DJ - The 15th day of our travel from Peking to Paris has been completed successfully and we reach you at this moment from Katmandu, Nepal. We're very pleased to be able to say that we're in Katmandu and for the grace of God and our own perseverance we're able to bring you this report and update. We owe you an account for the last 48 hours which have been full of challenges and we've dealt with those and we want to very quickly report that both Carl and I are in good health, good spirits and very relieved to be in Katmandu.

I'll retrace for you what brought us here in terms of events and transportation. We were brought on the back of a transport truck from the border of Nepal and China, which is about a six hour trek on single lane, mostly unpaved roads. We reached the border at mid-day after a suspenseful and I must say at times frightening descent down a tremendous mountain gorge to reach a very remote and isolated border station between Nepal and China. I think I can safely report to you that there is no road that leads to Lhasa, Tibet and China from this part of the Himalayan Mountain range. I say no roads because when you think of a road you think of a maintained paved surface or a decent road, but what actually exists is a path not very well suited for passenger cars. Friends who are from Arizona who are familiar with the Apache trail, which winds through the Superstition Mountains to the east of Scottsdale and Phoenix are aware of what a thrilling and at time, frightening, drive that can be. That road surface would be considered interstate highway in this part of the world. Between the last Chinese checkpoint and the Himalayas and the first Nepalese checkpoint, there is road system of about 8 kilometers which is a piece of path that is maintained by no one. Consequently, it is almost really impractical for motorized vehicles, except those suited for off road travel, to traverse this highway. The '54 Packard attempted to do it, but in the course of doing it the undercarriage was damaged, the clutch to the vehicle became tight and generally, as Carl would say, the '54 Packard has had more use and abuse in the last two weeks than it has in the previous 40 years of its life. We made a decision when we reached the border of Nepal and China that we were expecting too much of the car to push on another 5 or 6 hours to get to Katmandu and we did what is often done in necessity, we secured a transport cargo truck. In quite a remarkable scene in the border town about 50 people got behind the 6,000 pound Packard and pushed it up a pair of planks onto this transport truck. At times, it seem to me while I was driving the vehicle onto the truck that the people were actually lifting the car off the ground to get it in.

Well we reached Katmandu in the early morning hours. We actually have to explain to you the time situation in this part of the world. There is a 2 hour and 15 minute time change when you go from China to Nepal. I know absolutely nothing as to the history or the reason why the 15 minutes is in there and I'm told another 15 minutes is tacked on when we move to India. So, by physical time it was about 2 AM Peking time when we arrived in Katmandu and the clock time was 12:15 AM.

It was about a 15 hour day for us as we made the journey from about 25 miles inside China to the border and then 100 kilometers from the border to Katmandu. In this part of the world it seems that if you want to travel 100 kilometers you almost need to plan a day to accomplish something like that which I think is about 60 miles. Last night we had endured camping out. Our last report came to you in the shadows of Mt. Everest. The second night we camped at a vacated Chinese Hotel which was located in a magnificent gorge. The hotel was designed to be a resort complex, but is so inaccessible in this part of the world that it became abandoned. So our whole entourage tented up there as a staging point to begin down this mountain, this gorge, where this highway just sort of hung on the edge of the mountain. Last night we were at 11,000 feet elevation. Tonight were at about 4,000 feet here in Katmandu. There were a few moments on the drive down the gorge for everyone when it was clearly quite tense. In this part of the world landslides are about as common is icy, snowy highways in February in Wisconsin. What you do with landslides is just shovel away enough room for a vehicle to come down the path, or roadway and to hope that the landslide will not become reactivated. But there were moments as I was driving that Carl informed me that there was anywhere from 6-12 inches on the passenger side of the car to the edge of the surface and beyond the edge was a several thousand foot decline or drop-off from the roadway. Most cars made the journey. We were the second to last car into Katmandu. A number of cars had mechanical failure as a result of the surface conditions on the pass. I really hesitate to call it a road and I would have to inform you that I would not recommend your driving from remote Tibet/China into Nepal. It was really quite a frightening experience. But, as we said, the grace of God made it possibly for us to make it through it and we're doing just fine.

The 24 hours prior to that we drove through a very remote and arid part of Tibet. There's not a stick of wood to be found in several hundred miles. It's a very arid and dry place and all of our driving the last three days has been in off road kind of conditions - a lot of dust, a lot of gravel, a lot of wash outs along the rivers, streams, landslides - all sorts of obstacles that really take their toll of both the machines and the people. The cars were full of dust, road dust coming in underneath the panels of the car at times made it appear that the car was on fire and all of the interior of the car was loaded with dust and we haven't been able to shower for two days so it's a delight, as I say, to be in Katmandu for that reason alone. We also derelict in not getting our update to you in the last 24 hours. Our batteries ran down in our satellite mobile telephone and we were at this vacated Chinese hotel where they had no electricity and no running water and it was impossible for us to place our remote satellite report update. We realize that glitch might have caused some anxiety, but we want to assure everyone that we're in Katmandu and we're going to be collecting ourselves here.

The facility that we're in is comparable to the very nice facility at the American Club or Pebble Beach in California and it is quite a contrast to our experiences the last 48 hours without a chance to sleep and to operate in somewhat of a normal semblance.

Katmandu is a city of 13 million people and the word Katmandu is actually taken from the Nepalese language and it means "Wooden Temple". As we've spent the better part of this day here, we first observed there were just children everywhere. The children range in age from 2 to 10. They're just remarkably visible, very active. You're quick to notice that the living standard here is quite subpar from what the North American or European experience is. We see that many homes are only about half the size of an American automobile garage and that in most homes, as we drove into the city tonight, used candle power to light the dwelling. So we're definitely in a faraway, foreign, alien place.

The number of automobiles in the challenge has diminished to 84 at the present and it's likely that today's arduous trip took its toll. Although here in Katmandu, it's sort of a staging place for the next one third of the event, which will take us up to Istanbul. We generally thought that Katmandu would be the first one third of the challenge and Istanbul would be second and Paris would be the third.

We're pleased to be down in lower elevations. We've been living for several days at very high elevations and it does take its toll on you in terms of how you feel and what you're sensations are. There's a remarkable contrast between the other side of the Himalayas, the Chinese side, where it is very arid and very dry versus the Nepal side which is very green and lush. Bamboo trees and rice fields cut into the side of the mountain where there is very lush and sort of tropical growth here in Nepal. The Himalayas at this time of year are sort of like the Rocky Mountains, they're very dry or very lush with a lot of growth depending on which side you're on. It's not at all like the Winter situation that you would normally associate with the Himalayas and with the higher altitudes.

There have been a couple of misfortunes on the journey we should share those with you so you hear them from us and not someone else. One of the cars from Germany was traveling across China and a truck had stopped alongside the road, which is a common ocurrence. The roads here are used throughout the country as sort of a town square. The people walk, bicycle, visit and the movement of heavy trucks and buses and very frequently cars, all kind of share the pavement. Well, in any event, a truck driver stepped around his truck and onto the highway pavement and just at that moment the car driven by one of the German drivers came in contact with the truck driver. The support personnel for the rally, including a doctor and a paramedic were able to take care of the truck driver and take him to a nearby medical facility. We have not had an update as to his condition. The German team was held by the Chinese police and it took them the better part of the entire day to sort out the details and for them to be held not accountable. Also, Carl had a set back when his hand carry bag was apparently removed in the early morning hours in one of our camping experiences by some neighboring nomadic Chinese sheep herders who were milling about the campground. Carl's handbag contained the Carnet and the right to transfer the car across different borders and so we're hoping that Ed of Carl's staff will fax on copies to us in Katmandu of the Carnet so that we will not have any hold ups at future border crossings.

Everyday all of the participants are sort of attentive as to what has happened to who and its at the end of the day that you find out what has occurred along the course of the event. A lot of camaraderie, a lot of fellowship amongst the 22 nationalities that make up the Peking to Paris Rally. We made our way to Nepal. Lush, tropical Nepal has sort of an atmosphere of India to it in terms of the genealogy of the people and their way of life. We're here for a couple of days so we'll be learning a whole lot more. The people are very gracious and hospitable. A lot of public signs and banners across the public highways welcoming the Peking to Paris rally to Nepal today. Over the next few days in our update report, we're going to give you some reflections on China. Some things we didn't think were appropriate to talk about when we were in China. So we would encourage you in the next 48 hours to catch our next two updates and we'll make certain to tell you about the 5,000 public safety officers who made sure we didn't get lost in Inner Mongolia. About the public display and execution of 6 criminals in one of the cities we visited while we were there. And about the co-existence of desert and glaciers in one part of China. We've certainly learned a lot in the course of our 2 weeks in China - it was just extraordinary. And one of the reasons for undertaking this journey was to gain access to parts of China which we might never have an opportunity to do. Well that's our lengthy commentary on where we are and how we got here. We're one third of our way to Paris. We have some repairs to make to the automobile's undercarriage, to the clutch system and get the carburetor adjusted to the lower altitude and then we'll be on our way to India in a few days. Glad to be back with you here on the update. We welcome the friends and families of many of the participants who have learned about our updates in our web site and who are taking advantage of access of information to try to get a feel about how things are going for their family members who are a part of this extraordinary event, the first time since 1907 that automobiles have attempted to travel on what is really quite an arduous route from Peking to Paris. It's not only the drive, it's a matter of getting through some pretty extraordinary places with automobiles where roads. for all practical purposes, don't exist even in 1997. We've gotten this far, approximately about 6,000 kilometers into our journey and another, I forget the exact number, but another 8,000 - 10,000 kilometers to go, I think. I think I'll stop there. Those are just some random thoughts and reassurance that we and our cohorts have successfully gotten this far and I just want to say it is really quite remarkable to see the determination of the people who are a part of this event. Many people with lesser drive or desire would probably pack it in, but there really is a very extraordinary commitment by those who decided to take on this challenge to see it through. And so it is with us. Thanks for being with us at this time and we'll, in 24 hours, have another update for you as you come along with Carl and Don on our trip around the world. So long for now.