What a day! 10 hours of heaven. Sweeping valleys; snowy mountains; glaciers; narrow rocky gorges; high passes; dramatic roads; Landslides; below freezing temperatures; burning hot sunshine; snow; hail; a turquoise river; ancient villages; brand new Chineses ones; vultures; tiny green valleys with peach blossom and wheat growing; the whole shebang. It was unbelievably good.

I love an early start. The light is so much better and there is something about places that are waking up. It’s always worth the effort on a rally. Often, we’re in slow cars too and have many kms to cover plus, you never know what problems the day may bring. It was just beautiful at 7 this morning. The sky was deepest azure blue, in contrast to the arid mountains. Even the new electricity pylons looked like an art installation.

We went up to a high pass with the most beautiful view across to the snowy mountains. The two other Defenders were already there. Lovely Fritz has a whole stash of German sausage, Swiss cheese and pumpernickel stored inside a spare wheel on the roof, for coolness. A whole German delicatessen was laid out on the bonnet for Rudi’s birthday breakfast. What a feast we had, and the view was something else.

Every hour brought new surprises and dramatic change. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

We came across Pads and Ham and the sweep vehicle working on the Merc, yet again. Hopefully, it’s fixed now. Hopefully. The blue Alvis, that we know so we’ll from other rallies with the previous owner, is terminal, unfortunately. It’s gearbox has failed and there is nothing to be done. It’s been problematic from the start with a variety of issues. Heroic mechanics, Richard and Karim, towed it for 70 kms, including over a 5200 metre pass, partially in the dark. The stuff of nightmares. As they were coming down from the pass the attachment broke on the tow rope. It was dark and the Landie is very noisy so they weren’t aware of it. Luckily, there was a local team support vehicle behind them and they rushed forward and got them to stop. It was a terrifying experience for all of them. We don’t like losing a member of the rally family; we are a tight knit crew so three cars in three days is very sad.

I’m writing this at 4,30 am – the things I do for you! I was just too tired last night. I was woken by an earthquake. My bed was shaking like a crazy house fairground ride and then the windows and door started rattling. It seemed to last a couple of minutes before calming down again. We’re on the 5th floor of a new hotel. I hope there hasn’t been any damage elsewhere. I’ve just looked it up and found it was a 6.1 in Arunachel Pradesh, in India. We had an earthquake on our New Zealand rally too.