day 5 take 2

no one slept the night before we were due to leave, coupled with jet lag and a 0445 start, this meant we were very tired when we got going.  the 1st bit was to the official start at the Great Wall of China.  this should have taken about 1hour 30 but because the traffic is appalling in beijing, it took more like 2 1/2 hours.  the driving style in china is very much freestyle, no one gives way to anyone else but it is all very friendly.  i have got very good at operating the horn!  eventually we were away at about 1030,  having waved goodbye to jane and caroline collins.  we settled down quite quickly and made good progress eventually getting about 250 km under our belts. 

day 2
today dawned with a more normal 450km scheduled.  as usual, we decided to set off at 1st light.  dominic and I have decided not to try and compete with the rally proper.  the Rolls is too big and although we are able to make good speeds the days are still very long , we feel it is better to get to the destination each day as early as possible.  once again all the driving was on tarmac with occasional diversions off the road onto rough tracks when roadworks dictated.  now things are getting very rural and basic.  lots of similar red brick houses, many of which are abandoned.  suddenley we come over a ridge and discover a huge town on the plain with 1 million people in it.  according to those that did this rally 3 years ago, there was practically nothing there then.  this is a country in a hurry and there is building works everywhere.

we had great fun driving through heavy traffic on 6 lanes having a bit of a ding dong race with the 1907 Itala which was going really well.  in the end i ended up taking to the pavement followed by the japanese film crew so that we could get past him.  no one seemed to mind but it may take a while to revert to normal driving once we get home.  we pulled into Errenhot which is the border town where we cross into mongolia.  this town was not very nice and we were advised not to go out of the hotel in the evening.  some of us discovered to our astonishment that there was a lap dancing club in the hotel!  however before anyone gets too excited, when we got there we had to wake up the bar lady and we were the only 3 people there.  a shame really as i have never seen lap dancing live! 

day 3.  today starts with us driving 3km to the border starting off arounf 0730.  we then sat around for about 3 hours whilst varrious officials worked out how to get 120 cars, some of which had to be towed, over the border. Eventually, at about 1145 we were off.  Mongolia has a completely different feel to it.  the people are much more reserved and it is clearly much poorer than china.  after a short time we were off the tarmac and into the desert.  nothing to be seen as far as the horizon in all directions.  an absolutely stunning experience.  Mongolia has the lowest population density of any country in the world.  the desert roads are just wherever someone befor you has gone before so there are many track heading off into the distance which will hopefully get you to the next checkpoint.  the gps which we all have is invaluable.  the driving conditions are truly awful with the poor old Rolls bottoming out reguarly and getting more are more bumpy.  we eventually.  It took us to about nine hours to make 225km.  our average speed was 27kph. we stopped twice to help other cars with punctures but happily di not have to wrry about this ourselves.   we got to within 4 km of the campsite and then took out 1st wrong turn which was, to put it mildy, rather irritating.  the only good thing was that about 10 other cars did the same thing!  We ended up leading a strange little convoy across the desert in the dark via track and, strangely, quite alot of deep muddy water.  luckily no one got stuck and we pulled in at about 2030 in the dark.  pitch ing our tents in the dark was quite funny but after some food and a couple of beers morale was restored.

day 4.  after a surprisingly good sleep, we struck camp at about 0630. pop-up tents do exactly that but trying to fold them up again is another matter.  the organisers have a brilliant tent city with mess hall, toilets and even showers. so we had a good breakfast and then set off into the desert again.  today was a much better day.  the desert roads were much better and we were making upto 80kph on some stretches.  at one point, whilst being filmed from a helicopter, the downwash reduced visibility and we failed to see a deep culvert.  I can confirm that we can fly but the landings are rather heavy!  in fact the headlights both drooped down in there disapproval.  amazingly that was the only damage that we could discern.  we covered 250km over sand, and another 250 took us into Ulam butaar the capital of mongolia.  a hotel room and proper shower were very welcome.

day 5.  as i have already said we have been busy getting the car ready for tomorrow.  i had to make a new bracket for the exhaust and i am a little worried about one of the rear springs which does not appear to be getting lubrication.  we will have to manually oil this every day to try and prevent any disasters.  that is all for now.  we will be out of contact of phones and emails for the next 4 days we think.