protect you the reader/listener I've decided not to upload it.   We purchased some Black Dragon tea (I found room in the car) and this should keep us going over the next 6 weeks.

Now that we were all getting on like a house on fire, Alice dropped some devasting news on me.

"You know English singer with song about 9 million bicycles in Beijing?" she asked.
"Yes" I replied "Katie Melua"
"She's wrong, there are 10 million", Alice exclaimed, and added "also Beijing is registering 2000 news cars on the road each week and sometimes it peaks at 18,000 new cars each quarter"
I made all the right noises but actually was wondering how the hell Katie is going to update her lyrics?

Today (Wednesday) we're about to go and collect the car and I am going to start writing my blogs in the evenings here, so there may be another update later depending on how many issues we have with Fugly.

Seeing you soon.


Xie Xie

CD


PS by Swiss-Irish Hacker (oops, I meant Bureau Chief): 
Now that everybody is in a relaxed tea-drinking mood, those of you outside China can sit back and listen to the original 9 million bicycles by Katie Melua .... Clive won't get to enjoy this until he's in Mongolia ...

I wonder if my clubcard will work?

(if you're reading this in the comfort of your own country, our stealth carrier pidgeon has successfully reached the 38ChevyP2P communications nerve centre in central Europe)

Well we're here!   According to my wristwatch the time is 10:50am.   According to my body-clock, however, it's 3:50am.   After a fairly broken night's sleep, we've woken to the news that there is a tropical storm building to the East of us and should be arriving in Beijing tomorrow (Wednesday).

The storm is not such an issue.  The real issue is that the heavy rains that accompany it are tracking due West and ... you guessed it ... after passing through Beijing will cross into Mongolia and onto the very plains where the P2P is scheduled to go.   If that happens, the normally hard dry surface will turn into something approaching The Somme (for you youngsters who are wondering what the Somme is, check your history books circa 1916).    Rather than have to call out the CAA tow-truck ...

... all vehicular traffic grinds to a halt and waits for the surface to bake hard again.   The good news is that Tiger beer is the equivalent of 65 pence per pint, so every potential rain cloud has a silver lining.

Today (Tuesday) we're simply kicking our heels and trying to adjust to the time zone before we collect Fugly the Chevy tomorrow.   Then we'll see how well, or otherwise, the anti-condensation system that we installed has worked.  If it's done its job, Fugly's interior should look just like it did when it left the UK.   If it's not lived up to its promise, we'll have a morning removing mould from the leather and cloth surfaces!

The flight to Beijing was uneventful and I can now cross "must travel first class" off from my list.  I knew it was going to be better than Business Class when I requested a glass of champagne and the response was "white or rosé, sir?".... although I might have revealed my non-aristocratic origins by having one of each!   The much-talked-about flat-bed was surprisingly comfortable, but folded-flat-seat would be a more accurate description.

When we arrived in Beijing, we were greeted at the aircraft door by the airport butler, whose job was to take us through the customs procedures and to our hotel car.  I should explain that I'd pre-booked transport from the airport to remove some of the stress ... but I hadn't expected the enormous stretched black Mercedes, complete with blacked-out windows!    (Hmmm ... note to self ... check the provenance of that Mercedes ... perhaps it was a stretched Toyota with plastic surgery ... this is China after all) .   Once wafted away from the airport, it was a 40 minute drive to the hotel, where we were taken directly to our room by the Duty Manager.  She was there to meet the VIPs and apparently we were the VIPs! .... All I can say is that £80 gets you quite a taxi ride here in Beijing!!

Our hotel is very smart and I suspect that it's all downhill from here until we finally make Paris (fingers crossed).   For dinner I selected the Wagyu beef  (Click here to read about Wagyu Beef)  and all the stories of Chinese meats being questionable dissappeared.    This is my kind of roughing it!

Well that's it for now.   We're off to see the Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square and the local Tesco's for some bottled water and provisions for the rally.   I wonder if my clubcard will work!

CD

Nervous, who, me?

Hi All

Well today's the day that the final preparations are underway.

I know we're getting near because my 40th birthday present Rolex has been swapped for a very cheap looking plastic G-shock watch and my wife has told me to take off my wedding ring! Apparently a trapped wedding ring or similar is a sure way to lose a finger whilst diving in to fix a roadside mechanical breakdown and the medical crews only have a hacksaw to take it off... the ring I am told, not the finger!

My wallet has been emptied of all but the essential items and so instead of the usual collection of credit cards, hotel cards, business cards and all the other associated crap of being a businessman, I am left with 2 x credit cards, a driving licence and some cash. I know it's serious when my Tesco clubcard has been removed...

The flight tomorrow leaves Heathrow for Beijing (Peking) at 4.30pm but Ces is keen to arrive as early as possible for the flight, as we have elected to travel First Class with BA and as she says "I want to get value for money".... I anticipate a hole in their champagne stocks!

On Tuesday of this week in anticipation of a 1000kms Endurance Race at Brands Hatch in November, I entered a practice session with my son (Chris) and my friend Adam Bewsey.
My company http://www.intellekt.com/ part-sponsors Adam to race in the Elise Trophy http://www.elisetrophy.com/ and over his first season he's had some mixed results. Having been lucky enough to perform well in a few classic rally events and some sports car events (http://www.guildofmotorendurance.com/) I have collected quite a bit of silverware and have been teasing Adam about his dry spell.
Rather foolishly, I said to him "How hard can it be, turn up, key-in, drive around in a circle a bit and win"
His response was to suggest that if it was that easy, I should enter to 1000kms Endurance Race with him as his team mate....

So one ARDS test later (Racing Licence) here I was in a racing Lotus Elise S1 on the Indy circuit at Brands... It was at this point I thought, god I hope I don't crash and injure myself before the Peking-to-Paris! Forward planning has never been my strong point....

Anyway my first lap time was 1:02 and Adam responded with 57 seconds. So throwing caution to the wind, I thought I'd push myself a "little" harder and reduced my time to 58.9 seconds... The thing I noticed as I climbed out the car was that Adam hadn't looked at all flustered when he set his 57 seconds, whereas I was shaking some much I couldn't undo my crash helmet! Incidentally, my son on his first outing in the car set a time of 58.1 seconds. I put this down to the fact that he was running a lighter fuel load.... ;-)

How hard can it be...... well we'll see!

Nervous now!

Speak soon

CD