Mongol Rally – The Greatest Adventure in the World

Mongol Rally – The Greatest Adventure in the World

 



Although this type of journey would be off the radar all but the most extreme travelers, you cannot deny the true sense of adventure a journey like this holds.  We live in a time of GPS, cell phones, gas stations with fast food restaurants inside them, emergency phones every mile on highways, and unlimited access to a database of pretty much all human knowledge (aka the Internet).  While all those things make the world a lot safer than once was, they do take away a certain charm.  Think about how many movies you’ve seen in the past that would be totally debunked by our modern inventions.  True adventure is just hard to come by these days, or is it?

 

While you may not encounter adventure in your everyday life, especially if you’re stuck in an office somewhere, you can go out and find it.  I suggest checking out the Mongol Rally.  Basically it’s a rally (not race) where you drive from London, UK to Ulan Bator, Mongolia.  If you don’t know where Mongolia is, look at a map or just pretend that it’s China’s hat.  The start and end cities are about 4300 miles apart, as the crow flies.  Here’s the catch, you can’t take the crow.  You’ve gotta drive.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="486" caption="I'm riding shotgun!"][/caption]


More reasons why this is crazy (in a good way):


1.)    You have to take a car with an engine displacement no greater than 1.2 Liters.  Just finding a car that meets these criteria is a challenge in itself.  My fiancé’s little Toyota Yaris wouldn’t even qualify because it’s 1.5 Liter 4-cylinder powerhouse would give it too much of an advantage!  Luckily, there are plenty of these pocket-sized cars in Europe that you could use, but forget ANY notions of comfort or durability.  Cars that small are made to go to the market, not Mongolia.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Be sure to get the 4x4 package on this beast."][/caption]

2.)    There’s no route.  There’s no highway called the “London-Ulan Bator Expressway.”  You’ll be passing through some of the most desolate regions on Earth.  A major portion of your drive will be through massive areas without any actual roads.  Your GPS and Google Maps directions will be useless.  The different teams usually take similar routes through Europe, but after that it’s all up in the air.  Some teams go north through Siberia, others through Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan (I’d recommend travel insurance, and a will).  Personally, I’d just follow the crow.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="625" caption="Cannot calculate directions, bring a crow."][/caption]

 

3.)    There is no support or 800-number to call.  This isn’t a pre-packaged tour that you can just call the company and yell at some human punching bag to make things right for you (or to get some courtesy frequent flyer miles credited to your account).  You are on your own out there.  If your car breaks down, you fix it.  If you get lost, use the sun and the stars to guide you.  If you need water, find a river.  If you run out of food, eat the crow.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="326" caption="The Mongol Rally Special"][/caption]

The good thing out of doing something so deliberately crazy is that there is an element of charity to it.  Part of the funds you pay to enter the rally are for charity.  The car itself is also given to a charity in Mongolia.  The rally usually starts in late July every year.  If you want to sign up, check out the Mongol Rally website.  If you are a liberated traveler, you know that getting to fly there for free is the easy part!  As you can imagine, this type of journey could be one of the biggest in your lives. If you can make it through this, you can make it through anything. If that is not enough motivation, you find something more to make it interesting. Like making Kazakhs and Russians sing a rap song:



 

-Jason of TWiBT