I hope you enjoyed the report from the Summer Trial, the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge’s warm-up rally.
It began as a chaotic mix of tears and laughter, and getting home from the finish turned out to be just as chaotic a journey.
Petrol in England 🇬🇧 runs ¥400 to ¥500 a litre (ugh). Being the warm-up for the final challenge, I paid it without hesitation to keep the car running — and finished safely!
But no sooner had I waved the finish flag 🏁 than, with no time to rest, I whipped my worn-out body into driving the car three hours to the workshop, topping up oil along the way for a car that had just covered 1,400 km.
Having handed the car over at the workshop, next came thirty minutes on a local bus towards the airport.
Then two hours on an intercity coach … and another local bus after that.
Taking on a challenge, aiming only at the goal, means a bare-bones schedule with no room to waste.
But having decided I would never give up on this challenge, I always think: giving up over something this small means no more challenges after this one.
I reached the area near the airport in the middle of the night. I had booked a hotel there using points saved up bit by bit! And dinner that night was, of course, this. Pure happiness! I have never enjoyed soba this much in my life.
The next morning, heading for the airport, I queued for a PCR test, and then it was eight hours of waiting for the result before I could board.
With cafés and restaurants both expensive, I spent those eight hours jostled in the crowds instead. My back was aching by the end (laughs).
The way home ran from Heathrow via Amsterdam and Korea back to Japan. Right — with that, I thought this chaotic journey was over. It was not; another challenge was waiting for me (laughs).
Continued in the homecoming chapter …