PEKING TO PARIS 2016

A Blog Post at long last!!!

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It’s the end on Day 5 the rest day in Ulaanbaatar the capitol of Mongolia, and it has changed so much since I was here on the 2010 P to P. But back to that later!

The start went on with a great amount of music and dancing just prior to car 1 leaving. Some cars like car 2 didn’t get away due to problems for a while and Car 11 sadly never got to the start due to a unrepairable gearbox failure.

We spent the day motoring through the Chinese countryside along some of the roads used on previous event to end the day at the city of Datong which was started in 200BC, but had most of the development in the last couple od decades with multiple high rises. That afternoon the Hanging Monastery was visited by the people that didn’t want to go straight to the hotel to work on little car problems.

I had planned on writing a blog that night but was overrun with fatigue and fell asleep after dinner before I could hen peck out a post.

The run up to the border the next day seems like eons ago but was a trip through some very diverse scenery with us dodging storms of and on. I use the dodging term incorrectly as we were very successful in that process as we drove through most of them including the hail. Luckily between the storms it was warm enough to get us dry ready for the next one. Julie and I have perfected the art of putting on my Gore-Tex at 100 kph.

As always the drive into Erenhot through the dinosaur statues is kind of surreal.

We all crossed the border into Mongolia the next morning with vast amounts of patience required by all.

Last time I entered Mongolia the only way to Ulaanbaatar was through the desert on a choice of multiple sand tracks. This day we headed of up the new road at 100 kph for 200 k’s before heading into the desert for some time trials and test to sort out the leader board. I drove the first time trial in a spirited fashion. To clarify what a spirited fashion is it halfway between touring speed and driving like you have stolen it.

After the first time trail Julie and I decided that the spirited fashion was not the best plan of attack since we both want to get to Paris and I need to load Penny on a boat to South America a month after we get to the UK from Paris for a Rally James and I are doing in October. I only have time for minor repairs.

Our first nights camping was under clear blue sky’s with the superb support of Nomad Tours that has been supporting the P to P on every event. My plan to write a blogs vanished that night when I got involved with helping the service support teams fix the numerous wounded cars.

Yesterday was the run into Ulaanbaatar with three timed stage section in the desert. As we loped along in Penny over the bumps and rock out the front of the rally we could see lots of things that would create carnage for the cars to follow. Carnage was nearly an understatement with I think 5 cars coming in last night on the trucks of shame and many others limping in with all sorts of problems associated with being driven like it had been stolen.

I parked Penny and greased and checked the oil and covered her up for the rest day. So touch wood I haven’t missed any problems, as the next 5 days are tougher then the past 2 with the next rest day being 9 days away.

The cars that weren’t able to be fixed in the car park are spread all around town at various workshops like the Volvo Amazon that rolled in the desert yesterday with no one hurt and on its wheels with the driver carrying on to the end of the timed stage.

The next post will be at least 6 days away when we get our next Internet.

PEKING TO PARIS 2016

Start Day is upon us!

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The first meeting of the group was on Thursday afternoon for the police talk on driving in China. For the best explanation of this hilarious talk visit Julie’s blog http://juliestephenson.net/three-golden-rules-for-driving-in-china/

If you read Julies blog you will question if we travel in the same car some days as we see things through very different eyes.

Yesterday was car collection day so the long awaited anticipation and anxiousness was over, as we got loaded on to buses to the warehouse.

We were scheduled to go on the early bus to the warehouse.

As we all streamed in to the warehouse like a bunch of kids heading to the tree on Christmas morning the excitement was high.

The reason we got the early bus became obvious with all the cars parked in neat rows and Penny in the front row like a naughty kid at school.

After taking some photos Penny started on the push of the button and we were on our way to the first Fuel Station marked on the route map.

Julie was apprehensive and worried about the navigation but got us to the fuel and beyond to the hotel car park without a hitch.

We were the first at the Fuel and before we had pumped the 160 litres to fill Penny about 20 fellow travellers had queued for Fuel.

This fuel queuing is caused from having to ship the cars with minimum fuel in the tanks.

The rest of the day was spent sort out luggage generally faffing about for us till the garden party hosted by the official timekeeper for the event “Frederique Constant”. The afternoon was less leisurely for some with some serious tinkering taking place to make last minute adjustment and repairs including drain fuel tanks after mix up and cars getting filled with diesel.

Saturday morning we work to a very very clear Beijing and was a day of Scrutineering and even more tinkering ready for the start at 8.00 am Sunday.

Once the Scrutineering was completed with ticks in all the right boxes the Navigators collected the rally packs with Route books which they had been asking about ever since there arrival in Beijing.

Cuba

Cuba I will return:

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Day 3

Today I’m to collect my Rental car. With my Voucher or a 7.00am collection.

In true Cuban fashion I arrive to the rental desk to be told it doesn’t open till 9.00am. I’m happy to wait but the gentleman at the desk tells me that no cars are available, so lets see what happen next. Maybe it will be available at 9.00am!!

I’d written the last paragraph while waiting for the car. I ended up getting my car at 3.00pm so Cuban time passes slower then Mexican time.

That afternoon I drove to the Town of Viñalas towards the west end of the island.

I spent that night in a Casa, which in Cuba is a room attached to someone’s house and is like a B and B. I shared the casa with 3 young Swiss German Travellers and we had both arrived at the Casa under the same marketing system. I had been flagged down as I turned off the motorway and told by a young man that the road was washed out that way and the bus was late and could I give him a lift to Viñalas as I was going that way. I checked him out and he appeared to be safe and spoke very good English so is said OK. Also he didn’t look strong enough to overpower me.

As we drove along the subject of where I was staying for the night came up, and since I had nothing booked he said that I his Aunt had a Casa with a vacant room. It was getting on in the day and I wanted a bed for the night so I took up his offer, and its all part of the Cuban experience. It was just funny that the other guests had been attracted with the same marketing system not really a scam, as I don’t think we got ripped off too much????

Day 4.

Viñalas is an area of limestone formations and the centre of the Cigar Tobacco industry in Cuba. After I looked around the area that morning I headed further west through more faming to visit the National park at the end of the island to a resort called Maria La Gorda, I had been told it was the best diving in Cuba.

23 years ago I had learnt to dive in the Caribbean so I wanted to reignite my diving after about 8 years.

I arrived in time for the afternoon dive and it was that good I decided to stay a couple nights.

The whole area is a National park including the reef so there is no Fishing. The reef was just teaming with life unlike where I had learnt to dive at the other end of the Caribbean 23 years ago

Day 5 and 6.

I spent the next 2 days doing 3 dives a day and not a single dive was disappointing with clear water with lots of fish both big and small on fantastically coloured walls.

A lot of people on the dive boat spoke about how below average the resort food was. I got talking to a young couple that had stayed at a casa about 10 k’s away with wonderful food and we could go there just to eat if we had transport.

I had a car so that was the eating spot for the next 3 nights and the fresh Seafood was just so fantastic and well prepared.

Another high light of eating out was on the drive home as that area has a massive population of Land crabs. With it being breeding season, after dark each night 1000’s of crabs head to the ocean across the road to deposit there eggs. It was just an amazing spectacle and made the trip home for about a kilometre quite slow as we had to clear the road of crabs to get through. The few locals with cars don’t worry so the road the next morning is littered with flat crabs and vultures feeding on the remains.

 

Day 7.

Was an uneventful drive back to Havana delivering an Israeli couple I’d meet diving to the airport on the way.

The food at the start was not good but buy the end I had worked out where and how to find good food and have had a week of the most wonderful meals of Lobster and Fish.

Getting to the airport on my last morning at 3.30am was another Cuban experience with my transfer not collecting me. Hence the night watchman got me a very local taxi, so the ride to the airport was in a 60’s Lada.

I don’t think he was supposed to go to the airport as we stopped on the way and he removed the taxi light and all of the signage form his car and put it in the boot.

 

Thing I have noticed:

Rural Cubans don’t have cars just horse and bullock carts.

When the Internet works its great but connecting can be the problem.

Time has no meaning.

The people of Cuba are poor but there is no real poverty.

There appers to be no Homeless people.

Everyone is very happy and helpful.

I only saw one person begging for money.

Has the lowest mobile phone ownership of any country I travelled to.

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Cuba an Adventure without Penny Part 1;

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Day 1.

This is the first blog I’ve ever done that hasn’t involved travelling with Penny to somewhere in the world.

After we got Penny safely loaded in the container and on her way to Beijing I had a 3-day work commitment in Atlanta Georgia USA. As I was going to go all that way, suffering jetlag and bad sleep while my body clock turned upside down, I decides to stay a bit longer and visit Cuba which has been on my Bucket list for a few years and I hadn’t found a spot to fit it in.

After travelling all day from Atlanta to Dallas then Mexico City for a long wait before onto Havana I arrived last night late to a very crowded airport as 3 large planes had all just landed ahead of us from Europe.

The airport is fairly unorganised and chaotic for luggage to say the least with a shortage of signage. Eventually I was through customs and collected my luggage to find the diver for the airport transfer. I arrived at the Hotel 2.5 hour after landing so all was good.

The hotel wasn’t quite like the photos on the Internet that I looked at when booking 2 months ago. The structure was the same but I think the photos had been from when it opened back in the 60’s some time and that was the last refurb. However it’s clean and somewhere to sleep so all is good.

Breakfast this morning was an experience in that I think the kitchen is short of china and cutlery as you had to wait for plates, cups, and spoons all the time and when there arrived it’s only 3 or 4 at a time and hot straight for the washing.

After breakfast I started to walk around Havana looking at what was happening.

The architecture is fascinating in that the whole city is from the early Spanish era with very very few new or modern building anywhere. All the building have a very high commercial first floor with residential space above that.

Havana has a vast amount of empty derelict shops and the few shops that are open seem to have limited stock with queues to shop.

The Internet is far different to any thing else I’ve experienced in my travel. It is all from hotspots, which are few and far between but very easy to recognise. You will be walking along and come across a mass of people all on Phones. Your internet time is purchased in the form on a login and password card at the rate of 2 to 5 Euro’s per hour from either the hotel or someone on the street at the hot spots.

Once logged on I discovered that not a lot of thing work in Cuba. I cant access Gmail on my phone you are a Commercial client, Other things that have become the cheap from of talking to Home are also not available. Face time doesn’t work as the speeds are a bit slow, maybe I try early in the morning before people wake.

The rest of the Day was spent on the open top Big Red Bus in Havana.

One of the stops I made was at the Aquarium which as at the opposite end of the spectrum to the Atlanta Aquarium with Whale Sharks and Mantra Rays that I visited last weekend. The Havana Aquarium is old and needed freshening up but all the tanks and the fish were very clean and healthy.

I have yet to find food that is worth writing about other then it fills a hole and keeps the energy going. I will continue to search for a nice meal.

All in all Day 1 was a great experience and I’m really glad I came to Havana.

 

Day 2.

I spent the whole day in Old Havana,. I was very different in this area as it’s where the tourists are concentrated so it’s a bustling area with shops selling Cuban trinkets and many restaurants. Unlike the places I had eaten the previous day with very little choice, today was great food with Cuban service. You might not always get what you ordered first time but in the end it all works out with very nice food.

The classic Cars are all over the place in Cuba. The cars are in varying states of repair from no windows and lights to fully restored. The old bangers work the local trade and the good ones hire to Tourists and wont stop of pick up locals. Most of the classics are late 40’s and 50’s from before the Embargo started.

These cars have all been refitted with Russian Diesel engine and Gearbox’s for the sack of spare parts. The few Modal A. Fords have all been fitted with 4 cylinder petrol Lada engines and gearbox’s.

The next big influx of cars and probably in the greatest number on the road is Russian LADA’s from the 60’s to 80’s.

The rental cars fleets are dominated by mainly Chinese Cars with a few Japanese and Korean cars.