Hello everyone, Welcome to our webpage.

Mongol Rally 2010.

It looks like we are off on an adventure to Mongolia! The plan is to drive from Goodwood in the south of England to Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia in the name of charity. We have bought a car, which we will donate to the Mercy Corps, to be used as a support vehicle / ambulance to help the local people in the area surrounding Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia. We also plan to raise at least £1500 to donate to various charities, the main one being the Mercy Corps. They do a huge amount of work helping the the less fortunate in Mongolia and getting aid and supplies to villages that are remote and quite inaccesible. The 2nd being CYPPD (Children & Young People's Protection & Development). They work with children and families to provide counselling services and promote positive lifestyles as well as awareness and prevention of serious issues facing these people such as trafficking or simple disease. If you would like to help us raise some money then you can click on either of the links at the bottom left of the page and the donation goes straight to the charity you choose. There is also a gift aid supplement so for every £10 you give, the charity will receive nearly £12 in donations.

If we make it all the way it should take about 4 weeks, leaving England on the 24th July 2010. You can view our proposed route by clicking the route button on the left but at present this is only a rough plan. It will be a 10,000 mile adventure which will take us through around 10 countrys, through deserts and rivers, over hills and under the bonnet each time we break down! It is an unsupported rally and we only have our wits and charm (and hopefully a bit of car mechanic skills) to get us there.

We will be leaving updates on this website about our progress whilst getting ready for the event and during the epic adventure. Check back regularly to see how far we have got and to read the many stories we have to tell about our travels. Also, when you donate leave an estimate, on the comment link below, of either how many miles you think we will get or how long you think it will take for us to get there. The closest person will win a prize from our final destination. You never know, our travels might end in the desert and we will have to bring a camel back for you!!

See you in Mongolia. hopefully...

the final blog

hi everyone,

For the last week we have been travelling across mongolia after a nightmare of a border crossing. We spent 50 hrs at the russia / mongloian border camping in the snow and rain waiting for the paperwork for the car import. It was hitting -5 degrees at night and was freezing, I have never been so cold. Once we got through the border we entered the most stunning scenery and the roads, if you can call them that, were shocking. We started to realize the scale of the country. another 1000 miles on dirt tracks..

It has been great as the people are so friendly and the rally entered the really hard part where the majority of the cars that do not make it break down. On the way through mongolia we camped with a family of 15 who all lived in a yurt by a river. It was beautiful and they had their hurd of cows an sheep all running around free in the area arond their yurt. What a way to live. They gave us cheese for breakfast in the morning and showed us how they live. A water truck turned up and as payment they strapped a goat to the roof of the lorry. Im sure the rspca would have something to say about that!

We continued south towards the gobi desert where the tracks started disappearing and you pretty much had to guess which way to go as there was no obvious paths through the sand. At least the compass came in handy! and we navigated by counting our miles and hoping we were going roughly in the right direction. We have spoken to teams that have lost days in the desert by missing a track and going in the wrong direction. Camping was easy as when it got dark we just stopped and put the tent up whereever we were.

We were amazed that the car made it through. We had to do a couple of big river crossings with the water coming up over the bonet as we drove through, very exciting. The car was having a hard time though, more of the exhast fell off and the gears stared to get a bit dodgy, we got 3 burst tyres and the bumper nearly fell off. Im not sure how that happened... think it may have been neils driving. hehe. I managed to hit a huge rock in the dark and the whole car jumped. I think the sump guard saved us there as it is now molded to the bottom of the engine but the saxo kept on going! After a couple more long days driving and camping from dusk to dawn we saw Ulaan on the horison.  

we arrived at the finish line in Ulaan baatar just in time for the 4 week party and what a great party it was. We started the evening by driving around the city in ambulances that people drove here with about 20 people in each ambulance and the lights and sirens blarring and much vodka flowing. The we headed onto a club where the atmosphere was amazing with everybody in such good spirits because they had actually made it to the finish line. It was great fun.   

We have had an amazing time travelling to mongolia and are a bit sad to hand the keys to the saxo over as it has been such a great journey. It is a real achievement to make it this far, a third of the way around the world! We want  to thank everyone who has supported us and helped us on our way. It is something that I would recommend to do, but certainly not much of a holiday.

Tomorrow we are going to some of the projects that the money we have raised will help and then our car is being auctioned tomorrow evening and that money is going to the charities so we should have raised 2500 pounds in total! Im suprised that most of the cars sell for around 1500 dollars here as small hatchbacks are very rare. We are then flying back to the uk on tuesday. 

Speak to you when i return.

Dan 

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

car is quite ill but its ok, we made it to the finish line! 28days, 5hrs. 8810miles. Been tough going in mongolia but all good. We need a beer!

Govi-Altai, Mongolia

gravel tracks today. Fun driving. few dents on car.. Amazing scenery, mountains. Camping in the wild next to mongolian family an yurt. Dan

Bayan Olgii, Mongolia

Into mongolia! 50 hrs at border. 2 very cold nights in tent, it snowed last night! Saxo is now mongolian. Just got to hotel, need bed. Dan

Province of Tomsk, Russian Federation

in the mountains, bbq lit, meat sizzling, bottle of red airing. In lovely place next to river. 10 teams with us now. May go rafting in morn

On the way to Mongolia!!

hi everyone,

We have now covered 7000 miles in 21 days. Only one more country to go! and I think this is going to be the exciting one. We have started to meet loads of other teams again and in our hotel last night there were 8 teams who are all heading in the same direction! Looks like its going to be a large convoy through mongolia. Probably the best way to do it as if anyone gets stuck at least there is some man power to help push the car out. We are planning on camping in the mountains tonight and have just been to the shop to replenish our meat supply for the bbq. We even have two bottles of red left which the police have not got their hands on yet.

We have quite a result yesterday. We were pulled over by a policeman waving his trunchion and had a chat, did the usual formalities of showing our documents and we told him what we were doing. He said something about money so we started to go ooowwwwwww, not again. He then pulled out a 10 rouple note and gave it to us whilst pointing at the childrens charity sticker. Very nice of him. It is only about 25 pence but good on him for helping and not trying to extort money from us.

We are about to head off so better go and pack the car. The car park outside looks like a mechanics work shop with people mending exhausts, changing wheels, etc,etc. I think the hotel staff are wanting us to go.. We are not planning on staying in another hotel until Ulaan sometime later next week so this may be the last big update. Just hoping we make it, mongolia is where most of the cars that don't make it die. Im sure we will be fine!!

Dan    

Barnaul, Russian Federation

its bliss to be back on smooth tarmac! In a nice hotel for the last time before finish line. Off for dinner with couple of other teams.

Rubtsovsk, Russian Federation

Back into russia! Got through border in 4hrs again. Roads loads better. Car sounding ok, a bit battered from kaz.. Cruising towards mongolia! Dan

qaraboget

camped the night just outside town. Gr8 spot. Good fire & bbq. Steak, red wine, marshmellows! Off to Semey now.

Almaty

hi all,

After a hard few days on terrible roads we made it to almaty in the south east of kazakhstan. Im off to bed now  as its 3 in the morning, we arrived at 2am after a very long drive. we are in a nice hotel with wifi so I will leave a bit more about our travels in the morning.

Dan

morning all, I think that was the best sleep I have ever had! I have added some more photos of the last few days to the kazakhstan folder in the gallery. Not much but camels and desert but they show what we have been through for the last few days. It has been really hard. Something like driving from cornwall to Scotland on gravel roads. There are bits of broken tarmac but there are pot holes so big you could lose a wheel in them. We found one that we managed to fit the whole car in! On the second day of it was so bad we were going for 16 hours, in 40 degrees and managed something like 20 mph over the whole day.. We thought that we would never get out and it was so remote that the nearest town was over 50 miles away so not much help if we broke down. We made it though and are back on the route most ralliers take so help is close at hand now. There is another team that took the same route as us in the hotel so its quite exciting exchanging stories!

We have managed to fit in a bit of culture and sight seeing. We went to Aral, by the aral sea, or what was the sea until the russians decided to divert the water, drain the lake and now the water is over 25 km from the town. It was a thriving fishing village until this happened.. The old ships are now littered around the desert, rusting away with camels using them for shelter. It was a very strange experience. We then headed down the road to Turkistan which has a mosque building that they rate as a second to mecca. Amazing arcitecture and interesting to see. The town was quite thriving and had an amazing market. The thing that strikes you most is the variation of face types, ranging from eastern european to chinese with every combination inbetween including chinese with blue eyes and blond hair and when asked they all say they are from Kazakhstan. We also found the Kazah version of the cornish pasty! It was circular, slighty puffy pastry with mince, onions and a few veg in. It was lovely and made me feel like I was at home! All the people are really friendly and helpful, which is really handy when asking for directions and even the police are ok. We must get pulled over at least 2 times a day in busier areas and we have not had a fine, yet. One police man said we were going too fast and said he wanted a 100 dollars, we said no and after a bit of chat, mainly with us understanding nothing I pulled a bottle of red out the back and gave that to him. He was very happy, let us and the team behind us go and he strolled off with a smile. not bad for a 3 quid bottle of wine!

We are having a day off today to look around Almaty and then early tomorrow we are going north towards russia. I think that will take 2 days and then 2 days in russia and then the final stretch through mongolia. We are hoping the roads are ok until we get into mongolia but then they get really bad again. 1000 miles of desert and dirt track.. At least we will be with loads of other teams as we are heading towards the finish at the busiest time and its the route that 90% of the teams take so we are hoping for a convoy of at least 5 cars so we can camp together and help each other out if people brake down. I have also been told there are no towns so we will be stocking up on petrol, water, food and a few bottles of alcohol! We have already collected a couple of disposable bbq's so my plan is to find some fresh food in the last town and camp in the desert with the bbq and any bottles of wine the police have not taken from us. very civilised! There is also no mobile reception or internet for about 3 days in mongolia so from next monday to wednesday we will be completely uncontactable but hopefully we will emerge in Ulaan Bataar very dusty and tired (and hopefully with a wine hangover) sometime later next week.

Dan  

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