The Great Game & Patagonia - April 2009

I am so pleased to be able to send out the Great Arc photographic book so promptly.

This is my seventh rally in ten years and it was ROARR’s finest month. The idea of only allowing a small group of twelve cars was a delight to me, and formed enormous camaraderie within our group. I hope the camping was as enchanting as expected, other than being quite bazaar. I am pleased I brought this small group all together and journeyed up the Meridian of central India.

And we all arrived safe and sound to a surprising press assembly at the museum and then the spiritual home of the George Everest and Great Arc of the Meridian to see the almighty Himalaya peaks far into Tibet, which as I stood and admired, those mountains inspired me to want to cross over their snow capped ridge and onto another rally.......

The Great Arc is not only about history, camping and rural India; it is about the drive. We are toiling against the adversity of Indian roads to discovering quality rural driving, and I hope some great drives were found.

It is a non commercial rally and it was a great delight for me to take you along the Meridian Line of the Great Arc of India and so bring this merrymaking all together and give back to India with our small groups funding of Leah Patterson’s hospital in Nagpur. Our group surplus and contribution of £10,000 will go towards the building of her hospital.

The world we live in is a very disproportionate world, and I feel strongly that all of us on the classic rally circuits travelling around the world have so much, for whatever reason, that this is a great opportunity to give back, and so readdress some balance in this world.

The Great Arc of the Meridian will re-run in 2012. But camping will be back on an Indian adventure in 2011......

A number of you have asked my plans for the future. I hope I can create vibrant journeys for you with an assortment of differing drives. 2010 I will drive three very diverse rallies.

After six rallies along the hustle and bustle of India roads in a country of one billion people, jaunts that never stay away from people, it is time for a journey and an adventure into one of the world’s great wilderness.

And any journey into the world’s wilderness, the obligation of a wilderness is to make you feel a million miles from people and then the power of nature must astonish your senses! May be here in Patagonia the beauty of the wilderness, with its ever changing spectacular scenery, will make you question the sanity of what you see.

But let us not forget we are drivers first and foremost, and the road into the wilderness must be of equal quality.

And so it is ROARR’s eighth rally will explore Patagonia as it here the drive and scenery are as spectacular as each other.

The journey is not long, it is not even a difficult journey, and the difference is this journey will take you away from a world crowded with people into a world full of nature at her most gorgeous. An inspiration to see Patagonia’s immensity and its extraordinary unusual wildlife which has attracted do many expeditions, including that of Charles Darwin.

Furthermore once at the end of the world why not cross over to Antarctica?

It is here wilderness’s takes on a transformed meaning. But we shall see about Antarctica. There is much planning and preparation to be done and for now I am rummage around to for fifteen likeminded eccentric classic car drivers to join me next February for this wonderful Patagonia drive - Buenos Aires - Tierra del Fuego - Santiago.

I am acquiring an Alfa Duetto boat-tail for this trip which goes down to the big land to explore Patagonia this autumn to drive into the wonderful tableland of South America, southern Argentina and southern Chile.

(Route 40 Patagonia)

But before the Alfa arrives and before the winter arrives in the southern hemisphere I plan to drive the lakes and the Chilean cost next month, and will keep you all informed.

Patagonia provisional dates are February 15th to March 15th £17,500 for the rally, plus extra cost & time, if possible, to cover the boat trip out to Antarctica.

Rising Sun has now moved to May 18th to June 10th 2010 and so the MG B is on its way to Japan for a summer of marvellous driving in the mountains to find old Japan, in quest of her fascinating cultural ways across her beautiful to drive mountains.

And Japan does great mountain drives very well with first class roads crossing from one wonderful landscape to another. One can drive with enjoyment, peace and tranquillity, exploring the rural areas, the Nichian coast and into six National Parks, seeing and experiencing the great diversity of Japans terrain - from mountains to rice fields.

Not only is Japan a delight to drive, this rally will be a cultural experience of the country. Japan shapes our lives in so many ways, but we know so little about her ways. The rally will stay in many traditional Ryokans and Onsens - traditional inns with certain but important customs.

Japan is rich in history with grand and historical town of Nikko, Uchiko, and Takayama. I have driven to a few out of the way places over the years, and found forgotten towns with streets of past years.

Looking for 15 cars to journey with me for 23 days. Entry is £16,950 per car with the entry covering the same as our other rallies.

Appealing to some of you already, and in a way inspired by you, is the journey I propose for autumn next year. Calcutta to Istanbul crossing the great Central Asia mountain range linking Nepal, Tibet, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran into Turkey, or maybe we will across the Caspian Sea onto the Caucasus. The adventure will unfold as we travel in the footsteps of the colourful Englishmen who played the Great Game ....the Russian Bear and the British Lion. And so it will be recognise as the ‘Great Game Classic Car Rally’.

And this is an immense adventure. Dirt and dust; silk road cities; sun and sand; high mountain passes and windswept deserts for over 50 demanding days. And to blend all this together I will find great driving roads for us all! Can’t wait to drive the Pamir Highway – The Roof across High Asia.

Last year I drove the Turkey and Iran parts of the route and will start the recce into central Asia in September. I had the mad idea of crossing the north of Afghanistan but received a not to promising quite dry e-mail from Kabul worthy of a mention.....

Conrad,

As a company working in Afghanistan we would not advise you to drive through Afghanistan. We don’t think the Pakistanis will give permission to get to the Khyber Pass, and its not safe even if you are able to get the permits. The road between the Khyber and Kabul is seeing daily Taliban attacks. The road north of Kabul is less safe, but the stretch between Pul-e-Khumri and Kunduz sees several attacks each week. We do not advise you to take this route either. The road to beyond Kunduz, that leads to the Wakhan is not safe, and you will need to pass another risky area around Warduj, before arriving in Ishkashem.

There is probably only a 50% chance of the travelers being killed if they take this route, but this is too high a risk for us to recommend you travel through Afghanistan (especially the route they propose). If you want to include Afghanistan in your itinerary, I would recommend you travel up through the KKH in Pakistan to the Chinese border, enter China, visit Kashgar, and then come down to Kirgizstan and then to Tajikistan. You should drive to Khorog (pass Ishkashem without crossing into Afghanistan), and then go on to Dushanbe. From there you could drive to Uzbekistan, and head to Termez, where you can cross into Afghanistan there. You can travel to Mazar-i-Sharif, Samangan, and even Pul-e-Khumri but will need to turn around there since the road is not safe beyond that. You will need to then recross into Uzbekistan at Termez and continue on your journey. This is a safer option for including Afghanistan in your itinerary.

Please note that several independent tourists in Afghanistan have been killed because they wandered into hostile areas and had no security information. The security situation changes on a daily basis, and even 3 day old information is close to useless for staying safe. •

I hope this information is helpful.

Noah Whitaker

Administrative Manager, Great Game Travel Kabul

If there is general concensus on the odds being acceptable – OK – let’s give it a go. Afghan aside, I wait for driving permits into Central Asian states with exhilaration, enthusiasm and gusto!

This is a much more a journey of ‘high adventure’. Again limited to 15 cars, September / October 2010, 6 weeks on the road crossing all of ‘Great Game’ lands. Cost is dependent on China permits. At this stage only looking for expressions of interest which would be appreciated. I do understand it is still some way off, and the route, and the adventure, of this journey will be confirmed as we advance towards the start date.

New web site being built and I will let you all have further details and web address once finished. Anyone interested in the ‘Great Game Classic Car Rally’ and the fantastic interesting history from Napoleon to Tsar Alexander, as we follow in the footsteps of pure boys own adventure of Stoddart and Conolly, (an off course a mention most go the most famous Great Game player of all...Kim), read The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk, and the almighty Kipling books ‘The Man who would be King’ and ‘Kim’.

Caption from a 1911 English satirical magazine reads: "If we hadn't a thorough understanding, I (British lion) might almost be tempted to ask what you (Russian bear) are doing there with our little playfellow (Persian cat)."

And all three of these rallies are driven by the desire to drive wonderful cars on breathtaking roads that become beautiful differing journeys around our world.

All the best for now.

Conrad