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.