The Prologue

(I always have a bit of a Frankie Howerd moment when I write those words - but maybe some of you are too young to remember 'Up Pompeii'.) Drivers Briefing produced - along with the usual info which we've heard before) a nice letter in Arabic which asks the Police to be nice to competitors. That might have been handy yesterday!

Then it's off to Marina Mall for lunch, followed by a post-prandial stroll through the prologue. To call it the 'Super Special' does rather invite disapointment - the terrain is a bit of landfill beside the sea, full of bits of rebar, rocks and assorted building detritus. I don't expect to be quick, and the bulk of the Patrol is not very happy in all the tight hairpins - not helped by my oversteering at every turn. There is a jump (no, I didn't) and a watersplash which covers the entire vehicle in shite. Mohd Bin Sulayem starts the affair by taking his old Escort WRC car round. I end up 21st out of 35 cars and trucks, rather worse than I expected, but still ahead of Mark Powell, Dave Mabbs, Fadi Melki and Malcolm Anderson. This does rather give a hint of things to come - it's a strong field and the top 6 positions read like a who's who of cross-country rallying - Peterhansel, Novitsky, Zapletal, Briskindov (who?), Gadasin and Schlesser.

Peterhansel in the Mini is absolutely awesome and I'll be surprised if he doesn't win. Sheila has carefully packed my reading glasses in their case and left them in my road car - which Rick has taken to the bivvy - so I'm walking round this evening in my heavily tinted driving glasses looking like Stevie Wonder, and with similar visual acuity (but less musical talent). I am actually typing this in braille. We start SS1 tomorrow at 1040hrs and plan to be back in the bivvy in daylight. Hopefully. Live tracking should be up on http://www.abudhabidesertchallenge.com/, so feel free to log on and check out our progress - car 214.

Knock Knock, Who's there?, The Phantom, The Phantom who?, The Phantom Blogger of Old Ranches

Oh yes 'tis I, Ian's surrogate blogger, the one they call 'thingummy' who once a year crawls out from under his drinks cabinet to assume the role of Communications Director of the Newtrix Blog. It's a very important role. For Ian and Sheila's blog. I like to think of it as my Blog Role.

And apart from toilet humour, I have also been known to contribute photographic evidence of Ian and Sheila's "Further Adventures In Rallyland". So for your delight and delectation, I have generously donated a plethora of digital pixels, organised in such a manner as to entertain and inform your optical nerves. So until tomorrow..........."Enjoy".