Later this year (albeit not much later now, we're aiming to leave on or slightly before June 1st), two friends and myself are undertaking our own version of the Mongol Rally.
6 weeks out to Ulaanbaatar in outer Mongolia, and we're planning to take 4 weeks to come back via Russia and Scandinavia.
We'll be traveling through between 24 and 27 countries, and covering between 16,000 and 20,000 miles depending on variations in route on the way (namely Ukraine; unless a miracle occurs before mid-August, we'll have to dodge it, and I'll be damn sore to miss the opportunity to photograph the ghost town of Prip'yat', some 25k from Chernobyl).
Here's the proposed route for the trip;
Here's the wagon we chose for the trip;
It's a 1.7DTi (Isuzu engine) Astra G estate. Plenty of space inside, plenty of space on the roof bars, and on good terrain (i.e: roads...) we should see upwards of 60mpg. Really the only downside is that out in eastern Asia, diesel may be a trifle more tricky to get hold of than petrol, but that's the reason for the three 5gal ex-MOD jerry cans strapped to the roof!
I will be taking photographs the whole way along the trip, and at least one of them per day will be appearing on >> my blipfoto page <<, though I cannot guarantee that they will be actually being uploaded daily, but rather in large photo dumps whenever I find somewhere in the back end of nowhere in Asia that has Wifi I can make use of. If you're interested, please open that link and have a looksee; we're aiming to see some incredible things along the way - to name a few; >> The Door To Hell << in Turkmenistan, >> Sedlec Ossuary << in the Czech Republic, >> Pamukkale << in Western Turkey and >> Yolyn-Am << in the Gobi Desert.
Once I'm back, I will be going through what could well be thousands of photographs and uploading a good selection of the ones that don't appear on blipfoto.
This trip is not just folly for us however; like many others participating in the Mongol Rally, we are aiming to raise money for charity, in this case UNICEF. We struggled somewhat to find the right charity fitting in with this journey, considering how many different countries and communities we are visiting along the way, and we wanted to give to a charity that gives to not just one or two, but as many as possible of those countries.
UNICEF do incredible work worldwide. They support children in harsh conditions in Western Mongolia, those in war torn Ukraine (which we are now going to avoid!), and run many projects at home in the UK and many other countries. Wikipedia estimates that 91.8% of money donated to UNICEF goes directly to their operations, and they are deserving of your support.
>> The link for donations is here. <<
Please, please click it, read it, and if you can, donate a few bob!
Even if you don't feel you can donate a few pounds to the page, please, please do feel free to share, repost, and point people at the link, the more we raise the better!
I should also add that there will also be a link added to a sweepstake on how far we make it, when we first f**k up, etc etc. You can blame Rich for that, but it's all in jest, so again, please feel free to place your bets!
Never had to deal with entry VISAs before so didn't realise getting into a country could be such a pain.
