The what?
Finding a good adventure can be tough, sometimes it's easier to jump on a semi organised adventure, such as the Mongol Rally. That’s why I did the Mongol Rally, I wanted an adventure but in all honesty, I was scared to attempt such a thing. The organisation and everything else involved seemed overwhelming.
What even is the Mongol Rally? Well when I did it it was drive from Brighton in the UK to Ulan Ude in Siberia with no route, no support crew, no anything, just you, your vehicle and team mates. To make things harder the vehicle also had to have an engine smaller than 1.2 litres and be under £500. As such, all sorts of crazy vehicles entered this mad endurance challenge.
When I discovered the Mongol Rally, I asked Smithy, my adventuring friend to join me. There was a catch in that, I might not have told him what it was. The conversation went something along the lines of do you want to do 2 month adventure? He said, yes and then groaned when I explained what he had just signed up to. We needed a third person, to bring costs down mainly and with the help of the internet, we had an old mutual friend Mitchell join us and the Top Hat Explorers were born!
Our first task was to choose our noble stead, that would carry us 20,000 miles across the world. We also had to choose our charity, this was easier to choose. Mitchell had recently had his thyroids removed after they become cancerous, naturally we picked Teenage Cancer Trust because of this. Choosing the route was next, from previous participants knowledge we learnt that there were really three routes, the northern, middle or southern. We choose the southern, which is arguably the most adventurous, but that's open to debate. The Southern route “roughly”, heads south east through Europe, crosses Turkey heads into Iran and then east heading through Central Asia and Russia to finally reach Mongolia.
What even is the Mongol Rally? Well when I did it it was drive from Brighton in the UK to Ulan Ude in Siberia with no route, no support crew, no anything, just you, your vehicle and team mates. To make things harder the vehicle also had to have an engine smaller than 1.2 litres and be under £500. As such, all sorts of crazy vehicles entered this mad endurance challenge.
When I discovered the Mongol Rally, I asked Smithy, my adventuring friend to join me. There was a catch in that, I might not have told him what it was. The conversation went something along the lines of do you want to do 2 month adventure? He said, yes and then groaned when I explained what he had just signed up to. We needed a third person, to bring costs down mainly and with the help of the internet, we had an old mutual friend Mitchell join us and the Top Hat Explorers were born!
Our first task was to choose our noble stead, that would carry us 20,000 miles across the world. We also had to choose our charity, this was easier to choose. Mitchell had recently had his thyroids removed after they become cancerous, naturally we picked Teenage Cancer Trust because of this. Choosing the route was next, from previous participants knowledge we learnt that there were really three routes, the northern, middle or southern. We choose the southern, which is arguably the most adventurous, but that's open to debate. The Southern route “roughly”, heads south east through Europe, crosses Turkey heads into Iran and then east heading through Central Asia and Russia to finally reach Mongolia.
Our noble stead
The research to find the perfect vehicle for the rally was a lengthy process, trying to find reliability, strength and space in a 1.0l was a tall order. After several prospects with small vans and some very pricey tags, we settled on the humble 1.0l Micra. As silly as it sounds the most used vehicle for the rally. That was when we queued the music and got stuck in... well Smithy and Mitch did. I was staring at a computer screen, trying to figure out how get across the Pamir Highway and workout how to get Iranian visas.
Our Micra survived some pretty gruelling terrain whilst completing the Mongol Rally in 2015, it lives on to this day after Smithy has made some serious changes, taking it from beaten up wreck to a true overlanding machine! He still hasn't finish yet, I'm not sure he ever will. Since then the Micra's, yes there is another one, have taken a trip along the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland and have several more trips planned. |
The Route
The Southern Route is known as being the most difficult to organise, in compared to the other two routes, well minus the whole Caspian Sea Shipping which sounds like a nightmare. Some people have taken the routes to the extreme, one team I believe circumnavigated the world to get to Mongolia.
Along the route we, aimed to visit countries like Iran, Turkmenistan and driving past Afghanistan to name a few. The logistics involved in this where somewhat difficult, having to arrange visas for each country and an autonomous region, along with guides and carnets in others. This in part is why the route is so difficult. The Pamir Highway a route mountainous route through Tajikistan reaching heights of 4,500m. Humans who are not acclimatized struggle at this height, 1.0l micras carrying a ton in weight, really struggle! |
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"No barrier, no problem”