Mongol Rally 2010

markok84

Hi,
I'm doing the Mongol rally this year www.theadventurists.com. My teammate has dropped out and now I'm left on my own. Is there anybody crazy enough to come with me?? PM if you're interested. I'm based in Waterford and Cork but will welcome teammates from all corners of the island. I have a provisional route sorted out, but no car as of yet. Once I have a committed team together the rest will follow. It's gonna be mighty craic!! so who's with me?

Mark

Tiriel

Holy crap but that sounds awesome!!!

markok84

Cork_girl wrote: »

Holy crap but that sounds awesome!!!

you better believe it..... Iran will be fun.

Civilian_Target

Yo

I did the Africa Rally a few months back, but it was a bit of a disaster, we got to the edge of the Sahara and my team mates chickened out!

I'm interested. I live in France, but I may be sent to Boston for work for a bit, but it could work. What are the dates?

markok84

departing from London on the 24th of July, should take roughly 4 weeks to get to Mongolia (all going well), get to Beijing some how and fly home.

Tiriel

So it's a rough timescale of 4 and a half weeks say.. what's the budget like? Just out of curiosity?

markok84

well I have to raise £1000 for charity before I can go, but that should be achievable with 1 or 2 fundraisers which I'm on top of. I'm sussing out a few cars/vans at the moment in the €500-700 price range. A friend spent £550 on diesel driving to Porto and back which was 4000 miles (and he was driving a 2.4L tdi so a 1.2L rust bucket should be lighter on juice):D, I reckon in around €1000 should cover fuel, but don't hold me to that.

Visa's are roughly €60 per country, so depending on how many countries we hit that will vary, once we firm up on the route. Visa's can take up to a week each too so that's something that needs to be sorted soon enough. Flights home will be expensive enough but I have no real desire to come home immediately, might go on further depending on how the funds are (train to vladivostok, ferry to Japan).

We'll need extra's for the car, (tyres, wheels, jerry cans for fuel, tools, spare filters, plugs) etc. Food, water and booze etc will vary but once we get out of Europe those will get cheaper.

I've already paid €704 to hold a spot on the rally too. All in I reckon €10k would more than cover it, all things going well we could get sponsorship to fund some of that. If I get 4 people that's €2500 each, to drive to the other side of the world aint bad. A big thing would be sponsorship, depending how much we can raise for charity we might get companies interested in funding us. I've sent a barrage of emails to companies, but no joy yet. I figure once I've wheels sorted things WILL fall better into place.

interested?

markok84

forgot about insurance, I've 5 years no claims bonus on my own car so I should have no problem transferring to a different car for travelling across Europe. From what I know insurance then varies from country to country, and you pay at the border, I need to research this more.

Tiriel

:eek: I know people who did that Porto drive!! This island is far too small!! I should have guess by your name really tbh!!

Sounds savage, some serious planning to do for it but I'd say would be well worth it. Have you got a good working knowledge of cars? It sounds class.

markok84

Cork_girl wrote: »

:eek: I know people who did that Porto drive!! This island is far too small!! I should have guess by your name really tbh!!

Sounds savage, some serious planning to do for it but I'd say would be well worth it. Have you got a good working knowledge of cars? It sounds class.

LOL! just checked your blog!! 2+2= duh! shur you know me too then! (love your sketches btw) well I service my own car and know enough for any minor inconveniences that could occur. Anything major and well, we might have to rely on the kindness of strangers. But shur that's half the fun right?! It also depends on the car, petrol engine I'd be confident enough with, diesel not so much.

Civilian_Target

4 people - you mad? Most teams are 2 people, but 3's not uncommon. 4 of you plus gear in a tiny car... you'll probably split the axles on the kinda roads you'll be hitting!

The Africa Rally set us back roughly €4000 a head, and I don't reckon Mongolia will be a whole lot cheaper. You'll spend at least €1500 on fixing up the car, (we spent €2000, and that was for a 27 year old Renault 4L!) and €1500 on petrol and tolls. Then it'll be €500 a head to get home. Add in bribes, hotels, visas, food, on-the-road repairs and the adventurists legendary beer budget....

markok84

Civilian_Target wrote: »

4 people - you mad? Most teams are 2 people, but 3's not uncommon. 4 of you plus gear in a tiny car... you'll probably split the axles on the kinda roads you'll be hitting!

The Africa Rally set us back roughly €4000 a head, and I don't reckon Mongolia will be a whole lot cheaper. You'll spend at least €1500 on fixing up the car, (we spent €2000, and that was for a 27 year old Renault 4L!) and €1500 on petrol and tolls. Then it'll be €500 a head to get home. Add in bribes, hotels, visas, food, on-the-road repairs and the adventurists legendary beer budget....

There is a 10 year limit on cars for the Mongol rally now, so the max age is 2001, but ya I know what you're saying, I've factored in bribes (the russian borders seem to be the worst), but no hotels, gonna camp the whole way!! That's where getting a van would be the best option, 2 in the back 1 in the front for sleeping. The 1L rule is gone as well, 1.2L is the max capacity.

Edit: Hold on ye spent 4k each and lads jumped ship in the sahara? feck!, that's what I'm worried about. I'm all for going and will endeavor to go but it's next to impossible to get a commitment off people.

Civilian_Target

Nah, OK, I'm a bit biased. They spent €2500 each geting to the edge of the Sahara. I spent a little over €4000, and that's also what other teams I met who had done other rallys, said it always cost

I took a backpack, flew across the Sahara and continued on my own, trying to get to Cameroon using busses, bush taxis, and the backs of trucks. Here's the summary
http://civiliantarget.net/africa/ (if it asks you for a username and password, it's 'africa' and 'rally'). To do that cost about €1000 in air fares, and about another €30 or €40 a day in expenses.

Honestly, camping the whole way is a good ambition, but realistically, after a day's hard driving you want a good nights sleep, some decent chop, and maybe a few local beers. That's what keeps body and soul together on a trip like that. Sure they're some nights where you camp but hotels are basically where it's at

markok84

Ok, I've got 1 team mate but we're still looking for another. Our team website is up and running (click the link in my sig) We don't have a car as yet, but we should do within the next coming weeks. If anyone is interested in coming and has 4-6 weeks to spare from July 24th drop us a line!!:)