Sunday 1st July - Arriving in London

We arrived back in London on Sunday 1st July and as soon as I got home I found myself sucked back into normal life and work, with the expedition already receding into the distant past!

On the trip life was very simple - all we had to worry about each day was getting ourselves and the car another two or three hundred miles along the road. At home, life is much more complicated; requiring me to juggle priorities, commitments and future plans. I am enjoying my creature comforts, but missing the simplicity of life on the road.

Finally I've found time to add a few last photos of our arrival in London, which happened at the end of a long day. On Saturday June 30th, after some indecision as to whether or not to make inroads into the journey to London, it was decided to spend the night in Paris in a small backstreet hotel near Gare St Lazare. Sebastian walked by the river while I sat in a cafe, watching the world go by, and thinking about getting home.

Another early start (5.00) and we retrieved the Austin from Place Vendome, where we had discreetly freeloaded on the rally car security. We escaped from a still-sleeping Paris with only a couple of wrong turns, and set off for Calais.

After an uneventful journey, sharing the driving, and with mercifully few HGVs, we arrived at Calais in good time for our booked 14.20 Eurotunnel crossing. It was a good thing Sebastian had booked a place, as every train was fully booked, and even the Austin couldn't be squeezed onto an earlier crossing.

In England the forecast rain made only a brief appearance, and we arrived in London to a pleasant evening, and a great welcome from family and friends at the Leinster Arms. Many thanks to everyone who came to welcome us back, some travelling great distances.

Thanks also to all of those who have followed the blog, and encouraged us with your comments. It made it worth doing, to know that people were taking an interest in our trip. It's not too late to make a contribution to our Unicef fundraising efforts! You can donate online at www.justgiving.com/annabeljones or sebastianwelch.

Looking back
It has been the journey of a lifetime, and highlights which will stay with me include: Experiencing the great wildernesses of Mongolia and Siberia; receiving generous hospitality everywhere we went; discovering the beauty of Eastern European cities like Gdansk and Vilnius, and seeing the gradual changes in the landscape, the architecture, the wildlife and the people across 7,500 miles.

There have been low points in the trip, chief among which were: Attacks by the huge and silent Siberian mosquitoes; sandstorms - one of which blew away my tent; the Russian potholes, one of which launched the car into the air and broke its windscreen frame and glass on landing; and having with the split windscreen wide open when it rained, turning my skin to leather and the maps to papier mache.

The constant vibration over poor (or non-existent) roads led to everything working loose, and a few areas will now need attention. A week from Paris the starter motor stopped working, so we resorted to bump starting. By Europe we were using back axle oil at the rate of a pint every 100 miles. The fan housing and/or shaft became badly worn, and so had to be packed with grease at every stop. To everyone's surprise we only had one puncture, and returned with almost the entire collection of spares. Overall the car did superbly, proving the right choice for the journey - a testament to Herbert Austin and British engineering, as well as to its preparation and to Sebastian's maintenance en route.

Kip and Carmen took a different route to Paris, arrived safely and have now also returned to the UK, via celebrations in Normandy, where they have a house.

Statistics
Duration: 45 days (including 9 rest days)
Total distance: 7450 Peking to Paris, 7850 from Tanggu to London.
Average speed 27 mph - 17 mph in the Gobi Desert
Fuel consumption 37 mpg
Maximum altitude 8,800 ft (2,700 metres) near the Mongolia-Russia border

It

Some new pics

I've finally been able to add a few pics to the last few days blogs - most notably Sanssouci in all its glory - page down to 27 June for a look.

Paris At Last

Following much of the route Bourghese took almost 100 years ago from Reims we arrived at La Place de la Concorde ( La Automobile Club de France based in the square as well as the FIA) mid morning.
45 days ago we left Peking and everywhere the locals have been helpful and generous.
In Mongolia the hospitality was unbelievable.
My Chummy although worn out has performed extremely well.
The only outside help being a puncture repair and having the o.s.windscreen support welded up.
My thanks go to absolutely everyone who was involved with the car, gave advice, spares and help.
Thank you to all the sponsors, the trip could not have been done without them.
This has been a team effort so a big thank you to Annabel for all navigating, support and help.
Congratulations to K and C for making it and good luck to Jaap and Robert, Vince Leek and the saloons and all the Rally competitors.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to Unicef the charity we have been supporting.
The White Cliffs of Dover will room be in sight!

Saturday 30th June. PARIS!

We have Arrived!

We left Reims at 7am and, after a bit of backtracking to find the right road out of town, followed Borghese's original route for the last 100 miles to Paris. It was a smooth, if wet run, through small villages and between fields of ripening wheat. I felt surprisingly emotional thinking how much of this would have looked the same 100 years ago.

After negotiating the traffic on the Peripherique (very different from 1907) we drove up Boulevard Voltaire, Place de la Republique, Boulevards St Martin, St Denis, de Bonne Nouvelle and Poissonniere (where Le Matin had offices), then on to Place de la Concorde, home of The Automobile Club of France, and Borghese's finishing place, at 10:30am.

Neither the Club (backdrop for the picture) nor the Hotel next door were interested in serving two bedraggled Brits with a celebratory cup of coffee, let alone a champagne lunch, so we went sightseeing instead. The Austin 7 proved a great way to see the city, and was appreciated by Parisiens and tourists alike, although I don't think many believed our story of driving it from Beijing.

Our total mileage for the route was 7475 miles, satisfyingly close to our prediction. We'll work out the other statistics of the journey later and post them here, for those interested in that sort of thing.

Friday 29th June; Olpe to Reims

Up at 5am and, after Seb did a check over and I pushed the car down the road to start it (I am glad she starts so well) we were on our way by 6.50. West to Aachen on the motorway, then to Liège by more minor roads - a bit of an error as it turned out, since we got stuck in traffic, had a fruitless hunt for gear oil, and fun and games navigating the back streets with a compass and a road atlas that just showed Aachen as a big blob of pink.


We finally resolved the route, and we had our easiest border crossing ever - just a sign by the road that I didn't recognise as a border until the street signs changed style. There we were in Belgium and still hadn't stopped for breakfast.


From Liege we followed Borghese's route up the pituresque valley of the Meuse, via Namur, Dinant, Rocroi, Revin and Rethel to Reims. Apart from another almost unnoticed border crossing into France, and lots of rain, it was uneventful. I let the Regenmeister do the driving, which he seemed to enjoy - screen fully open, while I tried to get as low as possible to miss the worst of the water. I did notice at one point that the temperature guage had gone so high that the needle was up against the stop pin at zero, from the wrong direction!

Now in Reims - a change of plan, and a little further from Paris than Meaux, but we were persuaded by rallyists to come here for a drink or two en route.

A bit demob happy now, and looking forward to seeing friends and family in London on Sunday. Still nearly 400 miles and a channel crossing to go before then though.

Many thanks for all the supportive comments people have left. Ruairidh and Tanya I hope you have a great time in Norway in your Chummy. Also all the best to the Frazer Nash Raiders, off to the Alps.

Thursday 28th June Porters knife sets Austin free.

Had to park the 7 in the underground car park near the Branden Burg Gate to avoid a €15 fine if parked on the road. At 0515 the car park was locked, fortunately the hotel porter picked the lock. Another wet day but the car goes better, running with the top screen open adds another 3mph to the top speed. The twisty hilly road between Braunlage and Herzberg was glorious with all the weight in the back it is quite tail happy. Bumped into Paul Carter and Vincent Fairclough in a garage south of Potsdam. Paul driving his Derby Special (in the past known as the Cockroach). After 12 hours and 306 miles ready for a break and Annabel drove the last 47 miles. As we approached Olpe we were flagged down by Nick Bailey and Margaret in Nicks very original LWB 3 Litre. A few beers and they were on there way to Koblenz. Car went well again but german traffic police unimpressed by oil leaks.

Service at pit stop.

When I stopped here for oil this morning 3 mechanics very interested in the Austin, in exchange for a photo taken by phone the oil was given free of charge.

Thursday 28th June, Rain

AM: Miserable day here - on a motorway in driving rain. Couldn't be wetter!

PM: 50 miles east of Cologne. Wet, but fine.

Evening: At Olpe, a small place for the night, after a 350 mile day - our biggest yet. At least the rain cleared for me to have a drive this afternoon. Now fallen into bad company in a local pub!

Wednesday 27th June, Potsdam

Pic 1. Cloisters at Sanssouci
















Pic 2. The palace and its fig terraces










Pic 3. Formal gardens.











Pic 4. Chinese summerhouse










This morning Sebastian went on a hunt for gear oil (to replenish the back axle's constantly leaking supply) and found a friendly garage, which gave him some free of charge in exchange for taking a photo of the car!

This afternoon I explored Parc Sanssouci - a flight of fancy of a summer palace, built by Friedrich the Great in 1745. On the south side there is a series of terraces growing figs, grapes and plums, with large formal gardens studded with fountains.

The fountains are fed by a large storage pool to the north of the palace, which is surrounded by fake classical ruins - Greek, Roman, Tuscan, Norman and Egyptian all tumbled together. The formal gardens are stunning, with long vistas and classical statues, urns and follies to draw the eye into the distance.

I was just thinking that Friedrich needed a pagoda to complete his collection of classical styles when I came across a Chinese summerhouse - a ridiculous confection of green and gold with statues, some of whose features bore a passing resemblance to Chinese.

The weather all day has been blustery, changing conditions quickly between warm sun, black clouds and sudden cloudbursts.

Tomorrow we drive towards Liege. We'll probably stop for the night somewhere between there and Cologne, and then drive on to Meaux on Friday. Two long (over 300 mile) days ahead of us. I hope the car holds together, and that the weather is kind.

Tuesday 26th June - more

Pic 1. en route, in the rain.











Pic 2. The German-Polish border.


And see below for newly-added Gdansk photos.









We experienced something of what the UK has been having, with the wettest day of the journey by far. Sebastian is a Regenmeister in the Schumacher mould, and relished it - throwing the car around in a way I wouldn't have been able to do.

Without windscreen wipers we had to run with the top screen completely open, meaning that the rain hit us full in the face. Seb has decent goggles which, with his hood pulled tight, made it bearable. With only sunglasses I just hunkered down and concentrated on trying to stop the maps from turning to papier mache (only partly successful) and finding us a route around Berlin to Potsdam, avoiding both rush hour traffic and motorways. After sitting in puddles all day I worry about getting nappy rash - still, it soothes the mosquito bites!

At the German border we were kept waiting for longer than at either Latvia or Lithuania but, with the rain hammering on the roof of the customs shed we didn't mind too much.

As Seb says, the end is in sight now, and I can't wait to get back to my long-suffering and patient better half, Kevin, who has been trying to organise a welcome party for us despite our changes of timetable. Our return is badly timed from the point of view of crossing the channel, as apparently everything is fully booked, so no big reception in Paris. The party will have to wait until London on Sunday night, assuming we can squeeze the Austin into a corner on a Eurotunnel train.

Making time to put fingers to keyboard

Left Gdansk at 05.45 (the town was quite busy) 13 hours later drove into Potsdam after very wet drive and being in the driving seat for 326 miles.

The reupholsted seat squab now comfortable at the end of the day. PN went well due to cooler weather and possibly the 4 hour service yesterday. Mountain Equipment jacket kept out the elements but waterproof trousers never seem to be waterproof!

Paris almost in sight!

Sebastian

Tuesday 26th June - Rain, and into Germany.

PM: It has rained very hard today on and off (the hood is back in England). Now at the German Border - Euro Zone and all the mystery has gone. Breakfast this morning was at a BP wild bean cafe! Getting demob happy, looking forward to finishing.

Planning to stay in Potsdam tonight - Paris side of Berlin. Should be easier for traffic and hotels.

Monday 25th June - Gdansk

Pic 1 - overheating engine - this is what the temperature guage looks like most of the time!





Pic 2 - arriving in Gdansk











Pic 3 - one of the pictures at the Roads to Freedom exhibition in the Gdansk shipyards.






Gdansk is another pleasant surprise of a city. I only knew it as a place of shipyards and Solidarity, but it has a beautiful, compact Old Town with cobbled streets, pedestrianised areas and historic buildings.

Unfortunately the only internet cafe we can find is running Windows 98 and I can't put up any pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for the delights of Gdansk for the time being. [edited to add - pictures now added].

This morning Seb had a long fettle of the car, trying to get the starter motor to work. The commutator was full of carbon - now cleaned out, but we will be push starting the car for the next few days.

Thank you David for your suggestion about the fan belt, but Seb has tried different settings and reckons it is beyond that.

Tomorrow to Berlin - or probably just beyond, to Potsdam. We've found the smaller cities easier from many points of view - getting into the centre with a vintage car, finding accommodation (with parking) and being able to see something of the city without being overwhelmed.

For the last run in to Paris we will try to follow Borghese's route of 1907 as far as possible, via Liege, Reims and Meaux. If we stay at Meaux on Friday and make an early start we will be in Paris for breakfast and to celebrate. We're both really looking forward to getting to Paris, and then back home. I should be home on Sunday night, while Seb has the extra drive to Staffordshire to do on Monday, before he and the Austin can really relax.

Sunday 24th June - to Gdansk

Long Day -13 hours on the road. Now in Gdansk where we found a studentish bar where we've just ordered food. We've just had our last time zone change until the Channel.

Great roads, and managed to stay on B-roads most of the way. Tarmac seems to be courtesy of the EU, here and in Lithuania. Lakes and scenery Poland's own.

A nasty noise from the engine diagnosed as a worn fan pulley. Packing it with grease has quietened it, which will do for now.

Text received from K&C: We are staying just by the Polish/German boarder. berlin very early tomorrow morning then on towards Reims. Meeting up with A and S on saturday for a photo session at 8am so we can get to Falaise for midday on Saturday

Saturday 23rd - Sightseeing day

Pic 1. One of the day's many weddings.















Pic 2. The old town from Gedimino's Tower









Pic 3. Gedimino's Tower










Pic 4. the only memorial in the world to Frank Zappa















Pic 5. Gates of Dawn Chapel











Pic 6. Devotees of the Vilnius Madonna - renowned for her healing ability.







Pic 7. St Anne's Church, of which Napoleon said that he would like to take it in his hands home to France.













Vilnius is highly recommended. The Old town is relatively unspoilt, and quiet. This was quite different from the crowds of tourists in St Petersburg. It's also a manageable size - everything accessible on foot, and some real gems of churches.

Lithuania has a vibrant religious life. Every church I went into had a service going on, and was full. In St Anne's Church there was sublime singing from the congregation, and a choir out of sight in a gallery. All the churches are richly decorated with icons, frescoes, statues, paintings and acres of gold leaf.

At the Ausros Vartai (Gates of Dawn) Chapel the painting of the Madonna was covered with gold, all except her face and hands. There was a steady stream of devotees asking her to intercede for them. Apparently here it is considered to be the picture that has the power to heal, and the women were very fervent. I hope they get what they were asking for - it seemed almost pagan to me.

The city was full of brides and grooms - at the main cathedral (the Archcathedral Basilica) there were four couple - one inside, two outside waiting, and one leaving for the bridge. There is a tradition that newlyweds lock a padlock onto the bridge, and throw the key in the river, to 'eternalise' their marriage.

Lunch consisted of zepellins - the local speciality. Meat inside zepellin-shaped moulds of mashed potato. It was a bit stodgy, but good.

Seb and I arranged to meet at Gedimino's tower, on a hill overlooking the town. From the park at its foot I found a steep and winding path, which seemed to match the guidebook description. Arriving at the top out of breath, but on time, I found that I had climbed the wrong hill - the Hill of Three Crosses instead. Quickly down, found the right one, and climbed that, arriving less than half an hour after our due time (the hills aren't as large as the guidebooks would have one believe), but no Seb. It turned out that he climbed Gedimino's hill, then the Three Crosses one, and we had failed to meet each other on the paths between! Off to a bar now to find beer - maybe I'll bump into Seb on the same search!

Tomorrow we head for Gdansk, and it will be a long day.

Saturday 23rd June - day off in Vilnius

Only a week to go now until we expect to get to Paris and, after a long day driving yesterday and two border crossings (the second one only taking a matter of minutes as both Latvia and Lithuania are in the EU) we are having a day off in Vilnius.

We find ourselves in a country (Lithuania) of which we have no knowledge - no guide books, only a very small scale map as part of our European road atlas, and we arrived not even knowing what the currency is called, or what language is spoken! No problem though, as everyone so far is friendly and able to speak either English or German, so we may not have to mime everything. We've seen our last Cyrillic script too, so reading road signs will be much easier. Last night in the street we met a very helpful man called Martin, on his way to pick up his father from a Joe Cocker concert, who did a detour to find us a hotel. Unfortunately I have yet to find internet access that will let me upload pictures, but will keep trying.

Today will be sightseeing, and a brief immersion in Lithuanian culture before heading on to Poland - Gdansk is the plan, followed by Berlin, then Paris.

To Class P5 - Well done Katie and Shona. You were the closest, by saying a Kremlin is a castle. It is a fortified area at the centre of a town. It would originally have been a place to which the people of the town would retreat (probably with possessions and animals) if they were under attack. There were similar fortifications for some British medieval towns, which were used the same way. Over time the space has become filled with buildings of importance to the town - usually including a church and government offices. Often the Russian centre of government in Moscow is referred to as 'The Kremlin' for this reason, but every old town has its own Kremlin.

Friday 22nd June - Over the border to Vilnius

Pic 1 - stork on telegraph pole.















Pic 2 almost our last Cyrillic before leaving Russia (pronounced something like Vyishgorodok - my ability to read this has now become redundant)


Pic 3. Latvian entry border control









Pic 4. Seb feeling the cold, and about to check the plugs










Am: On our way out of Pskov we stopped at a post office and illegally parked on the pavement. A police 4x4 pulled up. Four cops jumped out and stopped all the traffic - to get the best shots on their cameras.

We had a reasonably easy drive to the Border, though lush meadows. The only problem- no signposting of border, or of the next large town which is on the other side, so presumably it's of no interest. We drove past a line of telegraph poles by the road, each topped with a storks nest. They were rather camera shy, but stunning. Flying overhead they looked ungainly - legs dangling. Stopped for pictures to a chorus of crickets and cuckoos and it feels very summery.

Lunch time: We may not make it to Vilnius tonight as we are still at the border and 200 miles to go. It's after 1pm and Seb's stomach is demanding lunch - won't be fobbed off with bananas!

Evening: Vilnius is very civilised. Nice city, hotel staff smile and speak English, allow you to pay on departure, and don't keep your passport! So far so good.

Hello to Class P5!













Text from K & C, " just crossed into Lithuania. Yet another currency! We are only 2 hours ahead now. We are going to meet A and S in Berlin. "

Thursday 21st June - St Petersburg to Pskov

Pic 1. Picnic spot with not too much rubbish, where we cooked up meals from our supply of army rations.





Pic 2. Stopped by the police.











Pic 3. Pskov Kremlin.











Pic 4. me and Kremlin











Pic 5. Three generations of Russians out walking.









Pic 6. The ubiquitous Lenin statue.















Congratulations to Gordon and Sandy of P5 for their answer to the question about St Petersburg. Quite right, and I hope you enjoyed the school trip.

Thank you Paul for letting us know the cricket result - we were able to pass this on to the errant 30-98 in St Petersburg. They took it very well.

This morning we set off early, with the rally traffic, but soon lost them as they were heading to Tallinn in Estonia, while we were going south towards Vilnius, in Lithuania, but with a night's stop in Pskov en route.

A few miles outside St Petersburg we stopped for a mini service in a lay-by - oil change, cleaning the distributor, and changing spark plugs. The car seemed to go better after the attention.

The road was good - reasonable tarmac, and hardly any trucks, with attractive woodland - scabius, hare bells and monster cow parsley on the verges, along with the usual collection of rubbish. We were only stopped by the police three times - the first two at regular checkpoints, where they wanted to see our documents and chat. The third time a police car came up on our tail, siren and lights going, and pulled us over. I was nervous, but the two policemen climbed out of the car smiling, camera phone in hand, asking if they could take a picture.

We filled up with petrol just outside Pskov, and calculated our fuel consumption for the day at 45 mpg - pretty good, and gives us a range of 427.5 miles. Not that we've needed that much anywhere on our route. Our distance today was just over 200 miles, giving us a total so far of 5,800 and, on the shortest route, only about 1,000 to go.

Pskov is an attractive small city, with a historic Kremlin (Class P5, do you know, or can you find out what a Kremlin is?). After the St Petersburg traffic we've decided that this is a better size of city to visit with a vintage car, and enjoyed strolling around the streets, taking in the views along the river.

Tomorrow we have a border crossing and just over 200 miles to do in order to reach Vilnius. The other Austin crossed the border into Estonia today and got through smoothly, only taking 2.5 hours, so we hope to do no worse. They are now planning to miss Vilnius and go straight to Poland, so it seems we will be playing leapfrog across Europe!

Wednesday 20th June - St Petersburg

Pic 1. Sky over St Petersburg at 2am.

Pic 2. a woman in costume near the Hermitage.

Last night we went to the hotel where the rally is based (it was 9pm by the time we arrived, after a two hour slog through St Petersburg rush hour traffic) and hung around in the bar catching up with friends and waiting to hear about a room. Finally after 11pm we were told they could fit us in. A huge relief, as the alternative would have been to pitch our tents in the car park. The hotel is a huge improvement on Moscow's Hotel Cosmos, which seems to have employed KGB agents to guard the lifts and restaurants, and prevent guests from eating or getting to their rooms without proper ID.

It has been a very pleasant surprise to find out, both here and in Moscow, how many of the rally competitors were aware of us doing the same route, and they have been looking out for us. In Moscow we were asked; "When did we overtake you?" The reply being; "You haven't yet - we arrived yesterday." They are all astonished to see how small and fragile the Austin looks, and can't believe we've come the same route as them.

Many of the rally cars have suffered badly, and been trucked or towed for large portions of the route. Adam Hartley and Jonathan Turner's Itala (which has done the journey once already, driven by Lang Kidby) broke its crankshaft before Ulaan Baatur, and now has a Russian Volga engine. It's running again, but they missed 16 days of the rally. Many competitors have damaged their suspension by trying to maintain high speeds on unsurfaced roads - we've told them our secret; to do it slowly.

We've been thinking of Vince Leek and his team - three Austin 7 saloons who were scheduled to leave Beijing on 10th June, and wonder how they're getting on. I think they should be in the Gobi by now, and hope that everyone (cars and people) is well.

Today has been very civilised and car-free; lunch with and farewell to the Beijing to Norwich team, and a very quick trip to the Hermitage Museum. I concentrated on the Renaissance and Impressionist collections, and didn't even scratch the surface of the collection. It was difficult to decide how to divide my attention between the artwork and the buildings.

Now we have to decide on our route and timing from St Petersburg to Paris/England. We're well ahead of schedule, and the cars are running well, so we could arrive in Paris much sooner than our original plan. Alternatively we could dawdle through Europe, sightseeing en route. Whatever we decide, we'll be leaving St Petersburg very early tomorrow, to try to beat the traffic.

Tuesday 19th June - to St Petersburg

Pic 1 - Rainbow over Tver
















Pic 2 - Cathedral at Novgorod - the frescoes and icons inside were spectacular (but no photos I'm afraid)




Pic 3 and 4 - in St Petersburg traffic we met people from the large rally doing the same route. The Vauxhall 30-98 of Michael Power and Johnny Green is bruised but running fine. Looks to me like they have too much luggage - and I wonder if they've ever used the hood.






Pic 5. The convoy stopped outside the Hermitage for a photo opportunity and for the Bentley to pump up a flat tyre.




Pic 6. the local police disapproved of our parking style - or the various fluids we were dropping and asked to see everyone's documents. In Moscow two days ago we were asked for original documents, but had left them in the hotel. The police threatened to arrest the car, but finally let us off.

Am: Yesterday we left Moscow in the afternoon and managed about 100 miles to Tver.
Stared driving at 5:45am to try to do the just over 300 miles and get to St Petersburg for this evening and meet up with Kip & Carmen.

PM: 40 miles to go and pouring with rain. Just heard that the hotels are all apparently full for midsummer. May be sleeping on the street! A question for Clober Primary School, Glasgow: Why is midsummer special here in St Petersburg?

Later: Driving though St Petersburg rush hour traffic, 3 litre Bentley in front, Vauxhall 30-98 behind, both filming us. Not something you do everyday!