Day 1
What an emotional journey the first few days has been!!
Arriving in Sydney to find out that we didn’t have a car as well as being a driver down, was not what we had hoped for. To top it all, we also experienced technical problems with the car!
The main situation with the car was simply down to the Australian quarantine authorities refusing to release the car for road use, as it was not clean enough in their view. Having spent the day cleaning the car to perfection, it was finally released by the authorities and we took it to Porsche Center Sydney South, where the technicians immediately went to work. It appeared that the car’s journey to Australian had been rather rough, and there were a number of issues that needed fixing e.g. the wheel alignment was out and the brakes needed to be re-adjusted. These were fixed by the fantastic team at the Porsche work shop. We also got the Australian GPS navigation loaded and a full check of the car was made.
Our troubles were not over, as during the night of the 6th March, it became clear that Campbell would not be allowed to fly out from London. He has had an operation in the week prior to departing for Australia. Complications arising from that meant he was unable to travel and join the team in Sydney. This was obviously very sad for him, but left Will and Jan in Sydney with a major headache: Should they drop the project altogether or drive only with 2 drivers. But in the end it was decided to find a 3rd driver locally and the team let the jungle drums play. When the team arrived at Porsche in the morning of the 7th (which was the latest possible day of departure), Jan casually asked the main mechanic in the workshop if he wanted to join up.. He immediately said “yes” but Jan did not believe it was for real. He explained that he had just become single and needed a break. An “OK” from his fantastic boss Rainer, was all that stood between Peter and a road trip second to none. Luckily Rainer said “Yes”
Time was now of the essence and when Peter finished his working day, he rushed straight home for a shower and a haircut, then jumped in the team uniform and was good to go at 19:30 local Sydney time.. That’s the very definition of being impulsive.. !!
We set off at 19:30 to drive the 13500km round Australia. This was an almost surreal feeling after all the difficulties the team had experienced. Luckily the first part of the trip is nice and easy so we had plenty of time to settle in. We have been lucky with the traffic and managed to do 1351 km in the first twelve hours. Currently the team is 900 km south of Cairns where they hope to arrive just 24 hours after setting off.
According to the main itinerary this would mean the team is 3-4 hours ahead of schedule. So far so good, but the real challenges do not start until after Cairns where the team enters the Outback’s gravel roads in the dark…
The car is working perfectly (fingers firmly crossed). Initially there were some issues with the GPS but these have all been sorted and it is now working perfectly.
Will and Jan still struggle with jetlag.. but spending 6 days in a car will for sure make this much better…..
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