The cars arrived safely

Tanggu (port)






:Which one are they in?




We took the cars out of their container today, and both fired up first time:















Customs officer phoning for orders:







:Kip gave a celebratory tootle on his bagpipes to the bemusement of the Chinese port workers, who wondered what they'd done wrong!

We're now spending an unscheduled second night here as one day wasn't enough to do all the paperwork. Still, the food and the beer are good, and so is the weather.

Sebastian goes first... in the end it was just eyes and ears.

Hong Kong ... Beijing .... paperwork

Arrived in Beijing via Hong Kong this morning, and about to set off for the port to collect the cars. However...it is now apparent that in order to collect a Chinese driving licence we have to be 'examined'....

Heathrow terminal 3

Kip, Carmen & Annabel checkin for their flight to Beijing.



Sebastian flew ahead 2 days ago to be the advance guard and is busy arranging a social whirl for their arrival.

Balloon Sacrifice

A few weeks ago we visited famous balloonist Robin Batchelor, who made a generous contribution to our trip equipment. The balloon called GBNAG, in which he taught Richard Branson to fly before Branson's record-breaking Atlantic crossing, had been languishing in his shed, and he decided to finally decommission it by giving us a section to use as a lightweight tarp.

Choosing a colour:















Cutting into ballooning history:

We hit the national press

The Telegraph article is in today's paper. You can see it at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2007/05/05/nosplit/mfpek05.xml

Shipping the cars - April 3rd/4th

With arrangements in place to deliver the cars to DHL on the morning of 4th April, on the 3rd we brought the two cars together for the first time since October. Having carefully stowed everything in the car (Kip and Carmen) or just thrown a pile of stuff in the back (Seb and me), we
took everything out for a photo session and interview with Andrew English of The Telegraph and photographer Graham Jepson.












We look relatively relaxed in the professional pictures, but as soon as the press left we got out the files, spanners and welding kit to try to finish a few last jobs. This continued until midnight, when Sebastian decided to split the rear axle and replace a gasket!



















After too brief a night's sleep we loaded the cars on trailers and made the short journey to Hayes, managing to both get lost and run out of fuel en route - not an auspicious start.

The Austins looked rather forlorn, left in the corner of a car park, but we were assured they would be safely packed in their container. PN 6583 also seemed alarmingly full considering that she didn't yet contain Seb's tent or sleeping bag, our medical kit, maps or any clothes. But there was no time to dwell on this as we all dispersed rather quickly - I took a tube to work while the others headed for Hereford and Shropshire.