Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

14,500 km, 28 days

Tap a pin on the route to read that day. You choose by place, not by date.

Day by day

  1. DAY1 Day 1 — A turbulent start
  2. DAY2 Day 2 — They were not working for money. There was love in it
  3. DAY3 Day 3 — Retirement crossed my mind, and I cried where nobody could see
  4. DAY4 Day 4 — A miraculous revival: the pre-war Buick runs again
  5. DAY5 Day 5 — Determined to rejoin the main convoy
  6. DAY6 Day 6 — Reunion against the odds, and the desert
  7. DAY7 Day 7 — Maintenance and strategy for surviving a long rally
  8. DAY8 Day 8 — An elegant hour in Dunhuang, and briefly a star in China
  9. DAY9 Day 9 — Running the rough ground of the Gobi
  10. DAY10 Day 10 — Storm, bad road, and a sunset that looked like hope
  11. DAY11 Day 11 — Conquering the mud: the fight to reach Ürümqi
  12. DAY12 Day 12 — A herd of cattle, and temperatures at both extremes
  13. DAY13 Day 13 — Historic classic cars and the warmth of the people of China
  14. DAY14 Day 14 — Dancing saved the day: China into Kazakhstan
  15. DAY15 Day 15 — Past 5,000 km, and a brief day off
  16. DAY16 Day 16 — The moment fear turns to anger: getting out of Kazakhstan
  17. DAY17 Day 17 — Past my limits, and what the Kazakh land had waiting
  18. DAY18 Day 18 — Into the middle of nowhere with no fuel
  19. DAY19 Day 19 — Extreme adventure: the hard fight across Kazakhstan
  20. DAY20 Day 20 — Coming back from heatstroke
  21. DAY21 Day 21 — An hour by the Caspian, and another border ahead
  22. DAY22 Day 22 — Across the Caspian into Azerbaijan, and a surprising workshop
  23. DAY23 Day 23 — Wrestling with a workshop in Azerbaijan, and sneaking onto an F1 circuit
  24. DAY24 Day 24 — Azerbaijani dirt roads and a car on fire
  25. DAY25 Day 25 — The Georgian border, and the psychology of an ordeal
  26. DAY26 Day 26 — Crossing into Türkiye against despair and the limit
  27. DAY27 Day 27 — Any means necessary: getting ahead of disaster
  28. DAY28 Day 28 — One thread of light in the despair. Do prayers get through?

Around the journey

Preparation, the return, and what came after — the days without a number.