Day: August 29, 2006

8 days until arrival in Tokyo, September 5 at 14H00 (local time) in the parking lot of the Prince Hotel

For some time I have wanted you to hear from some of the other members of this race: so now it’s the turn of the followers, who are all talkative so their accounts will take several days.

Today the spotlight is turned on Dominique, alias Zette, Serge’s younger sister and one of his first supporters, who was also organizer and in charge of logistics for the trans-USA in 1997.  She is familiar with the stress and the pressures in this kind of organization and I know that even in Paris during the present crossing there were tense moments, especially when you have a full time job.  From our heart we say Thank You.

“So what have I done to help them?  Like all the followers, a variety of odd jobs:

Responsible for mailing the books and dvds ordered via Serge’s website.  Sorting the mail (and believe me, they receive more than the average Frenchman), pay bills (no, they aren’t exempt from this), find out from them via the website how to answer certain mail, inform them about their bank accounts.

With Christian, connecting their answering machine.  Often it was an urgent call around 7H00 AM.

Taking part in organizing the followers’ rotation:
Now, I’m familiar with the Iranian and Chinese embassies, since I went there several times.  I was also at the Kirghiz embassy.  I can explain how the diplomatic pouches work and I’ve become an expert at getting foreign currencies in emergencies, otherwise it would be too simple.

The two weeks preceding each rotation I had to stock up on bolinos, energy bars, sweets and other items.  Over time I learned how to organize myself to limit the stress of baggage check in.  My obsession was overweight baggage!

I had to improvise being a travel agent for the flights to China, where there were numerous problems: for example, six days before a rotation I hadn’t received the plane tickets.  The departure of each team was stressful: the car wouldn’t start at the Paris train station, and we still had to get to Orly Airport and I had the tickets for all the followers.  Another time, a ticket had to be bought at the airport.

Every week there was a task I shared with Christian: edit the daily logs with the photos so that dad and mother could follow Serge’s progress.  For the next race we have decided that they will have an Internet connection.

Then, there was organizing the return of the vehicles, which had begun but wasn’t finished when I left for Shanghai. Today they are on the high seas (I hope in calm waters) between China and Le Havre.

But, I did all of this willingly.  There was no question of my not helping them.  It was my way of taking part in this challenge.  I was able to do it thanks to Christian, who graciously accepted that I devote to them many of my weekends, evenings and days off.

The difficulty came from the fact that before their departure, there was little time to brief me, so I had to learn how they were organized as I went along.  And I had to learn to manage the stress during the challenge, even when there was too little time yet we had to succeed.  I can remember those SOS calls from Laure on two occasions when they though passports had been lost.

Then Christian and I had our reward, even before Serge started his trip: during their absence we had the joy  of living with an enormous canine four-legged ball of sweetness, Nil, Laure’s and Serge’s Newfoundland.

Never for a minute did I doubt that Serge would reach Tokyo, unless there was injury, and even then!  Setting a record was another story but knowing his determination and as the days went by……..

Thanks to Laure and Serge for this beautiful adventure!”