We did a stupid thing.
There is this charity rally run by a group of people called The Adventurists. It’s called the Mongol Rally and it involves the unwise purchase of a barely roadworthy car in the United Kingdom and driving it to Mongolia. For the Trumples out there who have shady geography about anything but the 50 states, that’s around about China.
It’s around 10 000 miles (16 000km) and after Iran it is off-road.
So, we are taking an old banged up 4×4 right? Wrong.
The following are the rules of the rally:
- Small and shitty
1.0L engine, up to 1.2L for the weak. - Raise 1000 pounds for charity
- No support. No route. No guidance.
Previous rules included a 10-year rule and a price of under 1000 pounds so we thought; what the hell, let’s add them too.
So we’ve paid a 500 pound entry fee, I quit my job, Jeremy barely managed long service leave and we have 7 weeks to make the trip before Jeremy gets fired. Also; neither of us know how to fix a car.
How did this even happen? Jeremy and I were at Falls Festival 2015/2016 and I’d been wanting to do the Rally for a while but couldn’t quite find someone crazy enough, plus we would have to be great mates and well matched so we wouldn’t kill each other.
An alcohol fueled epiphany struck; Jeremy would be the perfect driving companion. I explained the above and Jeremy thought it sounded like good fun. To be honest I thought Jeremy would come to his senses and bail but he must have thought the same about me being a perfect match and here we are.
Just before I flew out in late May 2017 to start shopping for a car and setting up shop Jeremy’s girlfriend Maree said to me: “you know, Jeremy told me once that he would never ever travel with you…”
Well fuck this is going to be just dandy.