9 June — the report from Day 23.
Last night’s ceremony in Baku is over, and we have crossed three borders now: China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
If you would like the Day 22 video, it is here.
There has not yet been a single night I could sleep easily.
But we have come this far. I am absolutely going to reach that finish in Paris.
Every day of this journey, solving whatever had gone wrong at that moment came first, and Paris felt a very long way off. Two weeks left.
Now, if anything, I find myself wishing time would stop. The journey has become something I love.
What made me enter the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge was wanting to be out on a rally longer than anyone in the world.
And today is day twenty-three. Looking back, the days have been long and gone in a flash at once.
With trouble following trouble there were plenty of times I wanted to cry, but if there was time to cry there was time to sort it out, and there was never anything to do but go forward.
I do not think I have ever used my head and body this hard in my life.
It feels like living at full capacity.
After the near-heatstroke on Day 19, a notice went out to every crew: water alone is not enough, take electrolytes too.
So the day began with hunting for electrolyte powder to put in a drink.I had of course brought a great deal from Japan against heatstroke — and to have run out in under ten days shows how lightly I had taken it.
With the organisers putting out a notice, I assumed it would be easy to find locally. It was not.
In Japan a pharmacy has several kinds; in Azerbaijan, even finding a shop is hard work. We went back and forth, translation app in hand.
On top of that, a screw on the car door had gone and it would not shut properly, so I spent the day worrying about when it would fall off. We walked about looking for the part, and that came to nothing too.
But at last, one sports drink shop — and this time so much choice it was a problem. We got what we needed. Though it was expensive: over ¥5,000.
And every trip to a workshop brings the question of how much we will have to pay this time, which is not good for the nerves.
Today being a maintenance day, everyone was hard at it from the morning.
As yesterday, our Buick stays at the workshop until the evening.
With nothing to do, we went to have a look at the paddock of the Baku circuit, which is where everyone’s maintenance is happening.
In September 2024 the Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be held here. To be able to visit at a moment like this is real luck.
So I got excited — and then came the punchline.
For us, who have driven in the classic car world, Formula One is a different dimension entirely.
But hoping to see the Japanese drivers do well, I was fully in supporter mode.
This one is reported with that music (video)
And late in the evening, back at the workshop: “We worked through the night,” the staff said, with tired faces.
It was more than I deserved, and nothing came out of me but thanks.
But somehow a party crowd had gathered at the workshop too, and whether it was the classic car or the Japanese woman that was the novelty, a sudden photo session broke out.
Sadly it was too late in the evening for a test run.Whether the repair has worked we will find out after the start tomorrow morning. So it was hardly the moment for a photo session — but we smiled for the camera anyway.
Dinner was the instant noodles I had finally managed to buy.And they were superb.
I breathed out and handed my tired body over to the bed.
So: all that trouble, one thing after another.
Has the repair in Azerbaijan worked? Tomorrow, at last, the test run.
Continued in Day 24 …