13 June — the report from Day 27.

Late last night we somehow got into Turkey.
Separated from the convoy again, and thoroughly alone.

You can look back on yesterday’s report on video too.

The 1929 Doctor’s differential gear had lost teeth. Can a one-off doctor be brought back?

From the moment the broken ring gear was confirmed at the Georgian border,
anxiety and impatience have not let my heart rest.

Mentally I was at the end of my strength, and it did not feel as though I could hold out.
But reporting to the friends who are cheering us on is not something I can skip —
and even to report, nothing is decided. No smile, and nothing to say.

Whatever happens, I have to get hold of this ring gear before the finish in Paris.

The scheme that came to me inside the despair: fly ahead to Istanbul

In that state, what suddenly came into my head
was the odd plan of flying ahead to Istanbul.

The car could go on a transporter while we flew ahead, giving us time to think clearly and a little mental rest.

  Collapsing at this point would defeat the whole thing.

In an emergency you use every means you have.
If there was any chance at all of moving the situation forward, I would try anything — so first thing in the morning we flew to Istanbul.

This, in fact, was never made public; we carried out the plan rather like a secret society.

Arriving in Istanbul: the convoy’s surprise and welcome, and a nervous request for a repair

When we landed in Istanbul, the friends in the convoy looked amazed and delighted: “You’ve followed us even like this! Where does your never-give-up spirit come from?”
Tomorrow is a rest day and everyone disappeared into the city, but I stayed looking at the Istanbul night from my room, thinking:

“What did I come here for?”
“That’s right — I came here to enjoy it.”

I noticed that for days my attention had been entirely on the difficulty in front of me and I had forgotten what matters.
But without finding a solution quickly, there is no finish to see.
We have at least been given contacts at the Turkish motor club,and the plan is to take the car to a workshop tomorrow,

praying inwardly: please — God, Buddha, and the gods of Turkey too.

And here, again, something unbelievable was waiting.

An obstacle nobody foresaw: six days of Turkish public holiday

From the day after tomorrow Turkey has six days of public holiday, and the workshops and the transporters all stop. It is a special holiday reflecting national pride, and for religious reasons no work can be done.
Religious reasons — a difference of culture that Japan does not have, and it left me at a loss.

The call to prayer rang out across the city again and again. Feeling how powerless I was and how little I could do, all I could do was pray along with it.

The call to prayer over Turkey — and I could only pray (video)

The reality of having come this far and being able to do nothing was close to swallowing me; impatience and anxiety tangled together and gripped my chest.

I did not sleep at all until morning, and the Istanbul sky slowly brightened.
“I will absolutely not give up.” On that one thought, there is only forward.

Continued in Day 28 …