On August 28, 2009 Jean-Pierre Ballay, Jacques Grelley and Philippe Orsetti, all residents of Arlington, Texas, will take off for Beijing, China, to start a one month long car journey.
They will join a group of "Baroudeurs" from France. Among them Jerome Duval, a long time friend of Philippe since College.
From Beijing, they will go to Tianjin to pick up their respective cars that were shipped to China by containers from France.
The next day the real journey will start. With two drivers per car, Philippe will team up with Jacques, a former Le Mans race car driver and Jean-Pierre will team up with Jerome. Another 20 cars will participate but we have not met the drivers as yet.
It is not a race, it is a journey that will take us from China's Capital to Lhasa, Tibet through several Chinese Provinces including Sichuan and Shaanxi, then across the Himalaya Mountain to Kathmandu, Nepal, then to Mumbai, India along the Rajasthan.
We will all drive vintage Citroen 2CV (60's to 80's) or its derivative. Ours will be an Acadiane that was produced in the late 70's as a small commercial vehicle.
The Journey
The Ciroen Acadiane for the Journey
