This team talk covers two days as there has not been much to report over the last 48 Hrs.

Neal and John assisted with security cover at the desert pit station on Tuesday night. Nothing happened overnight and the full team arrived back on the desert early Wednesday morning nodoubtably relieved that the camp hadn’t been raided by Bedouin or invaded by wild animals. The early morning arrivals in the camp were a couple of newspaper reporters.

(ThrustSSC Desert Pit Station, Photo: Nick Chapman.)

Once the full team had arrived at the desert station the days work commenced. An inflatable hanger arrived along with some steel matting. The hanger was erected over the matting in preparation for receiving Thrust. A new portable Q shed of the plastic variety.

Meanwhile there were teams out examining the tracks left by the Car and assessing the data provided by the car. The technical teams were inspecting the vehicle to see whether there were any immediate signs of problems.

Whilst the area around SSC was being set up, one of the telemetry antenna masts collapsed while being worked on. Unfortunately a team member suffered an injury to his hand which was dealt with by the Jordanian medical services.

(ThrustSSC in the Aireshelta, Photo: Jeremy Davey.)

This incident delayed work on the car which eventually could be rolled into its new hanger home. Further work continued on the car clearing the desert dust from around its wheel cavities and carrying out adjustments to steering and suspension settings.

During the day many Bedouins travelled to the desert pit station. The Bedouins are distinguishable, due to their white Dustan trucks. It is nice to see that they take a keen interest in SSC (almost too keen on some occasions.)

The next day, most club members decided to "take a day off" and travel south to Wadi Rum. This place really is in the middle of nowhere but is very beautiful. T. E. Lawrence of Lawrence of Arabia fame passed through here. The film of the same name was also made on location. "Rum" consists of colorful desert, surrounded by dominating rocky mountains.

The next stop was Aqaba, Jordan's window to the sea. Aqaba is situated by the Red Sea nearby to the "west Bank" and Elait in Egypt. The town is far more westernized than the rest of Jordon and although not exactly beautiful, the town had many attractive women.

Upon arrival at our hotel, we meet up with two new club members Bob Edwards and Michael Airy. Bob has traveled from Saudi Arabia and Michael has flown all the way from Nairobi in deepest Africa. We hope that they have a very pleasant stay. It was nice to see some new faces, as Roger and Jason McCann left for Blighty this morning (although rather late).

We have just received a phone call from Base camp who have advised that they hope to run the car tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow and watch this space.

Neal and John

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