The Peking to Paris warm-up, driven all the way alongside everyone!
“Sahara Challenge 2022,” day 11, with just one day left!

Just as this challenge's record of peaks and valleys, tears and laughter had promised, we ended up retiring — but without crossing the Spain-Morocco border, there'd be no finish at all, just being left behind.

The car was carried by tow truck to the ferry crossing back into Spain, and, with its wheel broken, our 1929 car crawled aboard at a tortoise's pace, determined to make it onto that ferry no matter what.



By this point we'd been operating apart from the other competitors we'd fought alongside for so long, so this was our first reunion with them in a while.
The classic cars that had raced across the Moroccan landscape, battered and worn, were all aiming for the finish in Spain too.

Since our car was being transported at the very back of the whole convoy, the moment we finally pulled into the ferry terminal where everyone was waiting became a sight I know I'll never forget.

I was too overwhelmed to even think about filming it on video…
The instant we crawled in at our tortoise's pace! Everyone climbed out of their cars and gave us a standing ovation, cheering wildly! “You made it back!” “Let's reach the finish together!”

Fellow competitors from all over the world, who I'd fought alongside through sweat and tears, even as rivals.

With a joyful reunion and smiles all around, we crossed the border back into Spain safely together with everyone.


Both the cars and the people looked utterly exhausted, and yet somehow overflowing with energy from the sheer feeling of having given it everything.

Moroccan currency, the dirham… this time, between the transport costs from our retirement and other unexpected expenses, I found I hadn't prepared my credit card properly and couldn't even use an ATM…

We scraped through by the skin of our teeth, and that's genuinely all the cash we had left. It taught me a real lesson about currency exchange for the real Peking to Paris, crossing so many countries next time.


Even right up to the ferry terminal, local street vendors kept thrusting things at us, practically begging “buy something, come on!”… but honestly, we truly had no money left at all (laughs).
I wanted to buy something, but there was simply nothing I could buy… so instead (laughs),

I taught them Japanese instead! (Enjoy it in the short video!)

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Can't buy you anything… so please accept a Japanese lesson instead~

And so! Tomorrow is finally the finish of the “Sahara Challenge, twelve days”!