20 May — the report from Day 3.

Three days since the start, and we have not driven a single one of them.
Five years of work towards this stage. Can it really go like this?

We set off in such high spirits, and three days later we are still
shut up in a workshop in a small town called Datong.

We ran the car several times; it overheated every time. They worked on it through the night.

Time passed with no sign of a fix, the main convoy got further and further ahead, and if we cannot cross the border with them, we are out.

Impatience runs away with me, and anxiety and a helpless kind of pain come crowding in.

Gods, buddhas — there is nothing left but to appeal to all of them. Cornered.

I want to send a report to everyone cheering for us at home, but there is still no prospect of a repair, and I go weak thinking: what face do I go back to Japan with?

At this rate I would rather vanish here in China. A night with no sleep in it at all.

And still the young man from the little workshop tries everything, running about until the small hours
looking for anywhere in China that can do the work.
All sorts of people come for the sake of our car, and the little workshop is busy every day.

As for me, I can do nothing but go back and forth between the hotel and the workshop.
In this small town, a Japanese woman in a strange uniform walking the same route dozens of times a day must look completely mad.

Still, lying down helps nothing, so we refused to give up, opened the map and started planning how to catch the convoy.
In a sense, this is the only way left of not giving up.

Planning how to catch the main convoy, with the route map (video)

The people of this Chinese town were all very kind. I had explained our situation to the hotel’s landlady in Chinese, and today she did our laundry.

The rally has not started, and our uniforms — not yet touched by dust or mud — swayed in the wind looking somehow forlorn.

These Chinese people are not working for money any more.
They are chasing the dream with us.

In hours that could drive you out of your mind, human warmth brings the tears up.

Continued in Day 4.