9600 miles later and we've finished!! To see how we got to Ulaan Baatar, see our Progress Map.

(To see the map fully, wait for it to open, then hover over the bottom right hand corner of the map. When the icon appears, click it and the map will zoom in to fill the screen.)

05/12/2006 – I’m currently writing up the rally diary, the photos are now in the gallery – the diary should be here in the next few weeks, John.

The latest information is on the News page. Last updated Saturday 19th August 2006.

The Rally is a simple yet completely insane idea but the challenge is simple: To drive from London to Mongolia and raise as much for charity as possible doing so.

All the money we raise will go to our two chosen charities; primarily Cancer Research UK. We are covering the expedition expenses personally.


A simple idea indeed. But think some more, a little deeper. That’s an expedition covering more than 8000 gruelling miles, two deserts and five mountain ranges. The Rally starts from London’s Hyde Park at 1400 on July 22nd and three weeks later we hope to be at the finish in Mongolia. Still thinking it’s simple? Then consider the rules of The Rally – all three of them!

• The car’s engine must be 1 litre or less in size
• Teams must raise at least £1000 for charity
• You're entirely responsible for yourself

So, not only it is a huge distance but the car is massively underpowered for the task. Roads as we know them here in the UK become potholed dirt tracks beyond Eastern Europe and practically non-existent by Kazakhstan and Mongolia. GPS would be a help here but is frowned on by the organisers and more importantly, by the Russians. Combined with our photography equipment and unbelievable story for being there we could easily be mistaken for spies!

In the spirit of adventure there’s no set route, just four check-points en-route and one at the finish. There is no support crew, it’s not a petting zoo and we will be fending for ourselves. We could easily be travelling 10,000 miles depending on how many detours we take and whether we tackle the 5,000m high mountain passes of Kyrgyzstan or go round them in the baking 45^oC desert. We’re not completely naive but have no experience of desert survival, the cultures we will encounter or the Cyrillic alphabet in which everything will be written for the majority of the expedition. We’ll be facing the problems head-on. This is what makes the challenge both unique and appealing.


Ten years ago this route would have been impossible, but now we have a chance to travel thought the ex-Soviet empire and see just how the cultures and politics have changed.

On reaching the finish in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia, the cars will be auctioned off and the proceeds all go to charity. This leaves us with the small problem of getting back home. We can either take the Trans-Siberian Railway back to Moscow and Europe, the Trans-Mongolia Railway to Beijing and fly home or try to get a direct flight back from Ulaan Baatar – but we’ll worry about that later!

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, something special that will hopefully capture people’s imaginations sufficiently to enable us raise some serious money for the charities.

We would be grateful if you could take the time to look at our site and make a donation to the charities we are supporting and to help us achieve our goal of raising more than the other teams!