28 September, 10.30pm, Amsterdam

WELL we’ve arrived in Amsterdam but I’m not happy.

We got here at 9.15pm after working out all the clues to obtain the name and address of our hotel.

But what has frankly staggered me is that the first team here, Global Warmers in their BMW, after setting out from Rouen at 8am this morning, arrived at 3.30pm.

Nearly a whole six hours before us.

Admittedly we were the last to leave Rouen at 10.30am and we had to stop for an hour or so in the afternoon to write the blog and send pictures.

Plus we also had a very agreeable morning coffee in a cafe by Amiens cathedral and we were stuck in a Dutch traffic jam outside Utrecht this evening, but even so, I can’t work what the hell we were doing.

My only idea is that we were driving so slowly that we actually travelled back in time.

However, we weren’t the last car here.

At the time of writing Donkeys on Tour are still out there somewhere and I hope they make it safely.

This brings me onto another thing that has staggered me, which is the camaraderie between the people on the rally.

It’s fantastic when you come across another car on the motorway, with the tooting of horns and waving, or when you see guys out and about in different European cities trying to solve the clues.

Everybody generally cares about how everybody else is doing.

Any way before I get too emotional, and I’m already tired with having to drive all day, I’m going to head into Amsterdam to see what’s going on….