They said that the stage was impossible, too hard and the mud too deep. It was possible to hear murmurings in the camp that this was the territory of Land Rover’s and Toyota’s only. I of course disagreed but my protests fell onto stony ground and bounced out of deaf ears.

The cars that were leading The Transyberia stayed put at the start to force the organisers hands into cancelling this challenging 30km stage in the Russian forest near the city of Novosibirsk. After some deliberation this they did with sheepish faces and eyes that would look everywhere but into yours. This left two groups unhappy – The British and Australian Cayenne’s and The Photographers. With undue haste the other competitors rushed off away from the start so we hung around expectantly especially as we had heard that the photographers wanted some “guinea pigs” to wander into the stage, only a small way in just in case the cars became inextricably stuck!!

“Would we risk going in?” they asked

“Be an absolute pleasure” said us. So in we went and drove at least 3km before the challenge was one worthy of our cars.

“Thank you” said the picture men after they had taken a few pictures of me and Paul working our cars across the ruts and through the mud. With uncertain haste they cleared off leaving us pondering our next move. I decided that Richard (my co-driver) and I would complete the stage in the company of the Russians from the Off Road Club of Novosibirsk while the Australian Cayenne headed off back to the road and onto the night’s hotel.

Only an hour or so later after some technically challenging off road driving we burst forth into a village beside a deep clear river with a Cayenne completely covered in mud and having successfully completed the stage with only three winch pulls needed. When we arrived back at the hotel the organisers were a little embarrassed at not running the stage and the press were very enthused and even wanted to run an article in Christophorus about us which for political reasons did not find its way in!!