So you can’t do a 5 week trip like this without talking about your “partner” on the trip

Stuart has been amazing. Firstly there are probably only a handful of people I know who could live with my driving without once ( externally) getting mad with me

We’ve learnt a lot about each other and we learnt to adjust to each other personalities and strengths ( we’ve ignore the weaknesses 😜)

He is very calm when things gets stressful which is great as I am not ! The Italian in me comes out with lots of words and arm raising

However he’s not perfect As an anecdote he can lose his tempter when technology doesn’t work which clearly happened a lot on these travels in parts of the world less developed

More importantly we have never been seriously lost which is pretty key skill for navigator. We’ve got better as the rally gone on I think but the breakdowns in Kazakhstan cost us dear

He’s bled the clutch at the side of the road , maintained the car daily and replaced broken engine mount. Just a mechanic in disguise as my brother when he’s not navigating

My favourite story is when we’ve broken down ( again) in the Kazakhstan desert and the sweeps are fixing the broken bolt. They are chatting away to to each other and I can see Stuart listening very very closely but looking more and more confused. It all made sense to him when I told him they were speaking Welsh! 😁