Day 14: The greatest adventure ever

Special to the Star

If, like some of my friends, you define an adventure as a trip where nothing goes according to plan, then the Rallye Transsyberia is the greatest adventure ever. So far, the organizers have cancelled a stage, moved campsites and added more than 1,000 km worth of driving.

Today's stage shortening, however, was prompted by two accidents. The Colombian Arrow team of Christian Pfeil-Schneider and Claus Vatter crashed in a ditch and the Australian car being driven by Paul Watson and navigated by Brit Neil Hopkinson (who was sitting in for a sick Dave Morley and whose own car was undergoing repairs) suffered the same fate in the same place.

Because the medical team - two Nissan Patrols - was busy attending to them, they were unavailable if anything else happened. So what was supposed to be about 300 km of fast driving was shortened to about 110, with a transit to the campsite where I'm writing this. An early night and a bit of rest will be welcome before the 428-km special stage tomorrow.