The Prologue

(Can't help thinking of Frankie Howerd when I use those two words.)

The Jabalain continues to plumb new depths of inefficiency. Breakfast, promised from 0600hrs, is still conspicuous by its absence at 0700hrs, but fortunately our Team Manager has Plan B in hand. Our wardrobe clearly has more food in it than the hotel kitchen, and we breakfast much better than yesterday. (The Jabalain has some impressive brass signs reading 'Arson Emergency Exit'. If there is an alternative egress in the event of accidental fires, we haven't found it.)

But I digress. By 0800 we are back at Maghwat, because that’s when the prologue road book is supposed to be issued. It finally makes an appearance at 0945, and we set off to walk the 6.2km route.

We’re not the quickest on the prologue – 5min 39secs gives us 15th place, 10 seconds slower than 7th-placed Mabbs. But the engine is getting very hot. We divert to fuel up before returning to service, where we find one of the fans is not getting a supply. Streaky and I rig up an alternative feed and the problem is solved, and the car goes into Parc Ferme for the night.