Sorry if I’m boring you, but we’ve just had another great day. While nothing can top Everest, what we have seen and done today would normally be the best day of any rally. Every day is a best day here. It is stupendous.

I’m a bit of a fool though and you may wonder how on earth what I’m about to tell happened. The views we had of snowy high Himalaya today were unsurpassed. They just went on and on. We passed a scene that was almost medieval in that there was a whole village coming together to plough and till the fields. There were hundreds of people. No machinery of any sort, just people with hoes, a couple of ponies harrowing with a plank and a lot of hard labour. The foolish bit is that I took dozens of photographs of things I may never see again but I regret to tell you I was sans memory card. You may wonder how that could happen as it would flash up on the big screen of my camera but I always look through the viewfinder, old fashioned woman that I am. I will steal this mornings photos from Paddy Walker and post them when I get a bit of decent Wi-Fi – which isn’t in this hotel.

We stopped at a viewpoint and made some soup, we were soon joined by some other crews and shared tea, coffee and some snacks. Never travel on a rally, especially one like this, without a car stuffed with nuts, pringles, chocolate and, of course, fruitcake. snickers bars feature highly on a rally too. In Mongolia, they were often the only things fit to eat. A more beautiful spot though, you can hardly imagine. We were overlooking a scared, cobalt blue lake with a backdrop of the high Himalaya all under a cloudless sky.

A message came through that the road ahead was closed, because of roadworks, and would not be reopened until 7. We were to stay where we were where everyone else would join us. That was fine, we got out our folding chairs, put the kettle on and then we all set the world to rights, happy as can be. The only worry was that if we did have to stay until 7, it would mean driving in the dark, with endless hairpins – a very bad idea, especially for the old cars. The only way to do it would to be in a slow convoy with the newer cars, with better headlights, interspersed with the oldies. There was no alternative as we were on the only road.

Eventually, everyone else arrived and a decision was made by the organisation that we would move forward together and when our caravan arrived they may just be so overwhelmed by the amazing spectacle they would just let us through. We were also warned that there were some very difficult bits for the old cars, because of roadwork diversions. Soft, uphill sand, big shelf drops and general bad roughness. it might be a chance for us to use our winch and tow bar.

What a sight we were! On rallies you rarely travel together and it’s surprising how spread out you can become. Even a time difference if a few minutes means you are apart from other cars. It turned out to be a very long stretch of maybe 80kms of disruption and while there were indeed some very tricky bits, we all got through! What a day! I LOVED it – a true rally day. The scale of the road building project is immense. There were new bridges going in, many culverts and all on very difficult up and down terrain not to mention the 4000 metre plus altitude. It will probably be finished a week on Wednesday, knowing how quick Chinese engineering projects are. No years of endless consultations, just get on and do it.

Last nights hotel was rather basic and the rooms freezing cold. At breakfast, there was a complete gender split about who had been cold all night – it was all the woman of course. All the men said they were perfectly warm – except Richard Cunningham – he was with us!

Tonight, we are staying in ‘The Grand Hotel of the Western Post’. Hmm… maybe not so much. The hardened rallyists amongst us of course think it’s fine and we’ve all stayed in worse. A sanitorium in Turkmenistan, a brothel in Russia, the hotel lobby floor in Iran, a complete doss house in Semey, Kazakhstan, that was being blown up after we left, to name but a few, – oh yes, we’ve stayed in some crackers!

It’s actually warmer outside than in, by a large margin. I’m writing this lying on my bed with a cashmere scarf over a pillow I don’t want to think too closely about, a cardigan around my neck, just so something of mine is next to me and two layers of clothing. Bloody freezing! The bed is a hard plank with no more than an inch of padding (really) and is as hard as it sounds. The electricity is off. However, there was hot water last night in the rudimentary bathroom. This is just as well as it is the last shower we will see for 4 days. There may be liberal use of Tom Dixon perfume in car 20.

The good news is that after our camping adventure, we get to come back here and repeat the pleasure before heading towards Nepal.

I’m absolutely loving this rally – can you tell?

This will be the last post for some days as we venture forth into the unknown. See you on the other side!