Mongol Rally 2008
Rich from Acute Internet is set to join 300 other teams in the Mongol Rally in July this year.
The Mongol Rally is a banger rally from Hyde Park, London
to Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia, but with a catch - the car must be no bigger than 1000cc!
The Mongol Rally is a charity event and to enter each team must raise at least £1000 for the selected charities. The event is set to raise over £300,000 this year for some great causes.
Unlike other rallies this is not a race - the challenge is not to get to Mongolia first but simply to get there! Its all about adventure you see - and by enforing the 1 litre rule the organisers - The Adventurists - ensure that whatever car you take on the journey it's bound to be pretty unsuitable for the epic that lay ahead. So the ensuing breakdowns and general trouble that taking a rubbish car will get you in makes sure you're going to have a more exciting journey than if you were in a well maintained 4x4 tour bus.
Richard is entering the Mongol Rally with his school friend Robin and together they make up Team Everybody Yurts. Rob and Rich have had some adventures before on a cycle tour through Colombia in 2007. This time they are ditching the leg power for horse power - albeit, not much horse power.
It was in Colombia that they discovered the car that is now going to take them half way around the world - the Renault 4. These are everywhere in Colombia and are referred to as Amigo Fiel - Faithful Friend. Why is this so perfect for the rally? Well, they are about as simple as you can get, even when they stopped making them in 1993 they still had sliding windows instead of winders. They are also unique, have bags of character and fair well off road - they were French farmers car of choice.
Having a bit of a hankering for adventure Rich has wanted to take part in the Mongol Rally since he first came across it a couple of years ago. The Mongol Rally was much smaller back then. The first official Mongol Rally started in 2004 with only 6 teams, and only 4 of them made it all the way. 2005 saw 43 teams take part, and then things really took off in 2006 with 167 teams, and 180 in 2007.
To read all about their adventures, and for general info, pic and videos on the rally go to their Mongol Rally team website.