Mad sailors keen to rally to Mongolia

Mad sailors keen to rally to Mongolia

Three Kiwi adventurers are ready to tackle the most difficult route in this year's Mongolia Charity Rally, taking them through 18 countries, five major mountain ranges, two deserts and 16,000 km of roads.

Ian Wallace and Garth Briden will be joined by Lloyd Buckingham who recently answered their ad for 'another madman' to join their rally. Lloyd is a groundsman at Birkenhead School, Ian a retired farmer from Hillsborough and Garth a computer programmer from Sandringham and all three will be taking turns to blog on the rally as well as driving and cooking.

Keen sailors, the 'Wondering Sailors' will abandon their lasers for a Nissan Atlas 3.4 tonne truck, leaving the UK for Mongolia on 11 July. They are the only New Zealanders taking part in this year's rally which has 42 teams registered for the event.

The Mongolia Charity Rally is organised annually by Go Help, a UK charity. Each rally team must raise one thousand pounds for a charity and at the end of the trip every vehicle used in the rally will be auctioned to raise funds for the Mongolian Children's Development Fund.

The Wondering Sailors have chosen a route that will take them along the fabled Silk Route trodden by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Marco Polo and many other ancients either in peace or conquest. They will pass through those magnificent ancient cities of Merv, Bukhara and Samarqand with their stunning architecture. The team will leave the UK for France, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Herzegina, Servia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajistan, Kyrgyzstan via the Pamir Highway, Kazakstan, the Altay Mountains and through Russia to Mongolia. The Wondering Sailors aim to be in Ulaan Baatar by 28 August but because of their challenging route, fully expect to be the last vehicle in the rally to make Mongolia.

They now anxiously await visas for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia and a carnet du passage for the vehicle for Iran. An error by the UK registration office in the UK has held the whole process up but while time is tight Ian Wallace is keeping his finger crossed.

"It will be touch and go as to whether the paperwork is ready in time," he says. "If it doesn't happen we will just have to change our route," he says.

In the meantime the group is gathering sturdy camping equipment including a primus stove that will run on anything form diesel to vodka and will spend a month in the UK getting their vehicle ready for conditions that could include desert, rivers and very rocky terrain.

After all the planning and paperwork we are really looking forward to getting started on this adventure," Ian says. He admits however he must be just a little bit mad to be looking forward to a journey where they will be driving through deserts and mountain ranges for 12 hours a day often going no more than 20 km an hour, not showering for weeks, probably being hassled at borders and fixing numerous punctures and vehicle breakdowns.

If you would like to follow the Wondering Sailors blogs on their route or donate funds to their chosen charity - Save the Children Fund - please go to their website www.justgiving.com/wonderingsailors

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