I walked up the deserted street in GiLong towards the car compound with the snowy mountains hanging over me and I felt quite emotional. I entered the supposedly secure car park (several cars were rifled through in the night) and walked around all the filthy, beautiful and plucky little cars. I was alone, as it was well before breakfast and the light was just appearing. I thought about us being the only 40 people in the world to achieve what we have and self drive through Tibet, from east to west and then cross the Himalayan range and into Nepal. I confess, I had a moment.

We were warned that the day would be long. border crossings can be deeply tedious – my record is 9 hours to get from Russia into Kazakhstan. This was to be especially trying because it’s a crossing for small, tatty Nepalese trucks who’ve collected goods from the very large Chinese trucks in GiLong. They certainly hadn’t seen anything like us lot before. We queued and queued. Drivers went off one way and co- drivers the other. We had to remove all our luggage from our vehicles and carry it through to be x-rayed and to get our exit stamps. It was very thorough. Julia’s maps cause great consternation and were given a long going over. Mark R had his book ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ confiscated and Ed had a book that had to be taken away for further examination. In truth, they don’t want anything about Tibet taken out of the country. The oppression of the Tibetan people is something for another post as I can now talk freely about it. We were very heavily monitored in Tibet and I was ordered to take down part of one post I made earlier.

Anyway, back to the border. When I reached the immigration desk, the officer spent a long time looking through my passport and then gestured me to stand aside while it was taken away for further scrutiny. I was baffled by this as everyone else had been stamped and were on their way – to another queue, anyway. Eventually, I was given it back and allowed to proceed. The only thing I can think of is that I have many, many visas in my passport and despite it being an extra thick one and only three years old, it is almost full.

There is a Bailey bridge that marks the actual border between the two countries, replacing a washed away one that you can still see. Co- drivers had to walk across it. The tarmac stopped and we were in dusty, chaotic Nepal. The Nepalese border office is a small shed containing a man with a ledger and a biro. On the other side, China has built a giant marble and pink granite edifice that points towards poor little Nepal saying ‘fuck you’.

It was deeply chaotic, as you would expect. Go here, wait there , rinse and repeat. There was a small place where we could get some chai and we sat and stood around waiting for our instructions. It’s too tedious to explain the whole rigmarole, quite frankly. Let’s just say it took 4 hours from getting to the Chinese border post to get into Nepal.

There are many police, army and civil police checkpoints as you move away from the border. We went through 14 in total. At some, we had to open the back of the Landie and all our luggage for inspections. It was a complete waste of time.

We drove a total of 97 miles to get to Katmandu and it took 12 hours. 12 long, hard and dusty hours. About 10% of the road had black top. It was a real car breaking and tortuous journey. We had been on the road for over 16 hours before we reached Katmandu. It was a thrilling ride though, in many ways. The open cars had a very tough time of it. The ‘road’ had so many twist and turns, washed away sections, landslides and damage from the huge earthquake that decimated the area just a few years ago. There were really bad rocky bits, deep sand, corrugations, narrow broken bits with no Armco and sheer drops ready to take you to your next life. We went through many villages where we given a heroes welcome. We travelled in a convoy as the stronger cars might have had to help the old ones to tackle some of the more extreme bits. Actually, even though it was all extreme, everyone arrived in the capital under their own steam. A miracle.

It got really bad once it got dark though. All the trucks come out then and the dust, coupled with their strong lights and take no prisoners attitude, made it much more difficult. The newer cars were interspersed with the old to help with lighting. David and Julia, in the Bentley, had no lights at all. It was very hard going. I found it all rather thrilling, but then we were in a Defender. I was very concerned about the classic cars – the pre- war, with their high clearance, faired much better.

We finally arrived, late into the evening, hungry, filthy and a bit shell shocked from the journey we had just undertaken. Several of us couldn’t walk straight as we were still swaying. It was like getting off a boat. There was a real party atmosphere as we re- arranged the tables, to the bemusement of the hotel staff, and fell upon the buffet. Enormous quantities of wine were consumed and it was very late by the time we stumbled into bed. It was all very jolly. We had made it to Katmandu!

For some crews, this is the end of their rally. Not for 6 of us though as we are carrying on after breakfast today on our journey towards Varanasi.

I’ve been in Katmandu before, about 100 years ago, and time, and earthquakes have not been kind to it. Streets I remember as being sleepy with the odd car and beautiful old buildings are now traffic chocked thoroughfares with rampant, uncontrolled and generally hideous development.

I went out for a walk to the Durbar Square with Ham, Mark and Paddy. We did a little hat shopping on the way. The extraordinary buildings in the square suffered huge damage in the earthquake and there is restoration ongoing. They will never be the same though. We found a little rooftop cafe overlooking the square, where the extent of the damage was all too plain to see. Lightweights Ham and Pads took a taxi back to the hotel and Mark and I carried on on our cashmere quest. Ham also wanted some trousers for his daughter, which we managed to find. We found a little shop stuffed to rafters with beautiful and top quality cashmere, bought loads, did a deal and afterwards congratulated ourselves on our efficient shopping spree. Then, we thought about what we had paid – it was almost nothing, unbelievable.

We’re all tired and after a good lunch many went for a nap. I went to have a mani pedi and was soon joined by Julia and Anne. It was an afternoon of female maintenance. We also got the Landie cleaned at an large, well organised car wash that Rudi found. They certainly earned their money.

Last night, we had a jolly final dinner. Rally Director, Kim Bannister, organiser of all the Peking/Paris events to date and many other rallies worldwide, said that he has done rallies that are believed to be the toughest you can undertake in the world but, what we have achieved is far and away the hardest event he has ever been involved in. Coming from Kim, that is very strong and powerful talk. What the organisation has achieved is absolutely unbelievable and a better team you could not find.

I didn’t stay up late though – unusual for me – because I was just too damn tired. Dawn is breaking now and a new adventure is waiting. Adrian is on his way to the airport. He’s spending a day with a board member of Indian Railways, in Delhi, before flying back to London late tonight.

We’re off to Pokhara, in Western Nepal, for two nights. It’s not that far, in miles, anyway, but given the road conditions it may take some time. At least it will be light though. Everything is better in daylight.