Peking to Paris 2016 – Julie Stephenson

Jul 25

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Paris…

Paris was our destination for this epic ‪#‎pekingtoparis‬ endurance rally. Paris was amazing… and HOT.. which meant shorts and icecream! We had a fabulous couple of days wandering and I will return to Paris another time to delve more into the life and culture of this most fascinating city. We climbed the Eiffel tower on the hottest day of the year so far in Paris and the ‘locals’ were melting… as was the ice-cream in the chest high fridges which were ill accustomed to such temperatures. Rosy cheeks and dripping foreheads trundled up the metal stairs to the platform high on the Eiffel tower. Hundreds of people queued in the sun to rise to the highest point in the tower in an elevator. There was no way I was going to be crammed like a pressed sardine in a box hoisted by cables to the point in the sky… regardless of how iconic the journey was. I was content walking around at the highest elevation the stairs delivered us to. There was a lovely breeze cooling as I gained a perspective of Paris I have not experienced before. It was an incredible experience driving through 11 countries in 36 days and I learned so […]

Jul 19

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We made it!!!!

We made it!!! Through 11 countries. Over 13,695 kms in 36 days. An adventure of epic proportions… and so epic I just wasn’t able to keep up with my blog broadcasts as I had intended and envisaged. 🙁 Yesterday we drove from Reims, with the checkered flag being waved by young people rollerblading on random corners as we navigated on and off route toward Place Vendome in Paris. The black and white inflatable arch with the iconic orange ‘Peking to Paris’ logo expanded in the summer heat and marked the end of the driving part of the Peking to Paris rally; but not the end to the wonderful friendships that were made along this remarkable adventure, and the memories of the experiences which have shaped each of our futures. After the first timed stage in Mongolia I stopped Max and said we needed to have a talk. I suggested we take it steady – and if we do that… we will make it to the finish line in one piece and perhaps even in first place if we just enjoyed ourselves along the way; adhered to all the criteria for the Gold medal; and looked after Penny. So that’s what […]

Jul 13

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Famous healing thermal baths in Budapest

Szechenyi thermal baths in Budapest was the second spa I visited with thermal pools today on our rest day in Budapest on our way from Peking to Paris driving our 93 year old vintage car. . I walked about 15kms today along the Danube river as the church bells radiated under the clear blue summer skies. . At the thermal baths I loved immersing myself in the pools of various temperatures and quietly allowed myself to soften and relax and isolated myself in my mind from all the other noise and focussed deeply on my breathing. It was wonderful to find myself being able to find peace within myself even with so many hoards of people visiting the therapeutic pools each for their own personal reasons. . Today I rejuvenated and regenerated in preparation for our last week of driving to Paris when about 13,000kms would have been driven on this incredible adventure in our vintage car Penny! #idoamazingthings. . .

Jul 07

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Picking wild strawberries in a field in Russia! … how wonderful!

Picking wild strawberries in Russia – what a wonderfu experience…. driving our 93 year old vintage car Penny from #pekingtoparis

Jul 03

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Mud…Kremlin at Kazan and sun on skin!

The sun streamed on to my face at 3am as I stirred to realise my eye patch had become dislodged and I kept thinking that I wanted to write a blog post about our past few days. I had a little bit more sleep and now I’m going to pop out a brief broadcast so I don’t get any further behind! I’ve just popped on the this little verandah which hangs precipitously on the edge of a white institutional looking building; the curved railings laced and holding the crumbling façade from falling; and there seams to be hundreds of people already flocking around the cars in the car park. 5am and the world is awake! Day 19 Perm to Kazan The grey misty cover was cold again today and although we had the roof on Penny it was often at times wet. We didn’t have the water spraying up through the floor near the handbrake though because Max found an empty chip packet to pack into the hole. Who would have thought a shiny bright yellow and green packet could perform two such useful tasks….. the first one holding chips which were just soooo yummy.. and the second […]

Jun 30

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Birch forests and celebrations… Russia in summer!

Day 17 – Tyumen to Yekaterinburg Clean white sheets; a beautiful doona; yummy food; a view over a city which sprung up out of nowhere after a days driving through rural Siberia… and here we are in Yekaterinburg, all together in an exquisite hotel – all hopeful to be together in Paris on July 17th for the finish line. Today though only 89 out of the 105 or so cars are tucked up here; whilst the others are scattered around Russia being repaired and assessed as to where they can rejoin our intrepid group. The inclement weather in Russia has been with us again today and our planned ‘Time Sections’ were replaced by a very fun track course that was like a BMX track on steroids. Penny had fun. She is an endurance girl rather than a speed queen and she lumbered a bit over the bumpy bits and wiggled her bulbous rear end; and Max and I had a great time. Our drive today was a little more undulating with our elevation oscillating between 120mts and 80mts above sea level. The soil is incredibly rich and fertile and the chocolate coloured earth supported gardens of vegetables along […]

Jun 28

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Moving our clocks means more kms west through Russia toward Paris

Rainex was our only solution to the rain today as we left Omsk for Tyumen in Russia. Penny doesn’t have windscreen wipers and modern technology comes to the rescue so she can carry us westwards through Russia. Tonight we are tucked up in a beautiful hotel after a quite a long days drive across the flat plains of Russia. I’m not doing very well with keeping up with my blog broadcasts. I intend to, but by the time night comes after a whole day’s driving …. I just fall asleep with my laptop open. James… I take my hat off to you for continuing your updates on all your endurance rallies. I now know what an epic and behemoth effort that took! So…. a wet cold morning on our 16th day of the endurance rally and we travelled over roads of various states from being deplorable to newly paved tarmac. The trucks are unrelenting along the roads and are quite different in appearance than those in southern Asia and India. Most are either red, blue or orange… about the same age… with paint shiny and plain. It seems that the ‘bling’ for them is contained within the cabin, where […]

Jun 25

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Driving through Mongolia and now in to Russia…

Mongolia. This is an endurance rally and since my last post it truly has been an endurance event! Long days on the road. Little sleep. Difficult road conditions. Rain. Storms. Dust. Rocks. Flooded rivers. The most incredibly beautiful scenery. Friendship. I am having a fabulous time. Thoughts; what I have seen; my experiences all scratched bumpily unbounded by the rectangles on the page of the route book. I’m feeling a bit like that at the moment… going outside the boundaries and living such a privileged life doing incredible things. I have so much to share and I would love to write more tonight, but I’m thinking I need to just do a short summary to let you know how we’ve been going otherwise I will always be trying to play catch-up and I will never get any sleep! I’ve decided to write a book of this remarkable journey because there is so much more to tell than I can in these posts. I will keep you updated on that. The schedule is hectic. Rally start time is either 7am or 8am and our position in 16th overall has meant that our start time is 31…. So we start […]

Jun 16

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Some very short videos from our drive from Peking to Paris in Penny – our 93 year old car!

Here are some very short snippet video clips to give you some idea of what it is like driving from Peking to Paris in our 93 year old vintage car Penny! :-) Just click each of the links below.
1. What it is like driving in the rain
2. Driving in strong wind with sand blowing across the road.
3. Navigating some bumps on a dirt road
4. The start of our first time trial!
5. Driving across the green Mongolian Gobi desert
6. Driving beside some beautiful horses
7. Navigating some muddy ground

#pekingtoparis

Jun 16

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I rode a horse for the first time in Mongolia!!… and I slept under the clear Mongolian sky…

Two boys on their horses scampered jerkily – sort of sideways; into our camp. I was so ignorant of the type of ‘running’ the horses were doing. It seemed so different from any way I had seen a horse move before. The horses didn’t really seem to be compliant and kept flicking their heads up and down with their neck arched and sporadic low kicks from their rear legs. Anyway… they came over and the youngest boy handed me the reins. Well.. perhaps I looked like a seasoned rider – but I had to gesture to him that I had never ridden a horse before… and we both laughed. I had looked a few months ago into a horse back adventure riding through Mongolia – so I thought now was as good a time as any to get on this smallish horse. Usually I would feel a little tentative; even patting a horse. This time I just tucked up my skirt and popped my left foot in the stirrup and up and on I went! There I was… my first riding horse experience ever – and it was in Mongolia!! (technically it probably was a ‘being-led-on-a-horse experience’…. Lol) … […]

Jun 16

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Say goodbye to the Peoples Republic of China… Mongolia here we come!

Last day in China…. 7:05 time stamped and off we go… One can never be quite certain how border crossings will go. Our exit from China seemed to be relatively seamless. “Drivers in one line, passengers in the other.” “Passengers sorry… this line”…… “No…wait… passengers merge back into that line.” It was fine. A bit of a wait, so a browse through the duty free shop where I wasn’t going to pay $10 for a small block of chocolate… and it wasn’t long before Penny and Max came around the corner after being with the Chinese ‘official car inspectors’… and then we were in ‘no man’s land’ with the wind from the north picking up the sand and dust; preparing us for the Gobi desert in Mongolia. We were issued an orange satchel with information from Nomads tours for our week journey through Mongolia. Passports handed over … portraits scrutinised …. and once again Penny was off toward the west where the plains which were covered with a short grass which had become quite a luminescent green after recent rain; were dotted with white circular yurts and horses, goats, cows and dromedary camels. There were fewer trucks […]

Jun 14

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A wonderfully diverse day…. Datong to Erenhot

Time control check out at 7:05 today from the hotel lobby where I passed my little blue book with a little gadget which records the times we either arrive or leave a ‘Time Control” point…. then off we went toward Erenhot. Disemboweled apartment blocks stood clumped across the landscape. Wide roads seemed empty. Where had everyone gone? Had people ever lived there? We drove through such a varied and at times perplexing landscape where time was not evident. Just emptiness. Extensive motorways had been built yet the entrances to the on-ramps had been blocked off and some of the sides of the barrier rails had turned to rubble. Had they been completed?? Or had they become redundant because the people had not been funneled into these huge cities that were built with such regimentation it was hard for me – admittedly as a voyeur; to gauge the life within it. The sky darkened and the windscreen splatted with huge drops. We decided to pop on the roof and we were so glad we did. As much as we don’t like having the roof on… we were snug and warm. Penny’s motor sung sweetly and at times […]

Jun 14

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We have started for ‘real’ this time… leaving the Great Wall and on our way to Paris.

The sounds of various tunes and bells and rings, for many; was not only an hour that they only thought was only in the afternoon but was also the signal to hop out of bed; quickly scurry to breakfast; and head for the Great Wall of China to commence the ‘real’ part of this epic journey. “ShangriLa Hotel Zero trip at exit gate P005 N39.94242 E116.30112” ….. that was out first ‘tulip’ in our route book. We were finally on our way to the ‘official’ starting line at the Great Wall of China!. Musicians wearing flowing red pants, white sleeveless tops and red draped headwear, with their drums and cymbals; created an atmosphere fit for celebrating the start of this endurance rally. I just wanted to dance. Drums do it every time for me! LOL. I felt like whirling around and lifting my feet and legs to the pounding of the large wooden dowels on the skin of a rotund, red standing drum; as the Great Wall of China supervised, in the background. The well wishes and ceremony continues as the lion-dogs leapt and twirled playfully; their red and yellow fur flicking and flouncing with […]

Jun 12

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Beijing To the Great Wall of China! …..

The first busload of rally participants excitedly meandered around a warehouse in Beijing searching for our faithful mechanical companions – and there she was. Penny was in the front row waiting for us. Max and I both exclaimed… “There she is!” We both were so happy to see her and it became far more real that we were about to embark on a 15,000km journey across 11 countries to Paris. I clutched the sheets with the ‘tulip’s’ indicating the route back to the hotel in my nervous hands, and called out distances and descriptions of the symbols to Max while we drove in the hot humid smog of Beijing. I did need a bit of assistance from Max in a couple of spots as he had done the drive before; and we were one of the early cars to arrive back to the hotel. I didn’t get us lost! First challenge passed! 🙂 The small hail storm didn’t dampen the spirits of the competitors who continued to examine and in some cases repair and fine tune parts on their vehicles. The atmosphere was one of excitement and anticipation. There are some very seasoned participants and there is a vast proportion […]

Jun 09

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Three Golden Rules for driving in China!….

Here we are…. in the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing and we have just completed our first briefing for the rally. The room bulged with rally shirts and weary travellers; many of whom were reunited with hugs and vigorous pats on the back after previous adventures, camaraderie and often intense rivalry. We were advised on the road traffic rules in China. I just wanted the route book so I could do my preparation and highlight any distances under 1km for each day!!! That will have to wait until Saturday’s briefing I think though. So todays official event was the delivery of the specific road rules for China. Red lights, amber lights, green lights were all covered; and what to do if we encounter them. We also covered which side of the road to drive on and the minimum speed for driving in each lane of a motorway depending upon how many lanes were there. We also covered what speed to travel in the case of any adverse weather event and if it raining to make the distance between the vehicle in front 100mts. I don’t think the Chinese quite have embraced that rule quite yet. Oh… and driving backwards or going the […]

Jun 09

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“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.” ― Laura Gilpin

On our way to Paris in Penny - and our journey has begun!
The Brisbane river brushed past the small clump of high rise buildings of the CBD, and as we flew over on our way to Singapore I thought about how beautiful the Brisbane River was, on it's meandering route to Moreton Bay.
Water - like major arteries and finer capillaries, spread through the earth beneath me as we flew to Beijing to commence the epic endurance car rally from Peking to Paris. The image out of the double glazed window at 34,000 feet belied the movement and life which flowed across the earth below. The muted flowing marks were deceptive in their stillness. Time seemed to be suspended. The rivers curves were feminine and dynamic. I felt a sense of freedom watching the route taken by the water to the sea.
Rivers have

May 31

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Peking to Paris… The Route…

We will be driving 35 days through China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Poland,Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and France. We will be passing through the town where we stayed in Switzerland when we took the boys on their first overseas holiday when James was about 4 and Lawrence was 6. I think both of the boys adventurous and worldly streaks started young! I’m navigating and this time it is the real-deal because it isn’t just a touring rally; and I’m a little daunted about making sure I don’t get us lost. “Trust the navigator” is the mantra which floats through the dust en-route… and I hope I can ensure we get in every night and manage to complete the timed events with navigated accuracy. Here’s hoping! Below is the route. We will have a tracking link so you can keep an eye on our progress across the world. I will send it when we get to Beijing and we have it activated. @idoamazingthings #pekingtoparis

May 31

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Not many more sleeps to go now!!!… Peking to Paris Endurance Rally…

Not many more sleeps to go now before Max and I embark on our next adventure; driving Penny in the renowned Peking to Paris car rally run by The Endurance Rally Association. (Pop to their website for more information). This is an endurance rally. Tough days starting at 7.05am… because Penny is car number 5. There are timed events; dusty roads; long days; exceptional scenery and wonderful camaraderie and competitiveness!! Penny was cared for after our journey thorugh India, Bhutan and Myanmar last November and December; by Max and I with not as much to repair this time. The diff and the gearbox were the main components which needed quite a bit of looove… and a few welds and a good oil and grease…. the obligatory nuts, bolts and screw checks…. and she was off on her way to the shipping agent on April 20th. She should be snug in the shipping companies warehouse now in Beijing.. waiting for our collection on June 10th and for an early send off on Sunday morning 12th June from the Great Wall of China. We will be driving 35 days through China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Poland,Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and France. […]

Mar 28

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Preparing Penny for Peking to Paris in June

It has been some time since I've posted an update. I have returned from my incredible adventures and experiences in South America with new enthusiasm for many projects which I'm excited about... and now preparing for our next Adventure in Penny... from Peking to Paris. Click to see Enduro Rally Website. I'm following up on Seth Resnick's advice ....

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