Syd Stelvio Peking to Paris 25 - Day 25 – Qakh to Tbilisi – 243km

With a border in prospect, day 25 began early. I daresay many had slept fitfully, not with anxiety of the upcoming crossing, but because the thunderstorms that engulfed Qakh lingered long into the night, with booming thunder and heavy rain. The Sweep crews had been out in it, working away, fixing cars for another day on the road. At breakfast they were still soggy, sopping about in sodden shoes, the only hint at the previous evenings weather, as outside it was clear and fine.

That was the general wish for the border as well, clear and fine, with an easy run into Georgia to get on with our day. It largely was, as well, with a few hoops to jump through on the Azerbaijan side. It always amazes me how much harder it is to leave a country, than it is to enter one. You would have thought the border guards, dressed in combats with a camouflage pattern that resembled something out of Mine Craft, would want to expedite our departure. But there they were, seemingly doing the exact opposite, as they stood about in their brightly coloured Jackson Pollack DPM’s that would disguise them nowhere, except perhaps in a tub of Lego.

We were processed in reasonable time though, including cars 68 and 76 that were towed across, the Zebra Datsun still requiring the services of a Vet to sort its head gasket. Indeed, the only person to suffer any real issues was Chief Sweep Dave Alcock, or ‘Squeak’ as we all know him. There seemed to be a minor discrepancy in his paperwork, and whilst all was fine in the end, Dave was probably a bit worried about being carted off for some special attention by the border force, and ‘Squeak’ turning into ‘Squeal’. All on his birthday, too.

The first order of business once across the border was the fun of the Hillclimb regularity, a steep and challenging ascent to the mountain town of Sighnaghi, a regularity that would be taking placed on closed roads. Without the threat of oncoming traffic, you may be forgiven for thinking that everyone would be early into the controls, but the challenge of the job was reflected in the fact that nobody cleaned it, although cars Christian and Henri Gütermann, in the 53 Porsche that has been back with us since Baku, and Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux, also in a Porsche, did manage an impressive run that yielded just four seconds of penalty each. The only clean sections however, belonged to the Caudwell’s in the Blue Fangio and, at the other end of the spectrum, the HiLux of Paul Maddicott and Lee Potter, who both aced the second half of the hill.

A short run through Georgia’s beautiful green farmland, and Tbilisi was in sight, with the mileage reasonably low. Before anyone could think about calling it a day though, there were a pair of tests at the Lilo Arena Rally Cross circuit, just to the east of the city. If the hillclimb earlier hadn’t satiated the need for speed, then two laps of this place would certainly do the trick. The circuit was the perfect release for those whose day had been stifled by bureaucracy, and from the faces in the cars, the crews were clearly enjoying themselves on the hillside track.

One of the best faces of the day had to belong to Ed Talbot, back on the road again with James Hall-Smith in the little Fulvia, after their accident yesterday, and very much enjoying themselves and delivering some good times. In fact, everyone was performing pretty well, with only 20 seconds between the top 30 on the first circulation, the fastest car on lap one being the Peugeot of Brian Palmer and David Bell, who were probably just delighted not to be stuck in somebodies dust cloud for once. They had to share the top step with Laurenz Feierabend, who had taken over driving duties in Gerd Bühler’s 911, and both cars were honours even on their second attempt as well, topping the times again after improving by a second.

With the times on the circuit so tight between everyone, nobody was making any big gains on one another, leaving the overall positions largely unchanged at the end of the day, though Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreaux are now just three seconds behind Jorge and Cristobel Perez Companc for the bragging rights of being top of the overall leaderboard, though both still have healthy leads in their categories and it won’t affect the competition as a whole.

Tomorrow there is another border to look forward to, as we cross into Türkiye midway through the day, after a final morning in Georgia. What could possibly go wrong?

Syd