Stanfords are sponsoring two intrepid travellers as they embark on a drive from London to Mongolia...in an ambulance. Here is their first blog as they prepare for this impressive feat.
Our names are Amanda and Mahesh and we are going for a drive to Mongolia… in an ambulance. Our team – No Right Turn – leaves Hyde Park in London on 18th July for the 10,000-mile jaunt to Ulaan Bataar.
With Stanfords' help, who is very kindly providing our road maps and travel guidebooks for the journey, our route should take us to all, some or none of the following countries after leaving Europe: across Turkey, into Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally finishing in Mongolia.
Among the sites we’ll visit are an old slave trading city called Khiva, along the Silk Route surrounded by thousands of miles of desert; the ancient city of Samarkand and its tiled madressas; and a venture to the jaws of hell – the Darvaza gas craters in the middle of Turkmenistan.
We’ve estimated that we’ll spend the equivalent of 10 days sitting at borders, and suspect that much silver will be crossing many palms throughout the 60-odd days of the trip. We’ll be eating horse meat and noodles, shazlyks and caviar, and drinking fermented yaks’ milk and vodka en route (well Amanda won’t – she’s vegetarian and will probably survive on two-minute noodles, along with the vodka).
It’s all in the name of charity of course. We are raising money for two charities – Mercy Corps Mongolia, and Christina Noble Children’s Foundation; and we donate our vehicle at the end of the rally, which in our case – the ambulance – will be commissioned back into a working emergency vehicle for use in Mongolia.
If all goes according to plan, and we work out how to drive across Mongolia with a road map when there are no roads, you can follow our progress at www.mongolrally.com/norighturn where we’ll be giving regular updates of our travels, and travails, throughout.
See what happened next in Amanda's second blog.
Author: Amanda Williamson
Date: 28 April 2009
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