CHARITY: Each team must raise a minimum £1,000(GBP) for charity. Upon completion of the rally, your car and any gear that you don’t need to take home is auctioned off to charity as well (2008 and 2009 saw theMongol Rally raise well over £500,000!).
CARS: Some POS that’s almost unfit for a drive an hour out of town, never mind having to make the 10,000 mile drive around 1/3 of the Earth.
ENGINES: No larger than 1.2L… SERIOUSLY!
AGE: Vehicles can’t be more than 10 years old. The Mongolian government got tired of people bringing shit into their country and leaving it there.
NO BACKUP!: It’s just you and the other rally teams. There’s no prize for finishing first or last, so it’s not a competition – teams are encouraged to help fellow ralliers along the way.
ROUTE: Teams plot their own chosen path. You have a starting date/location, an end date/location, and a hell of a lot of space in between to get lost. GPS is greatly frowned upon because it’s there’s no fun in knowing exactly where you are.
There’s no guarantee of arrival at the finish line, or your safety. That is what makes it an adventure!
Imagine yourself in the middle of the gargantuan Kazakh desert, your car slowly being shredded by what you map says should be a highway, but isn’t anything more than some rutts in the sand/dirt that drivers before you have followed. Completely lost, hundreds of miles from civilization, surrounded by locals who’ve maybe only heard 2 words from the English language (likely curse words)… it’s just you, your wits, your increasingly brown pants, a car that the laws of physics say should’ve broken down at the starting line, and some slightly angry looking man with a gun on a camel.
There’s three common routes that many take:
Northern Route: The “cushy route” through Russia. The majority of roads are paved, and you’re likely to run into a few stingy border guards rather than get mugged by bandits. This route is for the adventurer whose idea of roughing it is a 3-star hotel.
Middle Route: Rougher roads, some nice potholes, and bandits wearing government uniforms make this a more interesting drive, taking you straight through Kazakhstan and some decent temperature swings with awesome heat during the days and freezing temperatures at night. However, being Canadians, I’m not sure we can take their translation of freezing serious because +5*C is t-shirt weather for us.
Southern Route: Our route (mostly). Driving 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. Instead of taking the so-called “ferry” across the Caspian Sea, we’re looking at going a little more south, through Iran (fun!). We’ll have to cross mountain ranges, deserts, some incredible temperature swings, bandits armed with AK-47s, religious extremism, and we seem to have heard something about a hatred towards the west (I hope our Canadian flags don’t draw any attention).
THE ROAD AHEAD
England to Mongolia: a third of the way around the planet via a bunch of countries many haven’t heard of, in a car that no one would even want. Starting from England, Spain and Italy, the rally finishes in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, around four weeks and a whole heap of adventure later.
If you expect a support crew like those other wussy rallies, you’re in the wrong place. You only start having fun when you break down in the desert and have to MacGyver your car back together using just a stick, a rock, some gum and some pantyhose (don’t ask!). If your car completely dies and all else fails, you could maybe resort to hitchhiking the rest of the way, but this is no time to give up. It’s supposed to be an adventure not a nursery! If the sky does fall on your car, prop it back up with a windshield wiper, kick out the dents and carry on. If you’re worried, stay at home in your safety bubble.
