Journey’s end - final thoughts

 With a little humility, I offer you a summary of the last three months.

Some stats first: we all met in a hotel near Folkestone on 4 August 2025 and, 99 days later, we arrived in Singapore, some 20,000 kms on. We went through 20 countries; admittedly nine of them were in the Schengen area, so not really challenging borders, but the rest were proper borders requiring paperwork, customs clearance, sometimes visas, sometimes vehicle permits and a lot of waiting, the record being nine hours of ultimately unsuccessful waiting in Turkmenbashi. Ignoring our little sojourn back to the UK for a week to see a new member of the Bishop family, we gave ourselves 14 rest days. These were rarely full rest days, as often car fettling or something more industrious was required, and those who know my wife will understand that no day can be wasted lounging about when there are activities and walking to be done, and failing that the horror of bridge.

The Gambiers’ Lagonda broke down on day one; heroically they recovered, rejoining the rally on day six. We had a total of two punctures across all four cars (remarkable). The Gambiers and Bishops were repulsed from Georgia having conquered only 20 yards due to not having the right paperwork (it remained the only border requiring such) but Operation Paper Rescue, involving the Gambier boys, successfully allowed us to rejoin the others after 48 hours of separation. Joe Steel lost his passport in China but, as there is no crime, it was handed in to the police who released it back to him within the hour. The Vauxhall lost its brakes, thankfully on a flat piece of road and not on one of the vertiginous mountain roads. It was fixed easily. We mended a leaking radiator on the Vauxhall, which could have put us out of the trip had it not succeeded. We replaced the push rods in Nigel’s Lagonda. 

The Rolls was pilfered, the only time this has happened on The Ultimate Overland across four continents. Ham’s Lagonda struggled at the end and, for the last 2000 kms, he nursed it along at 30–40 mph, pouring increasing amounts of oil into the cylinders to ease whatever was rattling away. It made for an anxious ending but, in a way, it made the achievement all the sweeter.

We played golf twice; on both occasions we were the only golfers on the course. We experienced jungle trekking and suffered multiple leeches attaching themselves and sucking our precious blood. I have nightmares thinking about American GIs in the jungle and the terror of it all.

In addition to Nellie, we had the joy of 16 co-drivers who brought with them youth, humour, spare parts and Marmite.

We spent 72 hours trapped on a Turkmenistan ferry for a journey that should have been 16 hours, along with a bunch of truck drivers who spoke no English and ignored us completely. What they thought of a gaggle of English mid-lifers in old bangers is anybody’s guess, but we will never know.

We failed to drive our cars in Turkmenistan due to a new rule the customs chief invented about right-hand-drive cars. It might have been a blessing, as the temperature whilst traversing the country (very close to Iran and Afghanistan) was tarmac-melting at well over 40°C. We witnessed this going at 160 kph in an air-conditioned minibus driven by a skilful lunatic. We also failed to drive our cars into Singapore. The paperwork to do so arrived today.

On the plus side, we succeeded in getting from Georgia into Azerbaijan. This was no mean feat and was achieved by Ham knowing someone who knows someone who actually was the person who signs off such stuff. The border is closed because the Azerbaijanis don’t want to irritate the Russians by opening a border to Georgia while keeping the border to Russia closed (for obvious reasons). There was general amazement expressed by most people we met in the region who thought about how we had driven there. Thanks to all involved (who probably wouldn’t thank me if I explained more).

We drove incredible roads. Many of them were in China, but Kyrgyzstan and the Alps provided beauty and challenge in equal measure. Snow-capped mountains, vast plateaus, desolate wilderness, weaving gorges and flower-filled meadows all provided scenery for our eyes to feast upon and to ingrain into our memories, because photos really do not do justice to what we experienced.

We had some danger too. The Rolls dodged falling rocks the size of cars, totally unscathed. One particular gorge we all drove will be closed next year for being simply too dangerous (this in a country with little health and safety). The Vauxhall ran out of fuel in a poorly lit tunnel with Chinese trucks thundering by.

We visited Samarkand and Bukhara, two magnificent historical cities on the Silk Road, along with plenty more less well known. Our fixers arranged for us to have a photo shoot outside the Registan in Samarkand. Other notable places were Tbilisi and Baku.

All the cars went higher than they have ever been before (in our ownership at least). The highest altitude recorded was 4790 m. 

China was the stand-out revelation for us all. We spent 28 days driving across this multi-ethnic, heavily surveilled, police-controlled, at times excruciatingly ugly but also exquisitely beautiful country. Apart from officious police officers, we experienced absolutely no hostility, only occasional astonishment at our cars and our European faces. We found ourselves in the middle of a Chinese army convoy of artillery. I didn’t count, but it would be no exaggeration to suggest we saw as many trucks, artillery pieces and troops as the British Army has in total, in one never-ending column. Awesome strength in numbers, at least.

So there we have it. A slightly longer summary than you might want but there is much to write about when traversing half the world. Perhaps our greatest achievement is that the five of us remain firm friends. It is not easy living cheek by jowl with friends for three months during stressful times but also wonderful uplifting ones too. We all learnt to be tolerant of each other’s foibles. What goes on tour, stays on tour!

Finally, thank you for reading this far and for your encouragement in posting a daily blog. It’s been fun.