The day started with fond farewells from Dave, Ian and Denise as we were expected to start the REAL drive. All going well they would possibly catch us up with us in Xian in about ten days. Particularly sad for Dave as he was so looking forward to going to the MG Factory at Naihui, as we had planned on Monday.

But little did we know that we wont make it to Naihui on Monday either.

Our first stop was back to the Transport Registration Bureau to pick up our plates and insurance documentation. Just a quick pick up one would think.  We arrived at 8:30 am and the officials started to take photographs of the cars, inside and out and to match the numbers on the car with our documentation. Things were stalled for a period.  One problem they were trying to solve was that one car was in another driver’s name and one car’s registration showed the previous owners name. They requested passports for these non present people. So it took a bit of talking to explain the Australian registration practices. All obstacles appeared to be overcome and at   12:30 pm we left with an instruction to return at 3 pm for the insurance number and the final processing which would be completed by 5 pm. We intended to drive a 100kms.

On the way back to the hotel, Ken’s car cut out losing all power. Breakdown number two. Again the four MGs pulled up on the side of the road and were surrounded by on lookers. Mary and Reg sat in their car and a  car pulled up alongside them. The woman in the passenger’s seat tried to engage Mary in a conversation. As she was pressing forward into Mary’s car her hand was working frantically to grab stuff from the back pack behind Mary’s seat. Reg and Mary, alert but not alarmed, made the appropriate noises and the car took off.

Our car was towed away and taken to a local garage with Dan and Ken trying to figure out the source of the problem. For the sum of three dollars it was established that the alternator wire was loose and once this was reconnected the car was fine.

Back to theTransport Registration Bureau for our fifth visit.  Again four MGBGTs packed in the car park and continued to draw a crowd and even some tempting offers. Exchanging a MGBGT for BMW 730 seemed a pretty good deal to me.

The clock ticked on and at 4:30 pm it was suggested that we go into the office as a group to stand at the counter. We did this and then took our seats and continued to wait patiently. A number of officials discussed our plight but to no avail. At 5:15 pm we were told that the computer system had failed and we would have to return on Monday.

We sat in our cars in the car park while some phones calls were made but with little success.

Effectively we spent most of the day in the car park. During this time Peter negotiated withe locals to have a new fan belt made. Took lots of charm, gestures and body language to support the communication. At 4:30 pm the new fan belt was delivered to the car park but alas it was too wide.

We are now four days behind schedule and will have to cut out some part of the journey. We have two days of down time in Tiajin and hope that on Monday we will be on the road. We will spend Saturday going over the cars, yet again with a fine tooth comb and on Sunday we”ll take the fast train into to Beijing. 

 I’m not making any predictions about ANYTHING at this stage, but it is all part of the unfolding adventure!