Another day in Petra began with the shocking news that Jeremy Bliss, who we were expecting to be arriving back from England, had gone AWOL and a frantic search was initiated to locate him. We were commandeered to check every hotel in Petra for clues of his whereabouts, but to no avail.

(John Lovett and Murray Cluley relaxing on the roof of the 'jalopy'. Photo: Jeremy Davey.)

To make matters worse, one of our team announced that he couldn’t find his wallet, so he dashed off to the previous night’s watering hole to see if he had left it there. After scattering waiters in all directions looking for it, he returned long faced to the hotel, only to find the elusive wallet was hiding under the bed.

Once we were able to set off, our next task was to purchase 50 pieces of pitta bread, 50 rolls and 50 fruit buns to supply to Dee, Ninetta and Sally for feeding to the ever-ravenous Thrust team. Some of this supply was hijacked by unshaven, bleary-eyed "Bedouins" driving rather familiar Land Rover Discoverys, returning from their nocturnal adventures in Amman.

(The writer for German Playboy displays one of his rocks. Photo: Jeremy Davey.)

Tasks at the base included the usual fodding exercise, which is progressing very well (over 3 miles covered today) as the density of stones on the track has diminished. Several groups of reporters have accompanied us during the week - today we had the pleasure of assistance of reporters from Der Spiegel and Playboy magazine of Germany. Unfortunately, to our disgust, the Playboy reporters failed to bring any stunning topless models with them to entertain the fodders while they worked. The fodding concluded with a ‘spin’ around the desert (of the 180 degree variety) in one of the hire cars (the driver lamely complained about poor car handling, where it was really poor car control that was to blame).

Meanwhile, preparations for the first runs of the car began with the transportation of all of the ThrustSSC marker cones to the Pit Station area of the desert, achieved by lashing the cones on top of the ThrustSSC transporter, which returned to the hanger looking the worse for wear, covered in dust.

As a postscript, Jeremy Bliss eventually arrived, having spent the night in Amman with some ITN reporters.

Matthew Cole
Murray Cluley
Duncan Garrett

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