A first for a Japanese woman! The warm-up for the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge —
the “Sahara Challenge” — we’re now on its fourth day.

With both car and body starting to show some fatigue these days, the previous post brought you
Morocco’s stunning views, the food, a report from the ground.
↓ ↓

Day four, driving straight through brutal terrain, cycled between desert and dirt track, and finally the wooden wheels
started to crack, and a tire went flat — that’s when we noticed the spare tire we had strapped to the back
had come loose and was gone.

Once again … at this rate there was no way we’d make it back today. We called the organizer, and
a mechanic agreed to come take a look!

But — this is a vast stretch of desert. Even the mechanic’s arrival meant a long wait.

Fighting the heat, I still found the energy to take a few photos.

Wandering around where we’d stopped the car, I kept finding — and finding, and finding — a pink wall stretching on.
　　　What is this? A house?
That’s when a Mercedes pulled up.
A huge gate swung open automatically with a groaning creak. Pure curiosity, I moved closer.

And!! Please, do enjoy the drama that unfolds from here — in the video (laughs)!

Me … released? (laughs)

Well, call it curiosity, or call it fearlessness, I suppose,
but when a well showed up, I did think, if I get thrown down there, that’s it for me, and
there really was a barred cell further inside, as it turned out …

But in the video, what I actually said in that situation was —

“Well, whatever! If that’s how it goes, I’ll just have to howl here, then.”
Looking back, that was way too reckless — is your brain even okay?? (laughs)


Well, as it turned out, I ended up getting along wonderfully with the son of this very wealthy Moroccan family,
and as thanks for the biography he gave me, I presented him with one of the challenge T-shirts I’d
brought from Japan.

The mechanic had arrived by then too, and …

what genuinely surprised me was that our spare tire, tossed out somewhere in that vast desert,
had been found, miraculously, and brought back to us!
Everyone was stunned by that.

Naturally, we arrived that night well past midnight.

That day had been, by far, the toughest route and the most tangled mix of experiences and emotions I’d had yet —
my brain felt completely overloaded.

Something felt off about my body … and when I took my temperature —

sure enough, a 39-degree fever.
In any case, without even the energy for a shower, I dove straight into bed.

A few hours of sleep, and then, on to the start of day five!
So — what happens now?

Find out in the day 5 report!