The Weather God is really mocking us today: outside we have blue skies and the beginnings of a hot day - just 5 miles down the road the Jafr Desert is flooded, the course which we had built so carefully has been washed away and the local people know it will take at least three weeks for the desert to dry. Then there will be more time needed to recreate the course. The decision to return home is clear cut - we can’t last out here long enough to see the desert dry and the course re-established.

Thank God Martyn Davidson took the decision to evacuate the Jafr Desert site when he did (please see The Tide’s Coming In…? for details). He woke up to find a different sort of mirage on the horizon - a mirage that didn’t go away and wetted your tyres when you drove a Discovery into it. It took us 6 hours to totally evacuate the site and when we left the water was 200 metres away. Like Glynne Bowsher, I always believed that somehow the Desert Site was on higher ground - never vulnerable because the water would have to flow uphill to flood it - in fact the next day the entire track system was lost.

(Sally Noble at work in the kitchen. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

There is only one way to look at this and that is to assess what has been achieved. ThrustSSC made 331mph but with steering problems. We believe we have the fix, but the weather made it impossible to try it. Had we been successful with the fix then we all believed the speeds to 600mph would come quickly and relatively easily - but that’s mere speculation. The team was faced with a huge task on arrival - to finish the car and complete the track system. Over 2000 man hours went into the track system and by the time we were ready to try the steering fix there was 100 miles of high speed track ready. There were many unsung achievements - Ninetta Hearn, Dee Campbell-Coombe and Sally Noble worked the most appalling hours to keep the food running. Somehow they managed to create nearly 2,700 meals (90 meals a day) from the very limited supplies we had flown out. There was no money for more - it was a miracle of biblical dimensions.

(A member of the RJAF driving the Terex grader used during the evacuation on Tuesday. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

The Jordanian Air Force entered into the spirit of the project, helping with everything from track grading to loaning us a metal floor for the Aireshelta. Nothing was too difficult - and the friendliness, humour and politeness and help we received from almost everyone we met in Jordan is just legendary.

(Martyn 'Hawkeye' Davidson during the desert evecuation. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

On the desert Jayne Millington and Martyn Davidson would spend long hours in the Pits Station truck keeping the communications and operations running, and Jeremy Davey would pop up in the most unlikely places with his digital camera - religiously updating the site every day - and the figures really show how much his work is appreciated as the site hit 300,000 accesses a week from 100 countries.

In no way is this the end of the project: its a bitter setback for a team who have worked so hard for so long. But now we have to get back to base to raise more money, prepare (and paint!) ThrustSSC and get ready for the next round. Breedlove is rebuilding fast - and we need to be operational again as soon as physically possible.

(ThrustSSC at speed on the Jafr Desert. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

This is also a tough time for our sponsors: we are by no means a success in speed terms - though frankly the sheer effort of getting ThrustSSC, a car as big and complex as a front-line jet fighter, finished and operational in Jafr is something of an achievement in itself. Sponsors are on the receiving end of a constant flow of juicy PR opportunities - many far less risky than a supersonic car in an Arabian desert. We have generated huge global media coverage for them, but is it enough to persuade them to continue into 1997? We can't just stop today and miraculously reconstitute ourselves when we approach record breaking time - there is a huge amount of preparatory work to be done and we must start immediately on the next stage.

It's going to be very tough indeed - probably tougher than anything we’ve done so far.

And we have to remember that as a team we create our own motion - it's not about sitting tight in Farnborough and hoping someone will help us. That has never been the Thrust Way.

Just watch this space.

The author of this article, Richard_Noble, is the ThrustSSC's Project Leader and held the World Land Speed Record from 1983 to 1997.

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