1/3 of the way around the planet via a load of places many haven’t heard of, in a car that no one would want. Starting from the southern tip of England with about 400 teams, and ending in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar after a month and a whole heap of adventure later.
If you expect a support crew, you’re in the wrong place. The fun only begins when you break down in the desert and have to MacGyver your car back together using just a stick, a piece of your shoe, some gum and the pantyhose your team mate was wearing at the Czechout Party (don’t ask!). If your car completely dies and all else fails, you could maybe resort to hitchhiking the rest of the way with other teams, but don’t give up! This is an adventure, not a nursery! If the sky falls on your car, prop it back up with a windshield wiper, kick out the dents and carry on. If you’re scared, stay at home with Grandma.
RULES
CHARITY: Each team must raise a minimum £1,000(GBP) for charity. Once you finish, your car and any gear that you don’t need to take home is auctioned off to charity as well.
CAR: Some tiny P.O.S. nearly unfit to drive an hour out of town, never mind 1/3 of the Earth, through countries that don’t even know what a road is.
ENGINE: No larger than 1.2L (ie: Geo Metro)… and yes we’re serious!
AGE: Vehicles no more than 10 years old. The Mongolian government got tired of shit being left in their country.
ROUTE: You plot your own path. You have a starting date/location, an ending date/location, and 16,000km in between to get lost. GPS is not allowed because it’s not an adventure if you always know where you are – the point is to get lost, be forced to interact with locals to absorb some culture.
NO BACKUP!: It’s just you, your whits and other rally teams. This is not a race! There’s no prize for finishing first or last, you’re supposed to help fellow teams along the way.
…and by the way, there’s no guarantee of arrival at the finish line or your safety.
BEATEN PATHS ARE FOR BEATEN MEN!
Imagine yourself in the middle of the gargantuan Kazakh desert, your car slowly being shredded by what you map says is a highway, but really nothing more than rutts in the sandy dirt that others before you have followed. Completely lost, hundreds of miles from civilization, and surrounded only by locals who’ve maybe heard 2 words of English (likely curse words). It’s just you, your wits, your increasingly brown pants, a car that any mechanic would fall over laughing at, and some slightly angry looking man with a gun on a camel.
There’s three fairly common routes that many take:
Northern Route: The “cushy route” – majority of roads are paved, and you’re more likely to run into a stingy border guard rather than get mugged by bandits. This route is for the adventurer whose idea of roughing it is a 3-star hotel.
Central Route: Rougher and potholed roads, and bandits wearing government uniforms make this an interesting drive. Some decent temperature swings with awesome heat during the days and freezing temperatures at night (but being Canadians, we’re not sure we can take their translation of “freezing” serious).
Southern Route: Our route (mostly) – This route could take you through a number of war zones depending on what those country’s leaders decide to do when they wake up in the morning, but instead of taking the so-called “ferry” across the Caspian Sea, we’re going a little further south through Iran. We’ll cross mountain ranges, deserts, some incredible temperature swings, bandits with AK-47s, religious extremism… oh, and we think we’ve heard something about a hatred towards the west?
