Day: March 28, 2006

This morning our departure was a bit rushed, with everyone standing outside for breakfast while a few drops of rain fell.  The weather was threatening which is unlucky when you’re camping.  At 7H30 the vehicles were ready and everyone on the way.  Mathieu took control of the camper with Claire, while Ben and Jean-Marc went with Serge to the starting point.  Laure, super stressed, went back to the hotel in Bastam with Madgid to collect her lost passport.  One week from the border of Turkmenistan this was a catastrophe, mainly because you can’t leave the Iranian territory with copies and this precious passport contains our visas up to Kirghistan.  After a five-hour return trip, which included multiple stops at the different feeding places and in police stations, we returned empty handed.  The camper was searched thoroughly but nothing was found.  Plan B was put into action: a call to the French Embassy to see how to get a new passport quickly.  It was impossible to make any request before the end of the vacation, next Monday.  Plan C consisted of calling Dominique in Paris who has my second passport, which is needed to obtain the Chinese visa this week.  If he would send it by DHL, it would not be very satisfactory since the visas would be missing.  The most important thing was not to slow up Serge because the schedule is tight if we are to arrive at the Chinese border before it closes for a ten-day holiday between April 29 and May 9: all of the Chinese administration will be on holiday and the border between Kirghistan and China is in any case always closed at the weekend.  In short, stress couldn’t have been higher

“But Laure, have you really looked in all your pockets?”  Laure looked in all her pockets for the umpteenth time and YES, the passport was in the very bottom of the inside pocket.  Serge teased “it’s sad to suffer from Alzheimer’s so young.”

The tension fell and I had tears in my eyes.

While all this was happening, Serge continued on his way, not too irritably.  He talked and seemed relaxed.  The end of the day was difficult because the wind came up and hit him in the fact by ¾.  The whole team is fine and we are happy that the temperature is rather cool in this desert which we will cross for a few more days.  There isn’t a sign of a tree, just occasional tufts of vegetation which allow a few sheep to graze.

So goes life on the Paris-Tokyo race, which continues on to Sabzevar, then Mashhad before reaching the Turkmen border in a week’s time.