More Photos

PHOTOS AT LAST

Here are a few photos of the many that we took on our trip. Looking back on them I realise how lucky we were to have travelled these roads.

HOME AT LAST

The rest of our journey from Greece to Paris went fairly smoothly although we were hindered by more punctures a total of 20 in all and the fact that each day we had to recharge the batteries to get us going which gave us a late start each day. On October 16th. we finally rolled into Paris . It was a very emotional moment as we came down the Champs Elysee and into the Place Vendome. We were welcomed by family and friends who were all wearing yellow scarves and waving Canadian and British flags, it was a wonderful sight. We were very tired but so relieved to have made it. We ended up receiving silver medals and the same night at the Gala dinner were presented with a cup "True Grit" for staying the course and having good rally spirit so we were thrilled. In due course we will be putting together a complete report with photos.We would like to thank each and everyone of you who supported us along the way . We would not of made it without you. It was a wonderful adventure really hard at times but we have great memories and met some interesting people along the way. I promose photos will be posted soon.

CHALLENGING TERRAIN IN TURKEY!

Hello Flora Followers, Emma here again. We just received an update from Car 41 about a challenging day in the Turkish mountains. It sounds like Flora is just hanging on, by the skin of her teeth, but determined to make it into Paris. Read below for an account of the day.

We had a dreadful day the day of the mountain section. The weather was awful with wind and heavy rain. We had decided not to do the time trial sections as Flora does not handle bends and the brakes are not great on wet roads. We set off on steep terrain anyway and half way through the day the amp meter was registering constant discharge. Car 39 Phantom II stopped to help and fiddled with the brushes and the generator sprung into life! Great we thought but later that day she stopped again and we spent a long time trying to fix her. We decided to take the main road to the hotel in case we didn't make the rally hotel, it was now dark, we had no lights and we re trying to find the white lines on the road with a flashlight! It was dangerous and I was quite scared. Suddenly a van pulled in front with warning lights flashing and lead us down the road to the hotel! He was a volunteer from the Turkish motor club who had spotted us on the road. We had previously called the rally for assistance but no reply! Flora eventually died 1 km. from the hotel. We were towed in and were escorted by the police with flashing lights! All very exciting. When we arrived at the hotel at 11:30pm we heard that a rally car on the time trial had left the road and plunged 40ft. Amazingly they walked away from the scene and apart from some bruising and shock are fine. Their car however is in very poor shape. Another car spun out on the wet roads, the Itala in fact and Karen was thrown from the vehicle, again she escaped with a sore hand and they are carrying on! So our problem is minor to some. We are now in Greece heading for the ferry to Italy tomorrow. We are managing with 2 batteries and charging them each day. One battery seems to last about 4-5 hours and so we hope to continue that way until Paris. We are now taking the fastest route each day which is allowed under the rules, several of us are doing the same thing. We are both well, tired but determined to finish.

Just a few photos!

IRAN DAY 3

We have just spent 3 days here. Very interesting, some very nice countryside but also a lot of garbage and very poor areas. The driving here is appalling and they cancelled all the time trials as they thought it was to dangerous. We have been very warmly received by most Iranians and I have had so many phtos taken trying to hide my hair under a scarf at the same time. Flora still going well but we have a lot of high roads to take to Turkey tomorrow.

IRAN UPDATE

Hi Flora Followers! Emma here again!

Just heard from Team Flora that they have arrived in Iran. Sounds like it was a rough day of travelling.

They were held up at customs for 5 hours then had to drive another 600km to get to the hotel. They arrived at 11 pm to find there were no hotel rooms left and had to sleep on the floor of the lobby! As Treacy commented, "A first for them!"

Apparently, they are living off of toast and jam as many people have become quite sick with food poisoning. I'm sure they will be happy in the coming days to be heading into Turkey and Italy. Good food awaits!

SAMARKAND ETC

The internet hook up in these parts is horrendous so sorry for the long silence. Samarkand was lovely as we had a day off to sight see and shop. Yes Emma I bought the Suzanai’s 3 in fact so you can all choose. We had a great day and then left at 4:30am for the border to enter Turkmenistan! Breakfast at that hour is not pleasant. The temperature rose as we arrived at the border, 37 degrees and many people were suffering from Travellers tummy, it was pretty awful. We were lucky and were allotted one of the better hotels last night but our room was like a furnace and we were so tired. Today WE DROVE ANOTHER 630KMS to Ashgabad and tomorrow we dress appropriately and cross into Iran. Turkmenistan is mainly desert, hot and dry with very little vegetation, Uzbekistan on the other hand was quite cultivated the main yield seemed to be cotton. Cars are still going from place to place by truck, even if the roads have improved. Lloyd described these last few days as driving vast distances on poor roads in extreme heat nursing along an old car! I hope to be able to connect in Iran.

TASHKENT

Yesterday was a long and difficult one. We almost made the 700kms. without a puncture but alas just before Shymkent we had puncture #12We decided to leave it in a tire shop and check into the hotel! alas the hotel was further than we thought and Lloyd somehow found his way there and back. I was waiting outside the hotel for him when I heard a commotion and Flora was stuck over a culvert! It was very dark and hard to spot, however with the help of several local men we managed to move her without damage. Today we arrived in Tashkent after 3 hours at the border. There was much stamping of paperwork, and I was moved 4 times into different lines to be processed each time starting at the back of the line! Then Lloyd was stuck on the Kasakstan side with the car whilst I was in Usbekistan, so we passed papers to each other through the gate! Tashkent is a l.arge bustling city with European shops and the part that we are in is quite affluentMuch different to what I had expected. Tomorrow we are off to Samarkand and our last day off. We hope to do some sightseeingand shopping.

More Photos!

A few more photos of Flora have been unearthed! It is wonderful to be able to see her in action. Thanks again to Colin for finding these for us.

The last we heard Flora and crew were about to embark on a 700+ km drive to Shymkent in Kazakhstan. For the Canadians out there that is further than driving from Vancouver to Calgary in one day. (That one clocks in at about 671 km). Luckily, the next few days after this have much shorter distances.

Enjoy the photos!

Punctures seem to be the main thing plaguing Flora. To date, they have had eleven. Wonder what number this one is?

Luckily, it looks like it is not all camping and auto garages! Can you spot Lloyd in his white shirt, beer in hand? Looks quite at home!

Some photos

Hello everyone - Emma here again! I thought I would post a few photos of Flora in action. These were kindly posted to the comments section by someone named Colin. Thank you Colin! Some of you may not have seen them yet.

Also if you haven't visited the Peking to Paris website yet you should! They post daily rally reports, have some great video journals and update the race standings daily. Presently it looks like Car 41 is in 26th position overall! Not bad old girl! The Peking to Paris website will also link you directly to the Skytag site where you can see the car's GPS position.

Enjoy!

Car 41 surrounded by goats in Mongolia

At the start of the race, before the dirt and all the punctures!

DAY 12

*****Hello everyone, Emma here. This post was sent to us by email about a week ago when Flora & Crew were having a hard time connecting to the internet. Sarah originally posted it in the comments section but I will now post it here as well. Logically, it should appear before the last post, so it is one out of order. Enjoy! ********

This is our last night for camping for a while. I can’t say that I shall be sorry .Our daily routine has been up at 5-30am, brush teeth, use the lovely tent loos, no water to wash your face only a wet one! Pack up the tent and the car rush into breakfast and grab yet another egg of some sort, lukewarm tea and then hit the road for the first check in point. Lunch is eaten in the car whilst hurtling down ridged and stony tracks. Tonight we are camped on the Mongolia, Russia border. We are all hoping that tomorrow will not take 9 hours as it did last time As we still have 518kms to travel after that. We are in good spirits and so far Flora is performing . We do have trouble getting up the hills at altitude but Lloyd stops, I jump out and put a rock under the rear wheel and then he charges ahead and I run to catch up, simple really.WE will be in touch hopefully within the next day or two.

ALMATY

Arrived here to a 5 star hotel after many long days driving, camping and staying in bad hotels! We are doing fine except for the punctures again, 3 yesterday. However nothing compared to other peoples stories. ! car burnt to the ground, luckily they escaped in time. Another crew were left in the cdesert and had to morse code a local shepherd to rescue them. Someone spent 2 days on a truck sleeping in their car. Kazakstan is quite depressed and driving through the villages was like something out of the industrial revolution. Today we spent trying to buy inner tubes not easy especially when you don't speak the language. My school dramas lessons came in handy!! Off to Samarkand in 2 days.

DAY 5 REST DAY

I thought I should add that yesterday we approached a bluff which was deep sand, we made 3 attempts but to no avail, Flora just couldn;t make it. Everyone else was roaring passed which didn't help. Eventually we decided to bush wack acroos the scrub and made it to the top. Alas we have also had 2 punctures which really slowed us down and the car is running very rich so we stopped by the side of the road into Ulaan Bataar and cleaned 12 spark plugs!! I am learning a lot about car mechanics.The scenery here is quite similar to Southern Saskatchewan but it is very hot!! Tomorrow we start 6 nights of camping!! Will be in touch after that.

Ulaan battar

We arrived here last night after 2 brutal days of driving in the Ghobi Dessert, we have 6 more days to go on this stretch. We have had 2 punctures and the car is covered in sand and dirt both inside and out. WE arrived at the camp site the first night in the dark which was challenging, thank goodness for the GPS. WE then had to put up the tent which seemed so much easier when put up in the garden in Shirley. We are keeping up well so far and today is our first day off, we shall spend it cleaning and checking the car. I am afraid no photos at this stage as our camera has developed weird black spots! We shall try to get a new one today. Several cars have not made it this far so we feel pretty lucky. More in 6 days,.

GREAT WALL TO DALHAI

 

We were awake and up at 4-30am, down to breakfast and off to the Great Wall at Badaling for the start. Very exciting , people cheering, Chinese drums etc. It was nerve wracking at first trying to miss over laden trucks and having to handle the map book, the trip meter and the GPS.!! But after 30kms. Or so we got into our stride and managed very well. Let me say that after the first day we are still talking and married!! Now for a cool beer.

Passports found

Yesterday was spent sitting in the main Post Office in Vancouver trying to recover our lost passports.Basically Canada Post could not say where they were even though the package from Travcour was registered and we had a tracking number! It would seem that although you pay extra for this service all mail is put together and they have a weird or non existent tracking system. We spent 4 hours patiently waiting only to be told that they could not find it anywhere. We camehome feeling very despondent and wondering how we were going to get to Bejing. WE thought of going via London on British passports and picking up a China visa there . We had already invited some very close friends who had helped us with the car for dinner so we went ahead and just after the last guest left we received a call at 11-30pm. To say they had found the passports .!! Rather that trust them to a courier Lloyd flew back to Vancouver and picked them up! This I am sure will be the first of many trials in the upcoming weeks.

passports

 

Who would have believed that here we are 3 days from departure, packed, ready to go except!! Our passports seem to be lost somewhere between Canada customs in Vancouver and Shirley!. They apparently arrived in Vancouver from the visa company in London last Monday. They were sent registered mail and we have tracked them as far as customs. Lloyd and I are now sitting at the float plane terminal in Vancouver having flown here this morning awaiting a call from Canada Post who are trying to locate the package! If we do get off Monday I suspect that this hiccup will be minor to some we may encounter on the actual trip. As our motto says, we shall KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON!

Two weeks to go

We are now only 2 weeks away from leaving for Bejing. The Visa agency in London has confirmed that our passports are now at the Turkmenistan Embassy and we should have them back within the week. Now we have to organise our clothing, make the final choices etc. and put some dried food together for those days when Goat and Yak do not appeal! We are getting excited but also quite nervous, hoping that Flora will start in Bejing and that we will be able to navigate the course well. We will keep you posted.

OFF TO BEJING JULY 21ST.2010

Last Wednesday we delivered Flora to the warehouse in Vancouver. The previous few days were a little trying as it was decided to change the carburettor at the last moment and we had a difficult time adjusting the new carb! We then packed the boxes and Colin very kindly catalogued each tool and spare part into an alphabetical list as to where they all are!I am hoping that when Lloyd asks for the Snips or Come along I shall know exactly where they are in the car . That is if I can remember what they look like!

After a thank you Brunch for all of our friends who have helped us along the way we set off for the ferry with no problems. Next time we see Flora we will be in Bejing where the fun will really start. Must admit I am more than nervous at the prospect!

We now have 4 of our visas and 4 more to obtain. At the moment we are applying for Russia, Iran and China. We then have to send the passports back to the U.K.for the Turkmenistan visa. We are keeping more than our fingers crossed that we will have them in time.

Next job is our clothes and food items and then some more practice with the G.P.S.

The Big Moment

Friday May 7th. was the day we have all been waiting for. Flora was driven out of the barn for the first time! After a quick tour around the driveway we set out to deliver her to Kenny Butcher to have a custom exhaust fitted. Treacy followed in the truck. All was going well at first but after 35km. Flora ground to a halt and refused to go any further. I should add that it was now 9pm. and dark! We called a flatbed tow truck and delivered her to Kenny at 11pm. The original idea was to of dropped her off and then go out for dinner, needless to say we arrived home at midnight and had peanut butter sandwiches. Whilst I was sitting in the truck in the dark waiting for Lloyd and Kenny to turn Flora around I thought this might well happen on the rally in Turkmenistan or some such country and I had better get used to it!

Success!

Yesterday at 3pm. the engine was cranked and yes she started first time! With a few adjustments to the timing and much tinkering under the bonnet Flora roared into being. There was much jubilation as you can imagine and now we feel that we have a good chance of getting her to the Shipping agent on time. !! I was imagining being at the start at the Great Wall! The next step is to have the new exhaust fitted and then some long awaited time trials!! More photos to follow soon.

TheThe 'Skipper 'with bucket in hand as the radiator springs a leak!!!

VISAS!

Last week we travelled to Vancouver along with a briefcase full of completed visa forms, ready for our 12 photos to be taken etc. Full of enthusiam and patting ourselves on the back for being so organised ! We arrived at the visa agency only to be told that 'yes ' they could handle all our visas for a mere sum of $2800, however I would have to call Ulan Batar in Mongolia and ask for a hotel voucher! they also suggested that we do the same with several of the other countries as well. We left feeling very frustrated and have decided to go with the British Travel company and so we are now re doing all our forms.Very Frustrating!!!

Flora is coming along and we hope to have the engine fired up this week!!

Back From U.K.

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend with the rally Assoc. it was great to meet with fellow teammembers and after worrying that I would get us lost on the short rally section using the G.P.S. we actually did quite well. We are now back to working on the car! Things we re going well yesterday but today it was discovered that the radiator needed to be re-mounted! just as well as it apparently has a small leak which hopefully is being repaired as I write this. Oh well we will just keep calm and carry on!

Flora with her new yellow body!

Things are now coming along fast and we will soon be ready for the engine . Jim says one more day and it should be finished.We are off to England to pick up more parts! surprise surprise!! We are also going to do a one training on the GPS and a briefing day with some of the other crew members.If you would like to see the rest of the cars entered in the competition go to http://www.pekingtoparis.com

Off To The Bodyshop

With Ken giving us sound advice as always and Lloyd guiding her along we managed to put her safely onto the flatbed for her ride to Coachwerks in Victoria!