The 2007 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

Hi every Body , we now have two more cars that wish to join our fund raising efforts...Cars number 54  a (1928 - Bentley 4.5 Le Mans) driven by (Robert and Sue Abery) . And also car number 61 a (1929 - Bentley 4.5 Le Man) driven by (Gordon and Mark Phillips), Pictures of theses cars can be found on new fund raisers as soon as we get them. If anyone would like to support out fund raising then please see donations page where there is a printable form for you to donate with .Any problems on site please use email on left to contact phil.

Day One Email, from Andrew. Im too tired to write any much exept to say the chinese roads so far have thausands of HGV s all smoke like hell,, the roads were fairly good today and you have to watch because they just dig the road up and put a few stones around No bollards Temp is extreemly hot mid 30,s views are fantastic

Day Two Email, from Andrew. Sorry not many words tonight exept to say its been a very hard day on the car as we have done over 100km on roads that are full of holes and Just dirt tracks very bumpy..We didnt know where we were heading for 60km but thank god for GPS the whole rally was redirected by police.(LOL)

Day Three Email, from Andrew. Siiziwangqi to Erenhot Inner Mongolia China

Never seen anything like it on the planet open countryside for as far as you can see Known as the grasslands of inner Mongolia its basically slightly hilly desert land that grows tufts of grass mainly in the spring the road side is greener because of run off from the rain. We stopped for lunch at a traditional hot pot best food for 2 days, we filled up last night, this morning’s breakfast was pretty awfull anyway we raided your cake Anne and it saved our lives.The camp site last ight was very nice we had a Mongolian evenings entertainment with dancers and singers outside and it was bloody cold.Today’s Run has been relatively easy duel carriageway all the way not like yesterdays terrible roads we understand that Mongolia does not get any worse than that I hope!!We have seen thousands of sheep and goats in the grasslands today

Day Four Email from Andrew.Hi All Day 4 has been a very hard day we came over the border from inner to outer Mongolia and with all the cars it took 3 hours to clear both the Chinese and the Mongolian border .All the day was then delayed by 1 hour.  We got slightly off route because we did the fatal thing of following other cars, but I realized we were getting further away from our weigh point anyway it lost us about 20 minutes.  The rest of the days gps weigh points I got spot on which was a real encouragement.The landscape is unbelievable, we came across wild packs of horses and some camels Very few nomads living in the 260 km we have travelled, but there are some out there, god knows what they live off.The sand is penetrating; putting on sun lotion was like wiping your face with grinding paste.  We are black with sand and my camera has also been impregnated with sand.Car has taken one hell of a pounding today but it’s held together which is incredible.To sum it up its equivalent to at least ½ dozen Le jogs in one day I just hope it will stay together for the duration.Tonight we are in a camp site in Saynshand.There is a Nomad travel organization who have set up camp to feed us and they have set up loos, showers and have prepared food for us, but we have had a massive sand storm and it blew ½ their tents down but fair dos they have fed us all. We managed to put our tents up in the storm and now I’m writing this from the tent.  I haven’t slept in one since I was about 9 and I can feel the air is getting very cold may be we will wake up with snow.  The Doctor has tipped his support vehicle over in the dunes today but he and his wife are fine Lots of cars stuck in sand today its like driving in deep snow That’s all for now its midnight and I need some sleep - early start tomorrow

 Andrew       

Day Five/six Email, from Andrew. Hi all,In UlaanBataar, we made it through the Gobi desert - what a place I wouldn’t have missed the experience for anything and any one wanting to experience it- I would recommend the train, we basically followed the railway, or were within a few miles of it, from the border in China to UB. The last 150 miles are magnificent views of the mountain ranges around Ulaan Bataar, a lot of it is a Nature reserve and the nearer we got to UB it got a bit greener. They breed a lot of horses or they are wild ones but the nomads ride on horseback and round them up.  I saw it yesterday but I don’t think I got the photo. There are flocks of sheep and a lot of goats, small ones look like sheep but have pointed horns and a beard. In the Gobi its dry, very dusty any nooks or cranny’s gets full of dust. Let Chris Compton know I’ve looked in the little door in the air filter and its still clean at that end - amazingly.The roads are just tracks and there are very sharp rocky bits and all the tracks are corrugated and then there is this deep sandy areas which are fun to drive through but scary in case you get bogged down, some of the younger cars with low clearance had trouble in the sand, is like driving through deep snow.Today we have had the day off and there are a lot of cars doing repairs in UB basically they have been shook to bits.Touch wood (lots of it) we have just had minor problems with the ignition switch petrol pump fitting shaken loose and both the banjos on the carbs shook loose but that was yesterday. And the windscreen wiper motor we have had problem with. Yes it does rain in the desert and the dust and water don’t mix very well. We have done a full PDI this morning and things don’t look too bad but there is lots more to do in Mongolia we haven’t quite done 1/3^rd.

Day seven  Email, from Andrew. Day 7... Thousands were in the center,, all around the cars so a somewhat chaotic early morning start from the centre of Ulaan Bataar, out of town, the rally really got going… good tarmac rippled across  grassy plains, only the odd horseman for company,we have now  travelled from Ulaan Bataar to Khakorin which is 375 km on the map. We have had a good day, kept to time. Some of the roads were horrendous but the others fair but rough. We did a test on 30 km of dust and drove through two sand storms, so we are really dirty and dusty.  Long plains stretching for miles with the mountains in the distance.  We are about 1600 metres up. The views are beautiful. Tonight we are staying in a yurt which will be interesting, and one of many firsts I’m encountering on this trip.  It is cold today, it has tried to sleet and snow and I’m hoping the yurt will be warm as I’m freezing.

Day Eight Taken from offical website It’s been particularly tough on those without good ground clearance like most of the Viintageants. We have charged up and down rolling hills that steadily became more and more challenging as the day unfolded, and the roughness of the tracks, the residue of a harsh winter, has caught us all by surprise, given we all hoped the worst was behind us. The American cars of the 1930s, designed for crossing Praries, have romped it – everyone else has struggled.

Today has seen quite a few cars suffer suspension and chassis problems as a result and we are all feeling rather weary – putting up our tents beside the river is not as simple as it sounds as the wind is steadily rising. It doesn’t take much of a breeze to make tent-erecting an experience that ads to the frustrations, and as the sun goes down the wind is threatening to only gather force.

Today may have been hard work but the scenery has been absolutely stunning – Yaks and horses grazing across the abundance of dirt tracks, snow on the line of high mountains to the south, bright blue skies, and endless, endless dirt roads that sweep and turn, running all day, with patches of muddy slime now and then as a reminder that the sunshine of early summer has only just arrived in these parts.

Day Nine Taken from offical website. Day Nine - 4th June

Dawn breaks on a Biblical scene. Those exiled to roam the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights awake in their village of conical shaped tents just as the sun forces its way up past the tops of the rim of dark hills that circle this vast grassy Mongolian plain where we have spent a freezing night. By 5.0am the colours of the hills changes in the orange sky to a dark purple, and then a rich brown.
The whirr of the generator of the large marquee cookhouse has been running for the past hour, and the geese in the nearby river are now getting so excited their dawn chorus is enough to stir everyone from their sleeping bags. The reason for the geese to get so noisy so early is now apparent. A large grey wolf comes trotting down the river bank on the far side of the water, looking across at the strange site of the rally camp which has invaded its territory. The noise of the geese, the generator, and strong smell of bacon in the breeze, if you were a wolf you too would be full of curiosity. The site of rally-drivers popping their heads out of the tents though is enough for the Old Grey Wolf to change direction for his morning jog and he veers off across the plain.
Today is another 400 kms, and the road surface is a little kinder, for once, but it’s still all dirt. We climb up through a long row of hills and begin the first Time Trial of the day, which twists and turns through the hills.

Day Ten - 5th June Taken from official website
Another 430 kilometers and we close more pages of the Route Notes Book as we inch our way to the Russian border. It’s been another incredibly tough, rough day of relentless pounding over rocky and corrugated gravel tracks as we head westward with the sun our backs this morning. Today’s objective has been to cross a vast plain, the High Chaparral of Mongolia.

Day Eleven - 6th June Taken from official website
Today has been a terrific adventure for all, with numerous river crossings. Some get it right, jog across at walking pace and minimum bow-wave, and others plunge in with white-water up to the windscreen and everyone has been loving it. The final run down to the camp – this is our last night in our tents and sleeping bags. Eating together from the 20-strong team of chefs of our mobile chuck-wagons with vegetable soup and pasta has been a grand finale. As Daniel Ward, driver of the Veteran Talbot summed up at the end of it all: “This has been the finest day’s drive of my life.” The views of the long dusty road that snaked downwards across a vast grassy plain towards our camp was breathtaking and a complete surprise as we suddenly crested the final hillclimb – magnificent doesn’t sum it properly. Gerry Acher, who raised over a quarter of a million pounds for cancer charities as a result of his drive on the 1997 Peking to Paris, says today makes all the punishment of the last week worthwhile, “unforgettable, stunningly beautiful and to see all this through the windscreen of a classic car is something we will never ever forget.”.

Days 12 & 13 - 7th-8th June Taken from official website

We pulled off a mass-escape from Mongolia yesterday – sorry there was no report from the front-line yesterday, but communications have been fraught at the best of times.
The border crossings have been a major worry, as the tiny out-post on the top left hand corner of the map of Mongolia was only recently opened up for overland travellers, and coping with numbers any greater than half a dozen a day is something officialdom rarely experiences…. we rolled up with the biggest single party they have ever encountered. (our picture shows the early morning border queue)
Border guards saluted, but snapping to attention was simply never going to happen…the red and white pole is not lifted before 9.0am, then there is a gate, then a bit of no-man’s land, each stage requiring bits of paper (the first stage is paying out your last payment in Mongolia Tog’s), before reaching Russia. Be quick about it and keep gently pushing forwards is our advice, as the officials take a one-and-a-half hour lunch break, and if you are in no-mans land, you are sent back to the first square of the game. This happened! So, quite a few failed to get through before mid-afternoon – a long day. However, Russian officials truly impressed, and once the system was rolling with the advance information of giant spread sheets which the Rally Office had produced in advance with all lines of information like date of birth, chassis numbers, passport numbers clearly set out, the Russian could really switched things on. Even national TV came along to film the whole process, and this was a model of slick efficiency.
 

Received Today Saturday 9th of June From Andrew

Amazingly we are still in the rally we are running in 10^th just retaining the gold by 3 minutes in Mongolia at Khvod because of gearbox trouble we thought to start with one of the synchromesh gears or a bearing was collapsing but 200Km later we heard a serious noise from the gearbox and I thought that was the end of the rally for us we had a choice of going on to the camp where one of the support crews would have been there to help or turn back to a town we had just driven through and I persuaded Roy that was the best approach the clutch was slipping and the starter motor was jamming. In the town we drove up the main street and asked every person if the could speak English about the 20^th person a young girl spoke good English and she got in my seat and directed us to a repair shop Photo of whole family enclosed.The garage had a pit in a building just dug into the soil and the wheels of the car were on the edge on both sides (Scary) . We found the rear bolts had fell out of the gearbox and this was the single cause of all the problems and by pure luck Tom Stealey  gave me some long 7/16 BSF bolts and I packed 3 of them before the car was shipped these saved our gold medal by the 3 minutes above.So thanks Tom.Mongolia must have the worst roads in the world we have done at least 2600 km of tracks:-sand gravel Boulders sharp stones and all of them are rippled very badly a bit like Grandmothers washing boards. Most of  the cars have had serious problems

Today day 13 rest day !! we have 2 broken springs we have to try and fix, and by luck a lady came and asked us about the car,, during the conversation we asked her if she new of any garages which could help us she said she was only here working and lived in London originated from Moscow her name is Natasha.She said she would ask a taxi driver and within a few minutes we were off in a taxi we went to two garages and the one said they could do it at 9pm so we took the car there and it turned out quite sadly they misunderstood after the spring’s were off they thought we had replacement leaves with us and we thought they would make some for us.So we had to reassemble the car and arrive in the hotel at 2am very tired.Another competitor has the same problem and found a very generous garage owner who has moved the earth for us today his mechanics’ have serviced the two cars and is having new springs made for the car as I’m writing this and he wont take a penny he just throws the money back at you the generosity is unbelievable .I just pray the car is ready with the new springs on tonight.

So a special Thanks goes to Natasha and the Garage owner.

The Austin 16 of John Vincent and Edwin Hammond has now been given a freshen-up with the rear brakes sorted – the petrol tank shield shifted, braking the rear rod-brake system, but being rods and not hydraulic is “simplicity when it comes to replacing a broken rod.” A rear spring was found to be broken and this has also been sorted.

 Day 14 June 10th from Andrew,, I didn’t get time to send this yesterday but here it is now we have driven 650km today day 15 and not taken any photos Just countryside and a long set of  points on car gave us trouble but no problem we have 3 spare sets!  Guess what there the bloody wrong ones. We had our first puncture today at one of the controls they had been burning pallets and quite a lot got punctures from there.We stopped at truckers cafés for time-controls, snacks and coffees, before pushing on for Omsk. Prince Borghese and his rivals came here in 1907, and entering the town you wonder if little has changed, with old shacks and wooden chalets of a distinctive Russian architecture.Hey one more thing,,poor John and Edwin from Minsterley car 99 had a new spring fitted and it wore through the fuel tank so they had a workshop weld it up, It exploded and John has a picture of it in bits i will try and get it,, anyway john stayed up all night whilst they fabricated him another.7am im just leaving Omsk on the way to Tumin. John Edwin here ,I was a bit worried yesterday about them, They left on time this morning so there doing OK..

Day Sixteen - 11th June taken from official site The early-morning start out of Omsk saw all sorts of starting rituals, the bonnet was up on the Austin 16, several needed a push-start, some struggled with starting handles, if you are a Russian TV crew all very bemusing. The Knox crew looked worried, and the car chuffed out of the hotel car park sounding as if its now down to two cylinders. The day has been uneventful…pretty good tarmac, in the main, with the odd bump and pot-hole to make us all nostalgic for Mongolia, and then it rained…we have had dust-storms, hail-storms (for some) yesterday, and steady icy rain this afternoon, and temperatures have dropped to 9-degrees. The official photographer reckons it’s chilly enough to change from shorts to Rohan trousers.Lots of the open crews got a thorough soaking coming into town, the first time its rained since we left Peking. Mike and Josey Thompson in an open Chrysler looked cold and wet, despite being well wrapped up, and the Wilkinson’s in the yellow Rolls have lost half of the enormous hood, broken by the blast of an overtaking truck.