For planning purposes, we’ve split the trip up unto three different stages. Stage One will be the Mongol Rally, where we will be leaving Dover Castle in July, heading down through Germany to the south of France, before heading across northern Italy and across eastern Europe into Ukraine, Russia, Central Asia and onto Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Unfortunately due to a rule in the Mongol Rally we will have to leave the car in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, where it will be sold for charity. Therefore Stage Two will take us across China on their high-speed rail network and into Laos, where we will take buses through Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia before jumping on a boat into Indonesia and carrying on down to Bali.
As there isn’t a ferry from South East Asia to Darwin Australia this is the only part of the trip where we will have to get a flight. Once in Darwin, we can pick up a Ute, throw in our bits and pieces and start the trip through the Australian red centre, and gorgeous east coast all the way down to Sydney.
Probably one of the biggest obstacles with completing stage one was the fact that we needed to purchase a car. We couldn’t just get any car we wanted either, as the Mongol Rally has some restrictions around the type of car you can take. Firstly, the Mongolian government will no longer allow people to bring in a car that is over 10 years old. So the first criterion is the car first registered after January 2004.
The second criteria was that the car’s engine could not be over 1.2 litres, not for any particular legal reason but because the trip has to be a challenge. It’s supposed to be an adventure, after all.
Being in Australia we knew it would be difficult to sort out buying a car in the UK, so we enlisted the help of Jess’ stepfather Dave. So with our budget of £1000 (around $1500) we asked him if he could get pick up a car for us. Our final words over Skype were “make sure it’s not a French car, we want to make sure we get there”. We woke up the next day to the news that we were the proud owners of a 2004 1.1-litre Renault Clio. Well, two out of three isn’t bad.
With the car sorted we used a company called The Visa Machine to collect the necessary visas we need for the trip. We have also created a website that will allow us to keep everyone updated of our progress, hopefully with a live GPS map plotting our location. And we recently completed a Kickstarter campaign to get money for digital recording equipment. Not many people ever do a trip like this, let alone a couple, so we thought it would be worth documenting properly. And while we’re on the road, we’ll be keeping crankandpiston readers updated along the way.
Undertaking a trip like this means there are obviously a few risks, but it’s all about planning and preparation. We have been planning this trip since the middle of last year, and feel like we now have everything in order. We have been taking lessons in basic mechanics and photography to make sure that the Clio keeps running, and that the content provided is going to be of a decent quality.
Finally, we have also associated ourselves with two charities for this trip; Cool Earth and OneWorldFutbol. Cool Earth is an environmental charity that works in partnership with indigenous communities in Rainforest areas. The charity works to protect rainforest that without intervention will be destroyed within the next 18 months. OneWorldFutbol is a wonderful organization that provides indestructible footballs to children in war torn countries.
Now we are only a few days away for the final off, and hopefully everything is in position. We have the car, the visas, and the equipment needed. We just can’t wait to get started and we hope you can come along for the journey.
Check out the website: www.ourlongdrivehome.com
