AMAZON ADVENTURE 2016

The Next Adventure with Penny is Thunderbirds Go.

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My last post was from Iceland where Julie and I had visited the Puffins at the end of the P to P 2016 in July. Penny is about to leave on another adventure!!! In the Amazon in South America!

Preparation for Penny’s next adventure.
After our return to England, Julie flew home, and I stayed in the UK for another week preparing Penny for the up coming Amazon Adventure with Bespoke Rallies.

Penny and I spent a week at Jack Amies workshop just outside of Oxford where he helped fix the little things that required fixing after the trip across Asia and Europe.

Penny was in very good company in Jack’s workshop as she was parked with the ex Sir Malcolm Campbell M45 Lagonda and a V12 Grand Prix Lagonda plus a very nice XK120. Penny was the well-travelled old lady of the workshop for that week.

The week was spent replacing the worn driveshaft, repairing the broken windscreen pillar, replacing the broken windscreen, re-greasing all the wheel bearings, greasing the brake rods and cables, welding the small crack in the front stub axle, a general service and tune plus other small bits and pieces.

I got all that finished in time to deliver the car to the shipper then it was off to Gatwick and back home to work along with preparing for this trip.

The Great Amazon Adventure.
James is accompanying Penny and I on this trip, as Julie is unable to have a Yellow Fever vaccination so can’t travel the Amazon.

We are starting in Suriname on the 8th of October follow the Atlantic coast to the mouth of the Amazon where we board a small boat up the river with just 14 cars for 2 day before disembarking to travel through the Amazon region to Machu Picchu in Peru then on to the finish in Lima

Julie’s new book “With the Roof Off”

I would like to do a ‘shout-out’ for Julie’s new book on our trip in Penny through India, Bhutan and Myanmar. Julie has written and illustrated this great drive in the wonderful way she sees; and Julie has noticed and talked about some things I totally missed because I was focusing on driving those challenging roads!

It is a beautiful hard copy of 107 pages, dust jacket, 560 photographs and Julie has made it a Collectors Edition of only 50 numbered and signed copies…. great for a Christmas gift… and you can purchase them by popping to her Online Shop here….. http://juliestephenson.net/product/with-the-roof-off-india-bhutan-myanmar/

 

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Puffins in Iceland

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After arriving in Paris at the end of then P to P, Julie and I rested in Paris and the UK before flying to Iceland last Saturday for a quick Puffin trip.

We visited Iceland late August, September last year but missed seeing the Puffins.

Atlantic Puffins only come to land from June to mid August to breed and a large percentage nest in Iceland, with the biggest concentration breeding on a group of islands to the south of Iceland called the Westman Islands. 20% of the worlds 8 to 10 million Atlantic puffins are breeding here on the Westman Islands.

Sunday’s weather heading down to catch the ferry to the Westman Island was overcast with the odd bits of mist but not enough to really wet us. Straight off the ferry we dropped our bags in the guesthouse before heading down to the southern part of the island in search of Puffins.

We found our first Puffins in no time at all then spent the next couple hours slowly walking around the headland taking photos and watching these cute little birds going about the job of collecting food and feeding their chicks which are in burrows about 3 feet deep all over the headlands wherever the soil and rock gives easy digging.

Monday weather was a different thing all together with showers rolling through all morning as I walked and climbed in the cloud around the highest hills to the west of town.

That afternoon we braved the elements to take a Circle Cruise around the Island with Viking tours. The weather cleared up to just overcast and almost no wind for this spectacular cruise. We saw even more puffins both on the cliffs and floating on the surface while resting between diving trips for Sand Eels. Our trip also took us into 4 huge sea caves that the large boat we were on not only fitted inside of but was able to turnaround as well. One cave had a roof covered with electrifyingly vivid iridescent green algae.

Tuesday we woke to the most glorious day for Iceland with high clouds and brilliant sunshine and a maximum of 18o C – and 19.1 is the record high here. Julie and I have spent in total about 25 days in Iceland and it’s the first day that we have ever seen with such brilliant weather. At lunchtime the locals were commenting on the heat and how uncomfortable it was.

We headed down to the southern headland early and the morning is a very busy time in a Puffins life with the whole place a hive of activity with everyone either going or coming from a fishing trip. Watching Puffins fly and going about their chores is fun on its own, because they spend 10 months of the year at sea their land skills aren’t the best – with some take-off’s and landings being very ungracious at times with regular crash landings. I even saw 2 trip over each other trying to take off and both rolling down the hill a metre before getting organised and flying out to sea.

During this walk around the cliff tops we were lucky enough to see some Fin whales cruising past.

We finished Tuesday off with a soak in the geo-thermal baths at Laugarvatn on the trip back to the airport. We both fly to the UK on Wednesday with Julie continuing on to home and I’m staying in the UK for a week or so to get Penny ready for our next trip to the Amazon later this year in October.

PEKING TO PARIS 2016

Paris! We made it.

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Hi all we have made it to Paris yesterday afternoon just after 1pm following approx. 14000 kilometres and 36 days on the road from Beijing.

Firstly I must apologise for being a very pore blogger this trip. On past trips I’ve managed to post at least every couple of days. This trip however was very different in that most of the time has been driving all day and getting to the nights accommodation in time to check Penny, shower, eat then go to bed ready to do it all again the next day.

When I did the P to P in 2010 I was hampered with some small technical issues with springs and steering that caused us to miss parts of the route and some tests So on this rally we set ourselves the goal this trip to drive the total route and do all the tests along the way taking no short cuts, and for doing that we received a gold medal. This was a target that only about 1/3 of the starter were able to reach due to all sorts of mechanical issues along the way.

As a results of the our effort we managed to take out first in our class ahead of all the W O Bentleys and 12th in the pre 1941 Vintageant section which was won by Bruce and Harry Washington in a Chrysler 75.

The Route this year was very diverse with some fantastic stages through the Swiss and Italian Alps with amazing scenery and some fresh snow on one day.

The final day is toped of with a huge gala dinner and award ceremony attended by competitors, friends and family. Julie and I were honoured to receive the Sprit of the Rally Award for helping other crews during the trip.

Will we ever do it again? That’s something to think about and for Julie and I to talk about over the coming months.

I will post more photos and some story’s looking back at the past weeks while I’m in the UK fixing Penny ready for the Amazon in October.

 

PEKING TO PARIS 2016

Its Summer Now!

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After it being cold and wet for the first week across Russia the weather has changed and turned very tropical for the last 2 days.

The run into the rest day at Kazan started with it cold and wet with some great tests on rural roads with ample red mud for everyone to have fun and make all the cars dirty. By the time we had arrived in town the sun was out and the temp in the mid 20’s, with the next 2 days clear sky’s and high 20’s for the temp.

The car park as usual was a hive of activity with all sort of repairs, mostly suspension getting sorted after the rough section of tarmac and dirt the previous afternoon. The jobs on Penny thankfully were only general grease and check and change a fuse to get the lights working.

After lunch Julie and I walked down town to visit the Kremlin in the centre of town. We walked the long way round along the boardwalk on the river front. This area is undergoing a lot of development work to make it a great recreational area for the city.

The Church’s and museum in the Kremlin were very enjoyable even though all the signage was in Russian. It was very funny to watch in one small museum this guide lady followed Julie around the displays telling her all about everything in Russian with Julie just nodding and giving agreement sounds. I think she thought that Julie understood her.

Yesterdays was a easy run through the country too a reception with the locals at Victory Park in Nizhny Novgorod. This park is full of machines of war celebrating some victory in some war???

Yesterday morning we had 98 cars start the day. This would be the most cars to start a day since leaving China. The Rolls Royce Phantom that caught fire in the middle of Mongolia is back after a mammoth rebuild job in UB before starting the long catch-up drive across Russia to re-join us.

Breakfast time is with us now so I’ll post this and get ready for another day on the road.