Happily today’s blog is full of joy and great news. Thursday morning we set out from Paro after the day of repairs to Penny on and absolutely stunning day. The air was crystal clear and the scenery was to die for.

We stoped in Paro to have a quick look at the shops that we had missed the previous day due to the repairs before embarking on going over the highest pass for our trip at 3988 metres. On this climb everything went perfect. The new engine in Penny is running better then ever as it is now fully run in performing very well along with everything else.

We stopped at the top of the pass for beautiful morning tea supplied by the Bhutan guides that are looking after us, before dropping down in to the Haa Valley.

The Haa Valley is the greenest valley we have been in since entering Bhutan. It’s not visited by a lot of tourist and is quite remote as our overnight accommodation is only 8ks for the Tibetan border.

After lunch in a park and some tradition Bhutanese games of darts and archery, Julie and I went back down to the main street for a wander around the shops to see how the locals shopped . It was a quirky mix of shops with so many selling exactly the same range of goods.

It was then off to our accommodation for the night and what a treat our accommodation was. As there was no guest house in town big enough for the entire rally, the guesthouse chosen didn’t have enough rooms for the entire rally so the rally in combination with the guest house h arranged for some of us to stay in local house as guest of the owners. We were the first foreigners to ever stay with our host family. Our hosts spoke no English so their son and niece were the communicators as they spoke very good English due the Bhutanese education system, which is based on English due to all the regional dialects.

The farm house was a 4 story building in the traditional Bhutanese style with the cows living in the first story, with the fourth story under the roof being the winter storage for all the grain and feed for both the family and the 5 cows that were milked everyday. The family slept in the second story with the third story being mostly the living area with the most beautiful room in the house the prayer room. The 8 of us in this house all slept on mattress on the floors of the living area and the son’s bedroom while ne slept in the kitchen. We where made to feel so at home and welcome it was superb.

Steps between the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th floors were made from logs at an angle then having the treads cut in to make steps, these needed to be negotiated with great care due to the angle.

In the morning Chris took the whole family for a drive in his 1936 Ford Phaeton.

The drive out of the Haa Valley to the capitol was just septacular like all the drives in Bhutan, along roads that are very narrow and just hanging on the edge of the cliff. I don’t have good shots, as the roads don’t lend themselves to taking photos with one hand and driving with the other. It was only 120ks drive but took us all of 4 ½ hours with very few stops as most of the trip is done 2^nd gear.

On arrival in Thimphu we had a lunch before looking around town and Julie partaking in some retail therapy in the form of a beautiful local dress.

We have a late start this morning before heading east into the more unpopulated parts of Bhutan.

The Gallery has a good collection of Photos today due to fast Internet. As we go east we expect the Internet to get slower.

Yesterday afternoon as we turned into the track up to our accommodation in Paro, I went to grab another gear and all drive stopped with no loud noise even.

At first I thought it was a slipping clutch but that was soon ruled out due to lack of smell. In the driveway we worked out it was a Diff problem and most likely a sheared keyway and nothing broken.

We arrived at the resort on the string of shame where we would be spending 2 nights.

Julie and I got some clothes on that could get dirty and went and started.

We pulled the pinion out of the front of the Diff and it was all fine; so that meant we had to dig deeper for the problem and that was a time consuming job. So with Julies encouragement it was decided we had to dig deeper tomorrow instead of going to Tigers Nest on the rest day. It was very nearly dinner by then so we just shifted the car to flatter ground and collected some local timbers and bricks to block up the car ready for a flying start in the morning, after good nights sleep. Sleep wasn’t that great with the thought of whether we could fix it or not.

Julie and I started working on the car at 0630hrs and it was just 4 degrees but thankfully it warmed up early. We had only been going about 20 mins and Alistair Caldwell turned up and said “What do you need doing”. Alistair stayed with us all day, and was a great help as he is an unbelievable wealth of car knowledge and a funny company to boot. We stopped for breakfast at about 0800hr while waiting for the mechanics as we needed to borrow a big socket. Once Charlie arrived he gave us a hand to get the Diff out and disassembled.

Alistair and Charlie were both keen to see how my diff worked as I had been trying to explain it to them last night and all morning. Penny’s diff was designed in 1913 so has no resemblance to a modern diff in any way.

By about 1030hrs the diff was out of the cars and apart on Alistair’s new Picnic Blanket and everyone then understood how it worked.

We then knew it was FIXABLE.

We found the keyway on the left side was sheared in the gear on the end of the Axle. As the taper on the Shaft was slightly damaged from the gear spinning on it; but after 2 hours of filing and emery taping and checking with bearing blue, we fitted a new piece of key steel and started the assembly process.

While Julie and I did the filing and polishing Alistair worked on a couple things on his car and Charlie helped other people on their cars.

When we got to reassembly time, Charlie and Alistair both were able to come and help in the process as it takes a few sets of hands when you don’t have the proper stand to hold the diff. By 1515hr the car was all finished in time for Julie to go and have the body scrub that she had booked the previous day.

Alistair and I went for a test-drive down the hill to where we had broken down and back again for a test and Penny did everything by the book. So all that was left was the mammoth task to tidy up all the tools.

After a shower it was time to henpeck out a blog post before heading to dinner and to collect our Bhutanese National dresses.

Next blog I will cover the rest of the drive from yesterday and onwards.

In the words of our 2 sons we got up at Silly O’clock this morning. The alarm went of at 0445hr so as to meet at reception for a 0515 departure to a local wildlife reserve to look for Elephants and Rhinoceros. We all got in to little open 4x4s and headed of to the park. ½ hour later we stopped at the gate to pick up our guides and into the jungle we travelled. About 5 minutes into the Jungle we site our first group of elephants so the excitement level in the group way high with great expectations for the morning. We spent nearly 2 hour on the lookout but the Rhino is still mythical for us all. We did see wild Peacocks and Peahens plus quite a bit of other birdlife along with many other Indian tourists on the same quest as us.

We returned to the resort for breakfast before doing our Blogs and departing for the day at 1130hr. The first stop for the day was only 12ks away for lunch at a plantation down some very narrow country roads. As we where leaving for the afternoon drive we passed a shed with a small engine running with some machinery and a fire. I decided to stop and investigate what was happening.

We found a small rice processing operation inside with the motor running a dryer, a screen and a mill. The process was the rice was put in dryer for about 5 minutes then into the mill for a similar time till the husks were broken off and the rice slightly rolled before being feed through the rotary sieve to separate the grains from the husk. The really interesting thing was that one man feed the husk in to the fire drying the grain slowly.

It was then into the traffic mayhem for a couple hours to the afternoon visit at a tea plantation and processing facility. Sadly we were delayed and when we arrived the processing had stopped for the day and everything was being cleaned so we didn’t see the complete process.

The border was only 12ks so in no time we arrive at custom to get the carnet filled out then on to immigration for our Indian exit stamp. I must say it was probably the fastest road exit border I have ever done.

Then through the Arch into Bhutan where we were meet by our guides and taken straight to our hotel to park before walking back the 200 metres to get our passports stamped. So the whole process is as slick and fast as could be asked for.

This morning we woke at 0500hrs as some of the group walked to a lookout place to watch the sunrise over the eastern Himalayas. As the sun rose through the haze we could see the sunn lighting up the 3rd highest mountain in the world. This was one of those mornings if the haze had vanished down the valley the view would have been spectacular.

Following breakfast we looked around the shops trying to find a local cap big enough to fit my Noggin. Sadly that mission was a failure by the time we have to leave town for our 96 k drive for the day.

Everywhere you go in Darjeeling there are lots of water pipes and hoses running along the street, I think everyone must have there own water pipe from the top of the hill where the spring is located.

As we headed down the mountain fighting with the heavy steering around the endless corners, I decided that since I had fully overhauled the steering box before our departure I’d try removing the steering damper. Removal only took about 5 mins and we were off again. Pulling away from the roadside the steering was considerably lighter and I was excited until I hit the first pothole 10 metres later, then my dreams and aspirations of light steering came crashing down. The death wobble that I had fitted the steering damper to fix was still there. As I pulled over Charlie the rally mechanic who had come up behind us at this time refitted the damper, so in no time we continued the drive back down to the plains and on to our over night stop at Chalsa.

This trip was not without some mild hindrances in the form that we lost a very slight amount of paint. A local had started to over-take us and slowed down in the process to take photos then ended up trapped out there had had to pull back in behind very quickly for oncoming traffic. His next overtaking move was a complete fail because in the process of passing and rubber necking he pulled back in too soon and creased his rear door and rear left panel plus tore half of his rear plastic bumper. He pulled up in front of us jumped out of his car and while we were taking photos of him he said “very very sorry Sir, very very sorry Sir” then jumped in his car and drove off as quick as he could.

Julie was most excited about getting to our accommodation this afternoon as she was collecting the Saree (Sari) she had ordered from Siliguri. I have to say she did look stunning in it for dinner last night (some may say I’m biased).

The day’s drive has ended at a quite nice retreat in the forest near Chalsa and tomorrow morning we are off chasing the One Horned Rhinoceros.