The Mongol rally covers 10,000 miles, 7 mountain ranges and 3 deserts on roads ranging from bad to non-existent. Nottingham fellas Oli Morley and John Cooper thought this sounded like fun. Jon Rouston spoke to them.
How on earth have you decided that driving to Mongolia in a battered car is a good idea?
It all came about on the way back from a holiday in Warsaw. We weren't supposed to be going to Warsaw, we were supposed to be going to Riga, but we got stuck on the motorway and missed our flight, but with the help of pastry we were able to blag a flight to Warsaw. We liked the randomness of that and tried to think of other random things we could do. The Mongol rally was fairly random.
It is fairly out there, how did it all start?
Well, two guys just decided to drive to Mongolia one day, on a whim. They only got as far as Russia the first time but then they went back, tried again and managed to do it. It's been growing since then, after that first journey there were 4 of them, then 60, then 120 last year and this year it's 200 people doing it. 
And it's all for charideee?
Yeah,we're looking for sponsorship there's three charities – the Mercy Corps, The Christina Noble Children's Foundation and Whizz Kids. The first two give a lot back to Mongolia - the street kids there live in the sewers in the winter to keep near the hot water pipes because the temperature drops so much, kind of puts it in perspective really. The last one ties in with the whole transport theme, providing wheelchairs for disabled children. Anyone who sponsors us gets a postcard from somewhere along the route though – and a free gift! We want to get people as involved as possible, we're asking for mix CDs or anything to help us along. We're going to blog the whole thing somehow – we haven't quite worked out how yet, but we will do it, even if it's phoning back audio updates.
It wouldn't be any fun if you could do it in a BMW, what are the rules for choosing a car?
It has to be under 1litre, or of 'significant comedy value'. We tried to find an ice cream van or a cherry picker, but funds are a bit limited. In the end we found one off the internet. It's a 1992 Toyota starlet – I rang the bloke and had a chat with him and he was so excited about the whole thing! Turns out he was nearly the camera man for the 'Long Way Round' series with Ewan MacGregor but couldn't go so he was well up for helping us. He's been great, helping us to fix the car up. The car is quite well admired, she even has her own facebook site.
So the whole route is?
UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, across the Caspian sea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and then Mongolia. 17 countries. That's more than I've been to in my life so far. We've had 37 pages of visas to fill out, with some strange warnings on them! We leave on the 21st of July and have three weeks to finish it.
And if you break down?
We have to try and fix it. We're not coming back without finishing it though, someone finished last year by getting a couple of push bikes, so if they can do it....
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We Drive To Mongolia
