DJ - Welcome to the Himalayan Mountains within eyesight of incredible Mt. Everest. Don and Carl with the update for the 13th day of our travel in China. We have one more day to endure our trip through China and we'll be our way into Nepal. I say endure because everyday on the road is very demanding. Today we want to describe what the real conditions are. We don't want you to think that we're whinning. Traveled about 325 kilometers today and that would seem like an easy thing to do, although 300 of the kilometers were on roads that were dirt and gravel. It seems that there is no what we would consider to be highway/thoroughfare between China and Nepal and all there is a poorly maintained dirt road, at times gravel road and on occasion, some asphalt. And because the road is through the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, the road is not particularly well maintained and in fact is closed 4-5 months out of the year. And the idea of being in the Himalayans probably sounds pretty romantic, but Don and Carl want to tell you not to schedule a vacation to the Himalayas. It's a rather dismal place this time of the year in September, very barren, no plant life, no tree life, no wild birds, in part because of the extreme elevations. Our travel today ranged between 14 and 16,000 feet. We passed a major obstacle, by going over a mountain pass just under 16,000 feet and that was a cause for celebration by all of the participants in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. However, in the course of the day, traveling in the dust and dirt of the roads, the cars became covered with dirt and grime and not only on the outside, but on the inside as well, and so all the drivers end the day pretty tired and pretty dirty as a matter of fact.

Today the 1954 Packard was generally successful in that we survived some awesome and pounding driving conditions. We would not recommend taking a passenger car from Lhasa, Tibet to Katmandu, Nepal, and in fact, there are very few passenger cars to even attempt to use this road. It is mainly used by some Chinese truck traffic, by Toyota Land Cruiser type vehicles and by local buses that serve some of the rural communities. We saw a side of human life today that was rather gut wrenching. Throughout our trip across China, thus far, we've engaged thousands of people waving, but today we encountered a situation where children would come to the roadside and rather than wave, they would put their hands out in gesture of asking and begging. And as we went further, deeper into the Himalayas, the gestures went from putting their hands out to putting their hand in their mouth, expressing a need to receive food. These children were very young, 3-6 years of age and then there was an older group, 6-12 years of age, who actually would be so bold as to lock hands and form a blockade across the highway. As the cars would approach, we, the drivers, would honk and the children would move aside, just barely, as the car would pass and part of the gamesmanship was also just touching the car. The human beings that we have seen here have a very striking resemblance to the North American Native Indians, and in fact, their lifestyle is very comparable to American Indians/Native Americans. People here still live in tents, as we have observed, there are some scattered villages and housing strikingly like pueblo housing in Arizona, with two story adobe mud type dwellings. Life is very primitive. The use of donkeys for transportation and pulling carts. The use of oxen to pull plows and work fields. Life is very, very primitive. There was a wheat field that I observed being harvested today and rather than using one of those John Deere 9200 14 feet wide head combines, what I saw today was 14 people with hand sickles working their way across a wheat field, gathering the wheat and putting it in stakes. So, we've seen a side of life that is quite sobering. And the further we have penetrated into the Himalayas we find that the living conditions and the needs of the people become more and more severe.

There are a couple of incidents to report involving other participants in the Challenge today. A 1966 truck, an American truck, operated by a couple I believe are from the Netherlands, encountered a ditch in the road and ran off the road and damaged the front end of the Chevrolet truck. The truck was very well outfitted for the rigors of this travel, but they did not see the obstacle in the road soon enough to avoid going off the road and we understand the vehicle cannot be repaired. The American women team of Linda Dodwell and Genny Obert, who are operating a 1968 Hillman, lost a wheel today and a windshield and at this very moment late at night, repairs are being attempted to get that vehicle road worthy. The Challenge began with 94 participants from Peking, 7 have retired over the course of the last 13 days. One additional retirement today. Do want to report to our technical advisors, Alan and Joe, that the Packard is definitely taking a beating. As much as we planned for ground clearance and the suspension system, we're unable to keep air in the suspension system and consequently have very little ground clearance. The problem is at this altitude we didn't anticipate that the shock absorbers would not hold the air and in addition to that, the pumping equipment of Chinese tire stores/stations, cannot interface with the receptacle for the suspension system. We had some really severe encounters with ground clearance today and did some damage to the steel undercarriage. We do want to report to Alan that as we were climbing the 16,000 foot pass today, that we used the auxiliary fuel booster and that was very, very helpful in getting us to the summit. The car is running mechanically well, but the undercarriage - well, let's just say that rather than driving across the Himalayas today, I think we were kind of skiing as we worked our way through these very difficult ground conditions.

Tonight we're camped out within view of Mt. Everest and some of the highest peaks of the Himalayan Mountain chain. I commented last night that this region is a staging area for mountaineering and we want to clarify that there are 44 mountains that are used for mountaineering in excess of 18,000 feet, and the exact altitude of Mt. Everest, which I can see as I speak to you, is 29,800 and some odd feet, the highest mountain in the world. If you want to know more about Mt. Everest, there currently is a very thoughtful and rather frightening book about mountaineering and the loss of 12 American lives last year, as well as New Zealander lives on Mt. Everest. The book is on the best seller list in the United States, referred to as Into Thin Air , written by a journalist from Seattle, I believe his name is Jon Krakauer and we would recommend that you consider reading that book. It's very insightful, not only about the purpose and the reasoning behind mountaineering, but some of the incredible human efforts, dedication and sacrifices that are made. The satellite telephone that we're speaking to you for this update on, was recommended to us by the mountaineering expedition organization in Seattle that uses this very telephone device on Mt. Everest. And I recall when reading the book by Krakauer that they had this satellite telephone system and were able to speak to their families only hours before they encountered conditions from which they could not recover and survive. We're using the satellite telephone in a field at the base of Mt. Everest. We're currently, on the present road system, 5,580 kilometers from Peking. We're currently at an altitude of 14,000 feet and generally, I think we've climatized to the altitude with a combination of medication and the consumption of a lot of fluids and water. I think we're doing OK as far as the altitude is concerned.

In general, I think things here for us have gone quite well. We're anxious to leave China. Tomorrow we'll have been here for two weeks and have had a lot of experiences and we've survived a lot of circumstances that other people have not. We certainly don't want to gloat about that because who knows what tomorrow may bring. Our objective now is to reach Katmandu, Nepal. We have another day of travel tomorrow and another night of camping and then we will enter Katmandu, with a couple days rest there.

Another observation here. I want to report that the Birmingham, Alabama team, Ted Thomas, Andy Vann and the other two fellows, had a mechanical problem with a steering linkage on the road today. They are just fine. I know Mrs. Vann listens to our reports and update and we want her to know they are just fine, but those 1950 Fords, two pairs of them, took a pounding and the steering linkage on one caused a delay in their reaching camp tonight and we want to assure her that repairs are being made and the fellows are OK.

Well that's what our thoughts are. Carl has bedded down here, getting ready to sleep under the stars, which he tells me are spectacular tonight. Can't help but think about those children in need that we saw today. Carl commented that they seem to have only the shirts on their backs and their clothing and I commented that they didn't even have that. In fact, they had very little clothing and it was pretty obvious that they have some significant needs, but we didn't think or feel that we had very much to offer to help them with their needs, so we're a little distressed at seeing and experiencing that today. It was several hundred times, it wasn't just one or two incidences, it was across several hundred miles that we observed that human condition, that human need. That's all part of our learning about this wonderful world of ours. We're privileged to be healthy and to be in the location that we are and to gaze at almost a spring like skyline with Mt. Everest very prominent right here before our very eyes. We've completed day 13 on the Peking to Paris run and the travel is getting more and more demanding and taking its toll on both the machinery and people, but we're persevering and doing the best we can. We thank you for joining this update and we look forward to another opportunity to speak to you tomorrow at this same time. So long for now.