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.