Welcome to Team Around the World in 80 Days Mongol Rally Website  

This coming July we are embarking on a 10,000 mile mad-capped overland journey, driving a third of the way round the world, from the UK to Mongolia, as part of the Mongol Rally -

It may sound a little crazy, but the challenge is to drive from London to Ulaanbaatar, in a 1 litre car, in order to raise a significant amount of money for charity.

The Rally, now in its 6^th year involves 300 vehicles simultaneously setting off from the motoring mecca of Goodwood racetrack in the UK, Milan and Barcelona. Devoid of any back-up support, we will travel through some incredibly difficult and challenging terrain, following as close as possible the traditional 12^th century Silk Road trading route from Europe to China.  We will be passing through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally (hopefully) onto the Mongolian Steppes, before arriving at the finishing post in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

Apart from the adventure itself, the main purpose of the Rally is to raise as much money as possible for charity. All teams are required to raise at least £1,000 for a Mongolian children’s charity (Mercy Corps).  Teams can also opt to select further charities.  We are intending raising funds for Medecins Sans Frontieres,  The Tartan Army Children’s Charity and the Harris Bursary, a fund to assist disadvantaged students at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, where we both work.

As we both lecture in ceramics, at the University, we have decided to theme our trip around clay, hence our team name – ‘Round the World in 80 Clay’s’ -  a pun on the Jules Verne mythical Victorian adventure.

We will be taking a potters wheel on the roof of our vehicle and our intention is to prospect clay during our journey and make pots en-route – throwing on the roof of the car!

We will also be collecting ‘gritty’ material from many of the places we pass through and on our return will be making a series of art-works that have the gravel of Uzbekistan or other countries embedded in it – telling a story of our journey!  We will be auctioning these off on our return, in order to further bump up our charitable fund-raising.

Lexus of Chester are generously providing us with a car for the rally and Northern Kilns have kindly given us the potters wheel .

Visit our website, check out our route and please if possible give generously to one or other of our nominated charities by simply clicking ‘DONATE’ through the Just Giving links.

You can also add your comments to the blog, but first you have to sign up by clicking in the top left corner.  

Thank You (Alasdair & Dave)

Mongolia - WE MADE IT!!

WE MADE IT - UK to Ulanbataar in 39 days!!!

Well done Bernard - never bad mouth a Fiat again !

Thanks to everyone that supported our trip and help raise now well over £2000 for charity.

In particular a huge thanks to:

Neil Crowden & Mitchells Group for providing us with Bernard - what a fantastic car - Cheers!

Valentines Clays, Potclays, Scarva Pottery Supplies, Castle Kilns, Link Technologies, Broughton Gallery and Northern Kilns for their very generous support.

Graig Motors in Denbigh and in particular Ian, for their help in providing a comprehensive service and check-over for Bernard. Your tips were invaluable Ian - Thanks 

Neil (Fawcett) at Uni for all his help prepping Bernard and the wheel -Sump Guard maker extraordinaire!

Earth & Fire & The International Ceramics Festival, for allowing us to raise funs at their events.

Our families and friends for putting up with our obsession for so long - a major infringement on their lives.

And last but not least, everyone else that has kindly dontated money to our charities.

THANKS AGAIN

Dave & Ali

At the finishing Line in UB - 25th August

Final reading on the milometer - we will be publishing the result and winner of our guess the mileage competition very soon.

The guys we convoyed with throught Mongolia:

Big Dave, Dave, Mo (what a hero), Ali, Chris and (Super) Mario.

Great travelling with you - cheers for a fantastic time.

Throwing a pot on Bernard's roof at the finish line.

We've made it - well nearlly - just the knarly traffic of UB to negotiate to the finish line

Think he needs a valet!

Here are some random pics of Mongolia - in no particular order:

Mongolian Border Post - stuck for 3 very frustrating days, wqith 36 other cars.

 Mongolian roads, fun but not for Bernard! 

Excuse me sir, Which way to UB? 

Mongolians don't do toilets, but if they did they would probably be the best in the world

I see trouble ahead! 

Should have taken those spring compressors! Chris and Dave Making a Suzuki-Fiat hybrid 

Motorway Service Station !!

All mod-cons!

How much will Marmite pay us for this promo shot ?! - they actually hated the stuff and burried the toast we gave them with Marmite on!

Sump guard took at battering - but survived. Cheers Neil.

Crowded campsite on Steppe

OOPS!! - Heroic Mo!

An excellent bit of road!? - Really!

Kazakhstan & Russia

RUSSIA

We passed through Russia in around 4 days.

What we saw was amazingly beautiful. A great shame we did not spend more time there - in hindsight we could have, rather than wasting 3 days at the Mongolian border.

We camped twice by huge mountain rivers - tantalizing, but incredibly cold and fast flowing.

Camping out on Russian / Mongolian Border - little did we know how long this would take!

It was also absolutely freezing at night. Kite building helped pass the time!

KAZAKHSTAN

Entered Kazakhstan today.

Hassle started yesterday, trying to get to the border.  First of all we got v lost in the Uzbek countryside - no road signs, closed roads and new roads not on our map - we went round 7 sides of a triangle.

The border we had stated we would cross was rumoured to be closed, but we thought it worth a try - Heh ho - closed for major reconstruction, so 60 km back to smaller crossing in pitch black!  Border closed, so we camped out on tarmac by Uzbek border post.

Started crossing at 8.00am - the Uzbek border guards were awkward and utterly ignorant - spent nearly 3 hours wondering what we were meant to do, only to find out one word on a stupid piece of paper was not filled in correctly.

Kazak side was fine, so we were finally through by noon.  Now in Shimkent, heading for Almatay tomorrow.

Bernard is still doing very well, although a slight worry over front shock - every pothole crunches the suspension.

Widscreen cracked and exhaust blowing a little - but he is doing us proud - thanks again Neil and Mitchells Group!

Mountains en-route to Almaty

Stayed there a night with a guy Dave met years ago in Hungary - Alex Lvovich

He sorted a garage for us and we got Bernards dodgy front shock replaced with the one we brought - thank God!

Then up yo his house in montains outside Almaty for lunch.

Onwards north through Kazakhstan - it is VAST. Amazing, varying landscape.

Met up with Chris & Big Davem Mo & Mario. Camped wild again and had great fire / barby in kiln!

Slowly worked our way north - across miles of swampland - absolutely nothing 360" on horizon.

Convoy mate Mario's Panda has become complately knackered - leaf springs snapped. First of many versions of trying to fix them, involved jamming in 2 tins of tomatoes! - result below:

Here are a few more pics of our trip through Kazakhstan - wild camping, markets, beautiful villages, flying Mo's kite - and more repairs!

For the barbacue Sir?

Wood Firing in Morrisons Patent Kiln / Barbacue!

Trying to explain - "Broken Leaf Spring" to the locals!

Well done Chris for bodging it so far.

So that is Kazakhstan.  We made the border with Russia on 13th. Took 6 hrs to cross then camped immediately.

Now in Russia - heading for Mongol border.

This is probably the last update before we arrive in Ulanbataar - reckon there will be no more internet - so - SEE YOU IN MONGOLIA !!!

Iran, Turkmenistan & Uzbek

Hi everyone,

Sorry we have been slow updating stuff - internet access is very limited.

Here we are now in Bukara in Uzbekistan - fabulous ancient Silk Roiad city - mosqued out!!

We got hrough Iran no problem.  The people were amazing - so friendly. We got invited back to afamily house for breakfast.

Driving was absolutely crazy - all of us turned into F1 lunatics - fordet using the indicator - just go for it! God help other British drivers when we get home!!

Iran was so varied in landscape - areas nothing like how we imagined - and it rained quite a lot.

We missed Terhan and travelled along the Caspian Sea coast - great, but in hindsight it might have been quicker going through the capital.

 Entering Turkmenistan was a nightmare and v v costly. We lost count of how many offices we went into and the number of forms filled in.

First city - Ashgabat was utterley weird - dozens of ultra modern building and huge wide ceremonial roadways - but all deserted - crackpot dictator! More like Disneyland, without the people or weird animals!

Went to amazing 12th mud city in desert - Merv - UNESCO World heritage site, then up to Turkmenabad near the Uzbek border. Hour afterhour of driving through totally empty, burning desert - thankGod we did not break down - a taste of things to come in Kazakhstan we guess.

After a fall out with border guards leaving Turkmenistan, entering Uzbekistan was easy - and no cost.

Now in Bukara, heading later for Samukand.

IRAN

Entering the Islamic Republic of Iran

2 hours into Iran and we hit a road blocked by amud slide from torrential rain - not quite what we expected of Iran!

Typical Iranian village scence - Central Iran

Turning up in an out of the way Iranian village creates lots of interest!

Christmas must come early in Iran!!

Wild camping in Iran, near the Turmenistan border - amazing. 

The classic Rally pic - near the Iran / Turkmenistan Border

TURKMENISTAN

Ashgabat - Turmenistans answer to Las Vegas.  Deserted - a city of security guards amd street cleaners!

A few of us trying to spoil the manicured look of Ashgabat

A Turkmenistan service station toilet!

And the Service Station itself - and we were gagging for a McDonalds!

Ancient City of Merv - Desert city of 200,000 folk - destroyed by Mr Khan

Miles of mud wall fortification and this amazing fortress:

 UZBEKISTAN

BUKARA  - Couple of shots of the city - how beautiful is that!

 Onto Samuqand - another ancient Silk Road trading city.

More stunning mosques:

Thats us done in Iran, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan.

See you in Kazakhstan!

Turkey

Entered Turkey on 24th - no real problems.

Headed straıght for Istanbul, tryıng to work out where we mıght stay.   An old Lonely Planet suggested loads of camp sıtes on coast nr aırport.

Mıles out of the cıty the traffıc was chaos. Headed for aırport and despıte drıvıng around for well over an hour, found no campıng.  In fact askıng around, ıt became clear there was no campıng any more, apart from one sıte somewhere nearer the cıty. More drıvıng - no fınd.  Eventually got a taxı to convoy us there.

Unbelıeveable - the sıte (astroturf), was bıg enough for 4 tents, tucked between a Go-kart track and 5asıde football pıtches.  Decıded ıt was the only optıon - although roastıng hot and noısy tıll Go-karts eventually stopped around 12.30am!

Other teams were tryıng to fınd the sıte, but ended up spendıng loads ın aırport hotels - Smug us - only €25 for nıght - and that was stıll a rıp-off!

Plan was to spend a few hours ın the cıty, but just couldn´t face traffıc. Also felt an urge to be gettıng some mıles under our belt - ıt seems we have been pıssıng about ın Europe for ages - Asıa calls !!

Arrange rendezvous wıth other teams outsıde Istanbul.  Meet at servıces, then we are on our way. Decısıon ıs to head towards Ankara, then up to the Black Sea cost - seems better / quıcker roads.

Head through cıty, then cross the Bosphorous - ınto ASIA!!!!

Sea of Marmarıs - crossıng ınto Asıa !!

Nearly ın Asıa

Landscape en-route through Turkey - fabulous!

Campıng at Servıces

On our way - Europe

We are well on our way now, but hard to judge how well. Teams are now spread out across Europe, with a rumour that some teams are already well into Turkey.

1st nıght camped ın Servıce Statıon near Ghent (so much for the party!)

3 cars to start wıth, but wıtrhın the hour 

The 'Czech Out' party at Keenova Castle in the Czech Republic was ın an astonıshıng locatıon - a medıeval castle, surrounded by beautıful countrysıde. İt was certainly wild - dancing the nightaway.

Not so early start, the next day!

Night after we visıted Cesky Krumlov, UNESCO World heritage town, before heading south ınto Austria, then on ınto Hungary.Camped down by rıver just outsıde Krumlov

Right now we are staying a night at theInternational Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet (Central Hungary).

Arrıved 8ısh and hit the famous Pıcalo Bar. Other guys convoyıng wıth us are camping ın the Studio grounds (Mo, Bıg Dave & Chrıs and Tım & Debs).- thanks Steve.

Varıous ınterviews given the following morning, plus a photo-shoot, throwıng on the  car roof.

Studıo Dırector Janos Probstner, presented us wıth bottles of Palınka - nice, but asure way to a thumpıng head!

Away from Studio by late mornıng - battıng down towards Serbıa.  Stung €110 for Serbıan Green Card - €110 for 1 day´s ınsurance!

Stayed nıght near Bulgarian border - quiet and lovely.

Bulgarıan border no probs - and no cost!

Panic is already setting in, between us and our small convoy - "are we behind schedule?"

Bulgarıa crossed ın about 8 hours, before reachıng the Turkısh border around 2.00pm on 24th. Bıt of hassle, small cost, but we got through no probs.  hear storıes of woe from other teams - lost vehıcle doc´s, no Iran vısa,s etc...

Packed it, checked it, eh...ready to go....

We are resonably sure we have eveything, well the spreadsheet say so anyway! We leave tomorrow so its all academic anyway!keep your fingers crossed we have everything and that we make it! 

Live Tracking and Twitter

You will now be able to follow our adventure in almost real time! It will be like you are there but without the smell! We will have a map that updates via our satellite messenger and we have also joined twitter so we can sent twits or tweats or whatever they are called back from our mobile phone!

Follow the adventure

Aberystwyth International Festival

We are a bit late in updating this, but we have been busy getting "Bernard" all ready! We raised £339 at Aberystwyth International Festival and have now cashed the money from both Rufford and Aberystwyth and donated it via Just Giving to give us a total raised so far for Mercy Corps of £1191. So well done and a big big thank you to all those who donated at both events and online. 

Aberystwyth International Ceramic Festival

Following on from last weekend we are taking Bernard to The Aberystwyth International Ceramic Festiva this weekend. Anyone in Wales is welcome to come along, hopefully we get some good weather.