The Mongol Rally

This summer, for the sixth time, a bunch of crappy cars will start a journey from England to Mongolia. It all started with a couple of friend in the UK who wanted some more adventures in their life. The first official rally was held in 2004 with six participating cars. Today the rally has grown in popularity and the number of cars starting in 2004 was amazing 251. Through the years The Mongol Rally has raised over £1 000 000 for charity.

So what is The Mongol Rally? It's not like the rallies you might know, the focus is not on who drives the fastest but on raising money for charity and having fun doing it. The race starts from the legendary Goodwood Circuit in England and stretches 10 000 miles east to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. There is no official path so each team decides how they want to go but they will have to cross mountains, plains and deserts. Road signs are scarce commodities, mostly because of the lack of roads in many places on the way. Also, GPS is forbidden with the simple explanation;

“How are you supposed to get lost if you have a GPS?”

The cars participating are not allowed to have engines bigger than 1.2 litres and should be generally unsuitable for the task to make the whole thing more exciting. Previously used cares in the rally have among others been; VW Beetle, Austin Mini, Renault CV2, Fiat 500, and other misplaced cars. To participate in the rally, each team has to raise at least £1000 for charities. The money goes straight to the, by the organizers approved, charity projects. Projects that help people in need in Mongolia and the other countries on the route.

Among other things, the projects are aimed to help disabled children in Mongolia, orphans in Eastern Europe and countryside villages in Mongolia and Tadzhikistan. The cars that manage all the way to Ulaanbaatar are sold on site and the money from this is also given to charities. Our team consists of two cars so thus we also have to raise at least £2 000.

The League of Adventurists, who organizes the rally, thinks that it is sad that all parts of the world have already been explored by courageous adventurers in past times. The solution; to discover the world again but in a different manner. So to make the world a bit better and a bit funnier The Mongol Rally was founded.

From http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com

The world is just a little bit too safe. Gone are the days where the edge of the map called you forth to discover what lay beyond - satellite maps and GPS have it laid out before you leave the armchair. What if you want things to go wrong? What if you want a bit of unknown in a world full health and safety measures? What if the words “adventure travel” conjure images of old ladies on a guided tour to Everest base camp with all the danger and real adventure neatly removed? What you need is the Mongol Rally.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the gargantuan Kazakh desert, your car slowly being shredded by the dirt track your map says is a motorway, completely lost hundreds of miles from civilisation with no back up crew to rescue you. Just you, your wits, your increasingly brown pants, a car that the laws of physics say shouldn’t have got you past Peckham Rye and a slightly angry looking man with a gun.

If this all conspires to make you think, “my goodness that’s a terribly silly idea” the Mongol Rally is probably not your cup of salted Mongolian tea. If, on the other hand, you think “hang on by gad, that’s exactly what I need”, you’ve found your calling, so read on to find out what you’ll be doing next summer.