3 June — the report from Day 17.

1. Losing track of what day it is — the rally days are too punishing

Today is 3 June,the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge,day seventeen.
Honestly, I have no idea what day of the week it is. And still we are tearing across the Kazakh land.

The severity of one day of trouble after another has wiped out any sense of the day of the week, or the date.
Rally days look monotonous and are in fact exciting and full of stimulus — genuinely an adventure, every day.

My head is entirely taken up with getting through to the next stage.

Tiredness, aches — I am sure there is plenty of it, but I am so keyed up that I feel none of it. It is rather as though I had warped into a different world.

2. Driving on through the Kazakh wilderness — a journey of great views and hard tests

Since crossing into Kazakhstan, small problems have happened several times a day. Even so, the wilderness stretching as far as you can see, and its beauty, take you over. A landscape that seems to have no end, and a road running dead straight. Spectacular.

But travelling while enduring rough roads and hard weather is an ordeal in itself. Getting this far feels like a miracle. Even so, we keep to the route the organisers set and clear the competition every day, and I feel a little proud of us.

3. Not about speed? What makes this rally special

This rally is not, in fact, a contest of speed.
It is what is called a regularity rally,a format in which what counts is how exactly you can hold the speed and time you are given. How precisely, and how surely, can you reach the finish?

I have written about the format in detail in an earlier post, so do have a look.

About the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

But holding that precision is difficult. Going fast is not the point, and the mental pressure is considerable.

4. The wall of penalties — can we make up the time we lost?

Inside a rally as demanding as this, our biggest wall ispenalties.
Four days held up in Peking, and the days spent off route on test runs.
Because of them, penalties for the sections we could not contest keep piling up.

Making that back takes serious work. To claw it back we would have to drive almost perfectly on every single stage.
Impatient and under pressure, there is nothing to do but refuse to fold and keep going.

There is a video of this too.

Feel how hard the stages are, with us (video)

5. Exhaustion right next to danger — the fear of falling asleep at the wheel

We are into the second half of the rally, and though I said I do not feel it, there are plenty of moments when I am at my limit, mentally and physically.

While driving I sometimes start to nod off, and jerk awake.

It goes through me every time I remember that on the 2019 Peking to Paris a co-driver was killed in a crash caused by falling asleep.

We share the driving, but there is no room for carelessness. So that this tiredness does not cost a life, I want to take proper rest and go carefully.

6. Camels, out of nowhere — an unexpected meeting that made us laugh

And what blew that tension away in an instant was the appearance ofcamelswalking down the road. A herd of them, suddenly, ahead of us.

I doubted my eyes — and their comic bearing softened a tired mind.

They look different from the camels we met in the Sahara.
Perhaps camels become foreigners too when they cross a border.
We traded jokes like that and enjoyed a brief laugh.

In days this hard, it is remarkable how much a small pleasure lightens things.
The unexpected meetings along a rally are part of what makes the journey.

And today, a photograph with the Kazakh police.

7. Relief at the overnight stop — but the challenge is not over

Today we reached the overnight stop early and safely.

My tiredness is at its peak and I would love to breathe out, but every other crew is busy with maintenance too.

Watching people work on their cars without pausing to rest, I feel we had better keep our own guard up. And the laundry — battle dress covered in sweat and dust.
Filthy.

The challenge is far from over.
A new road waits tomorrow, so I want to prepare properly for it.

Continued in Day 18 …

In closing

A rally journey is punishing, but the laughter and the surprises that turn up now and then hold you up.
Your support is genuinely giving me strength, and I hope you will go on enjoying the adventure with me.

Look forward to the next report.