Peking to Paris 2007
 Update - Day 35 Well, we`re on our way to the finish in Paris. Still not 100% sure we will get there (I`ll only believe it when I step from the car and touch the Parisien streets) - but we are determined to be there and enjoy it in style. Day 34 Koblenz to Reims As we get closer to home I notice the weather is steadily deteriorating - yet another cloudy, cold day. 300 miles to get to Reims. Now every squeak and rattle sounds terminal (our imaginations magnify every noise). The route out of Koblenz is spectacular as we head along the road that runs parallel to the Mosel river. The valley sides are covered in neat rows of vines - this is prime winemaking country - and the villages lining the banks are clean, tidy and clearly wealthy. I`m stunned to see a helicopter fly low overhead - its got crop-spraying sponsons hanging off both sides and it passes over the vinyards dousing the vines with something (water I hope!). Farmers in Russia couldn`t dream of such equipment. Our Rally checkpoints today sound like a pub crawl (or a winebar crawl) - named "Mosel"; "Piesport"; "Champagne". We also get to visit a real Chateau in Reims - Chateau Henriot - where a "tasting" has been laid on. Some of us venture down into their cellars ("caves") to nose around. Apparently, the cave system was started by the Romans. They have over 15 km of cave storage with several thousand bottles in various stages of fermentation and maturity. At one stage a group of us started to worry that we would get lost in there (we are navigators!). Amazing. Again, car attrition is notable - in one layby alone we saw two Rally cars immobile. One had lost all ignition (later diagnosed as a broken distributor rotor) and a car with no third gear (it only had three in the first place, so was very handicapped by this). Luckily both were ultimately able to rejoin the rally. The Dutch crew in the Citroen also made another driving feat - taking their car overnight to Holland to fix the gearbox and driving back to Germany in time to start the Rally today. Nearly 800 km. Parking in Reims is in the town centre. Luckily near our hotel. More champagne was laid on as people began to finally believe they would be getting to Paris. Despite stories of the 1997 evening in Reims being "the big event", the evening is actually quite subdued - everyone is focused on the next 100 miles. In the evening I meet the crew of car 122, a Bentley. They drove 21 hours from Poland to catch up. Unfortunately they were stopped twice by the German police, which cost them several hundred Euros and over 2 more hours in custody sorting out their "problems". Apparently the police didn`t initially believe that the classic car could possibly have come from China! Day 35 Reims to Paris Today is the shortest run of the Rally - 100 miles - but perhaps the most critical. No-one wants to think about the consequences of breaking down today. For the navigators it is particularly tough. Despite the short journey, there are several pages of instructions to digest and "navigate" our drivers through - including the Peripherique, Paris` infamous inner ring road. The Rally starts in Reims town centre, where the cars had been parked overnight, with local TV coverage, several hundred on-lookers and many elated and excited Rally crews. The start order was first the "winners" - the top 3 cars from each of the Pioneer, Vintageant and Classic classes - then the rest of the surviving cars in number order. We set off at 11.05 am, under an overcast sky. There were several Rally checkpoints on the way to Paris, aimed at keeping the cars roughly to order, but despite this everyone is running as fast as they feel comfortable doing as we have no idea what traffic to expect in Paris - or whether we need to build up some slack in our timetable to allow for any unexpected problems. And for some, there was not enough slack in the day - we passed one car being towed off the motorway by a support vehicle, another was "missing" when we finally arrived. It truely isn`t over until it`s over. After about 20 miles it starfted to rain, quite heavily. We had the canvas sides up on the Land Rover (it looks smarter that way) but nothing phased us, we justed wanted to get there. We thought about some of the less fortunate crews in their open top cars. Tough. Fortunately, for everyone, the weather cleared up as we approached the outskirts of Paris (it was actually sunny by 3pm). As we hit the Periphique the traffic became the nightmare we had expected - we crawled to the staging post in Cours de Vincennes, 5 miles from the finish in Place Vendome just over the Seine. At just before 2.30pm, having been guided in part over the last 2 miles by lads on roller-skates manning every junction on the route and waving chequered flags, we arrived in Rue de la Paix, the entrance to Place Vendome. The scene was slightly chaotic - crowds of well-wishers, families and frienmds were lining the way - cameras pointing at us from every direction. Then we saw the finish line - and both our wives standing there with cameras poised. It was a very emotional moment which I hope never to forget. It was over, but now was the time to celebrate properly. The evening involved a prize-giving dinner in the Rally hotel - La Grande Intercontinental. A Black-tie affair. Unfortunately we were not winners of any trophy, but I was content to get our Bronze medal having overcome the initial set-back on Day 4 in Mongolia.
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Diary Photos
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Mosel valley helicopter |
 Chateau Henriot, Reims |
 The winning Rolls in Pioneer class |
 Arriving at the finish, Paris |
 The celebration dinner |
 Nigel and me at the finish - celebrating! |
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