Our very comfortable three night stay in Chengdu was enriched by Claudia, the marvellous Singaporean woman who runs the show. Never has a GM of a large 5* hotel been so hands on. She was everywhere from breakfast to bedtime ensuring our stay was perfect. She was very worried the first night as so much of their expensive wine was ordered. She said never had a group drunk so much. She obviously hasn’t. had a rally stay there before. She went for a ride in the lovely old Bentley and was so happy.

Leaving Lhasa almost felt like starting another rally. We were setting off into the far wilder western region before dropping down to Nepal

The Chinese road west has been generally excellent, so far. Yesterday, we passed Tibetan villages that had not had the hand of China, and some that had. The scenery was, as usual stunning. The normal high passes, yaks, a glacier, a sacred lake of ethereal colour and some very primitive farming. Horse drawn ploughs and even harrowing done by a man standing on a plank behind a horse. We passed people fashioning bricks from yak dung – a primitive shit brick factory. . The season at this altitude is very short and they are usually only able to grow high altitude barley.

I was just too tired to blog yesterday. Many of us are not sleeping well because of the altitude and our driving days are long and hard. We are often in bed by 9 – exhausted but only getting fitful sleep.

Yesterday, Dom and Rosie had problems as did Mark and Yvonne in the mighty RR. Our fab mechanics worked into the night to get them both fixed. Other than that, car issues have been minor.

About today though, what can I say? there are not enough superlatives in the lexicon to describe the sheer majesty of what we have seen. We had a 6 am start, in the dark. Now that’s a proper rally day. The excitement was palpable because we were off to Everest!

We have been through dozens of police check points since leaving Chengdu and all have been friendly. Generally, they just need our passports, but sometimes our Chinese licences and Chinese car registration docs too. Today, we encountered our first military check points and they were a much bigger deal, but pretty efficient. The rally organisers have done a great deal of work to facilitate this rally – a first in Tibet.

We turned off the main road down towards base camp. We had been given special permission to visit the monastery there – the highest in the world.

The road went over a pass of over 18,000 feet. Probably higher than of you have ever been without the benefit of a jet engine. The wind was ferocious at the pass and even walking a few steps left us breathless.

What a road though! Just one more example of stupendous Chinese engineering. Driving it gave me a very good upper arm work out with all the hairpins and gear changes. Truly one of the great roads of the world and, after the pass, views of the high Himalaya and Everest!

We got to the monastery at the end of the road and there it was. The world’s highest mountain was staring us in the face. The weather gods had been kind and there was barely a cloud in the sky just the snow blowing off the top.

We were awestruck. Humbled. Spellbound. A day that will always stay with us.

Tonight, we are staying at an almost star hotel in Grubby little Tingri. The finest in the area… but I’ve stayed in worse on other rallies and it really isn’t too bad. It’s the small price you pay for the real privilege of visiting remote parts. The main problem is sketchy Wi-Fi. I’m not sure if this will post, or if the pictures will upload. Tomorrow, we have one more hotel before the camping when we will be really off grid. It doesn’t help that I am phoneless as many crews are getting 4G, but there we are. I’m doing my best here!