Day 059 > Wednesday 30 October

have never seen Caroline so nervous as she was in the morning. At 17, Caroline had been told that she would never drive a car because of her eyesight but, today, Caroline was expected to drive a race car around the Sepang International Formula 1 Circuit in Kuala Lumpur and in front of press and TV cameras. The thought of not being able to manage clutches, gears, of damaging the car and of making a complete fool of herself and of the people who had organised the event was heavy on her mind. We all tried to encourage her but, at the same time, remembered our own first attempts at kangarooing a car around when we learnt to drive and, to a degree, shared her fears. But, we knew we would give it our best shot and, after a press conference at the hotel, set off in the coach for the famous circuit.

Very rarely does the track open for private races but all the staff and marshals turned out to make the event possible. We were introduced to the cars, a brand new Lotus Elise and the Proton F1 pacer car, and taken for a very exhilarating demonstration drive around the circuit by the racing instructor in the Lotus.

Miles was going to drive the Lotus with me guiding as his co-pilot. I did think that this is probably the most ridiculous voluntary act of stupidity I had ever agreed to, knowing that Miles would probably want to push the car as hard as possible. Mike, however, had agreed to guide Caroline in the Proton which I thought was probably even dafter given her zero previous driving experience.

A quick briefing and we were off on a warm up lap. Amazingly we got around, albeit slowly and far from following any so called racing line. In just one lap Miles and I must have tried five different ways of passing and receiving instructions and we just about got our act together by the time we pulled up at the grid for the start of the race. Caroline had not crashed so far and it looked as if it would be possible for her to get around, but it probably wasn't going to be very exiting for the film crews.

The Green flag was dropped and the five lap race was on. Caroline shot off like a rocket leaving a trail of tyre smoke. "You must be joking!" I thought and then I realised I hadn't told Miles that the race had begun. We were still sat on the grid. Miles' biggest fear, it turned out, was the thought of losing the race to a blind, Irish blonde and when I told him to step on it we careered off heading straight for the wall at the side of the track.

The faces of the film crews and especially the dealer who had provided the Lotus were, apparently, pictures of absolute fear . They all expected us to go around at around 20 km per hour and to see us head into the first bend at 100 km per hour just mortified them all.

We screeched our way around the track, driving through every bend, negotiating chicanes and pushing it to the limit on every straight. The press watched on the CCTV monitors with jaws open. We were hitting the lines, Caroline and Miles tussling for first position and were getting around the 5.2 km lap in around three minutes. At one point another pacer car carrying camera crews tried to keep up with Miles and I on the back straight but saw us pulling away although they themselves were doing over 180 km per hour.

Apparently we clocked 200km.p.hr at one point but I must say I was far too busy shouting directions, acceleration and gear change instructions to look at a speed gauge. With only one major spin and one minor course deviation Miles and I tore through the winning line to receive the chequered flag, beating Caroline and Mike by a safe margin. But the day was really Caroline's.

Miles had not driven for over twenty five years but did drive before losing his sight. For Caroline, to learn to drive in just a few minutes and then race like she did on one of the worlds most famous Grand Prix Circuits was unbelievable. She was giddy with adrenaline and got out of the car crying, laughing, dancing and shaking with excitement. The press and the organisers were euphoric and completely flabbergasted by the way the four of us had risen to the challenge. This is what the Eighty Ways project is all about! Lives and opinions were changed today and it will be a long while before we stop talking about the incredible experience we had just had. We cannot thank all those who made the day possible enough, mostly for the fact that they took the risk of believing in us enough to devise this crazy race. Watch out Schuhmacher, you could be soon overtaken by a 52 year old blind guy or a dizzy, blind, Irish blonde with a legless co-pilot.

We missed our flights to Singapore but who cared? Enjoying the atmosphere at Sepang was too good to miss. We did arrive in Singapore later that evening, met with Robin and Mary who had joined us from the UK and straight into a press conference. We were now in our thirteenth country in eight weeks. What adventure was waiting for us here we wondered.

Day 060 > Thursday 31 October

Today was supposed to be a free day to enable us to settle into Singapore but we ended up with an interesting programme, most of which involved eating.

Our Singapore programme had been put together by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) which supports many domestic charities and co-ordinates volunteers and support for development projects outside of Singapore. We were staying as sponsored guests of the Hilton Hotel in Orchard Road and the SIF had organised a press conference over breakfast as well as the chance for us to meet with the key people that we would be working with over the next four days.

Breakfast ended just in time for us to head off to the Tangrin Club for lunch with
Jonathan Athershon,the Rolls-Royce Regional Director for Singapore. The very smart Tangrin Club seemed to be a cross between the Reform Club in London and a Berni Inn and at times one had to remind oneself that we were not in England.

At the end of the meal Caroline took Miles to the Gents ( we've all got very close over the last two months) where they bumped into the Acting British High Commissioner who had been researching our progress in advance of the charity dinner tomorrow night at which he was due to speak. We all gathered in the Gents and had a very surreal conversation with him about our project, prompting some very strange looks from the passing clientele.

Following our luncheon we moved to Raffles Hotel where we met more of the project team from Singapore. Singapore Slings, scones and cakes at the Raffles Hotel mid afternoon is just the sort of refreshment that we have now come to expect as we travel from place to place.

We had a fascinating evening at the Night Safari which is rather like a zoo which houses nocturnal and rare animals. Although unable to see, Miles and Caroline could sense the glowing eyes of wolves and Leopards peering out of the bushes in the dim lighting as we made our way through the Safari on our electric tram.

Singapore had struck us as a very clean, green and safe modern city and, as in so many of the places we had visited we felt very welcomed and loved by the friends who were working to support us.

Day 061 > Friday 01 November

Our first appointment of the day was with a Duck. The Duck is a converted military amphibian carrier which was designed and used by the Americans in the Vietnam War. It now takes tourists around Singapore on land and on the water. We had a fun leisurely tour on the Duck, the best bit being the Duck tour song which played continually through the trip and has been on our minds for the remainder of the day.

Being an Island, water transport features highly on our programme in Singapore and we had lunch at the Kallang Sea Sports Club as guests of the Central Singapore Community Development Council before transferring into Kayak canoes for a forty minute paddle into the centre of town. Mike has added Kayaking to his
list of not enjoyed transport, along with Camels and motorbikes. Not having stomach muscles to help support himself and no feeling to help him understand that he is falling out of or off things Mike found the Kayaking experience rather unnerving, but he did it nevertheless.

After a quick change we headed off to meet the President of Singapore, as one does, for a cup of tea and cake at his residence. The President is highly thought of in Singapore and he and his wife had expressed a strong desire to meet with us during our stay and he was clearly very engaged with the issues our adventure was addressing.

A string of Tri-shaws was waiting to take us back to the Hilton as we emerged from tea. Sitting in the sunshine while we are being peddled slowly through the streets is a fine way to travel. Singapore tri-shaws differ from those we had already ridden. In Thailand the passenger sits behind the cyclist, in Malaysia they
sit in front and in Singapore one sits beside the cyclist, necessitating the drivers to have a developed skill for conversation.

Miles and I had managed to contact Singapore's most famous adventurer, Swee Chiow. We had got to know Swee while we were in Punta Arenas waiting to get onto Antarctica two years ago and we looked forward to meeting up again. Swee is one of a very small group of people who have climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, has walked to the South and North Poles and is currently planning to sail around the world. Swee joined us at the charity dinner sponsored by Stamford Tyres which was held at the Hilton in the evening.

The event drew a very impressive turnout but it was one of those nights where Mike didn't relish the idea of addressing the audience. Mike had had a tough day, it happens to us all sometimes and the thought of facing several hundred people, especially after some brilliant talks by the acting British Commissioner and the rest of our team was almost too much to bear. But, of course, the nerves were overcome and his speech was received with huge applause. It is good to remind ourselves sometimes that even Mike is human.

Day 062 > Saturday 02 November

The students at Singapore Polytechnic had been asked to design and make three forms of transport suitable for disabled riders and they presented us with a hand pedalled wheelchair, an electric stand-in buggy and a wheelchair tri-shaw.

The Minister of State, Mr Chan Soo Wen joined us as the "contraptions" were ridden around the perimeter of the campus to bring the team to a discussion forum with the National Youth Award Alumni. The National Youth Awards in Singapore are rather like the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in the UK. The outstanding design was the stand-in buggy, the other two suffering rather serious design problems on the journey. About 500 young people turned out on the Saturday morning to attend the NYAA Forum and to listen to the Minister of State and the 80 Ways team talk about the key messages behind the 80 Ways project. The audience was probably the most interested and engaged that we have come across during the adventure so far and three and a half hours with them seemed to flash by.

We returned to the Kallang Sea Sports Club where we got into our Dragon Boats. Pounding along the river to the beat of drums we were laughing at just how wet we were getting from the splashing of at least twenty oarsmen in each boat, but we had seen nothing yet! The rain started heavily and then got heavier, eventually getting really heavy. We were soaked as we arrived at the Life Without Limits event organised by the SIF in support of the disabled and being held at the National Stadium. And the rain kept coming. The event was rather a wash out and we felt for the organisers who had put so much into the planning.

The Singapore people actually welcome the rain as most of the time it is hot and humid, but rain like this was just too much. For us it was a bit of a treat as we have seen so little of it since leaving home two months ago. Completely soaked through, we splashed in the puddles and thought of home.

Day 063 > Sunday 03 November

We went sailing today. It is the perfect way to spend a weekend morning, out in the open air, in the sunshine with no particular place to go. We had been invited to the Changi sailing club to join the disabled sailing club for the morning. The simple boats were able to accommodate all types of disabilities and young and old alike.

There was a real sense of fun at the club and we were met with an array of smiley faces as we were asked to talk about who we were and what we had been up to over the last few weeks. We talked about Miles' brother Geoff who is also completely blind. Three years ago Geoff became the first blind person to sail solo across an ocean, setting off from Durban in South Africa and arriving in Freemantle, Australia 51 days later. Many people said that it was not possible and that Geoff was going to die on the trip but Geoff had a dream and turned it into reality. Why should people who have disabilities not have big dreams just like the rest of us?

The dinghies were so well designed that Mike was entirely comfortable sailing on his own and soon the team had dispersed, sailing off into the distance for a couple of hours. Miles was loosely guided from the shore by loud hailer, only really needing instructions to avoid the large tankers and American Navy ships that were coming along the busy shipping lane.

Our time in Singapore was coming to an end and the horrible goodbyes were approaching fast. We ate in an Italian restaurant for lunch, probably our tenth since leaving the UK, and exchanged addresses, making more promises to return. We seem to have friends in every country in the world now, we just hope we will be able to find time to maintain these friendships when we are back to the routines and busy lifestyles back home.

Thankyou SIF for a fantastic few days in Singapore.