Where in the World is Bob Jack?
Where in the World is Bob Jack?
London to Mongolia Rally
(July - August 2008)
Introduction
Last autumn, I was looking around the internet looking for another stupid challenge and came across the Mongol Rally. This was an event where you had to drive a car of 1000cc or less from London to Mongolia for charity. I contacted my friend Trevor and suggested, as a petrol head, that it was an ideal event for him. After our backpacking trip to Albania/Macedonia during the Kosovo War in the Spring of 1999, he had been looking for an excuse for another ‘Boyz trip’ a decade on.
Three days later, he responded and said “I think we should do this”. We researched the event and discovered that the ‘Mongol Rally’ was usually oversubscribed and you had to enter into a draw to secure an entry. The registration price was ambitiously set at around £450. But we entered for the draw in September 2007 anyway.
Meanwhile, Trevor came across a rival event called the Mongolian Rally which was pretty much the same thing except that you could take any vehicle which would be auctioned off in Mongolia and secondly as a non profit making event, the registration fee was only £150. We decided to sign up for this event, even though we were successful in getting an entry into the ‘Mongol Rally.’ Trev gave us a team name of "Duff Nuts".
Trev set about finding a vehicle and I started to research a potential route and highlight what visas/paperwork we would need for each country. Our vehicle was a 1991 Land Rover Discovery costing £650. It would need some work but was a reliable workhorse and our major aim was to complete the journey, come what may.
We could pick any route we wanted. I wanted to visit some new countries, so rather than take the most direct route across Russia, we opted for a southern route to take in some of the ‘Stans. The initial plan was to spend the first week driving quickly from the UK, catching a ferry to Dunkirk, then leaving France for Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, skirting the edge of Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia to Baku in Azerbaijan. I had visited all these countries so felt it would be a straightforward drive. An alternative was to enter Iran from Turkey and then enter Turkmenistan but the Iranian carnet de passage would have been around £3000 (a deposit which we would lose if the vehicle broke down) and we just didn’t have that kind of money.
The second stage would be to catch a ferry from Baku to Turkmenistan, then head up to Uzbekistan, into Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and into Kazakhstan. We would give ourselves up to at least three days in each country.
The final stage would be to nip into Russia from Kazakhstan and then enter the western border of Mongolia for a few days of dusty off road slogging to Ulan Bator. We had a deadline of August 11th because I had to be in Scotland for the 13th for my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary bash.
I estimated we would need around £1500 each for the vehicle, repairs, equipment. return airfares and visas. We would also need at least £1000 for the trip itself. So it would take £5000 to finance this project.
We would need visas for Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (plus a permit to drive through the Pamir mountains), Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. We could pick up the Turkish visa on the border. Georgia was free to enter. To get the Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan visas, we needed to use a company in Turkmenistan www.stantours.com to organise Letters of Invitations to allow us to get visas. We also used an online company in Scotland to generate a Letter of Invitation for our Russian visas. All countries had Embassies in London except Tajikistan where we had to send all our passports, applications etc to the Brussels Embassy and do a Money Transfer.
We started off the visa process in January, 6 months before the event, starting with Mongolia and Kazakhstan. This worked well and we had all visas two weeks before our departure….except for one.
Turkmenistan decided to bugger everyone around this year. Normally, there are two ways of entering Turkmenistan. You can hire a guide/tour. For this you need a Tourist visa which requires a Letter of Invitation. The second method was to apply for a Transit Visa (3-5 days) which normally did not need a Letter of Invitation. This year they changed the rules to say that you did need a LOI. However, none of the Turkmenistan travel agents would issue them for a Transit Visa, only for a full tour.
So we spent a month waiting, while the organisers of the event talked to the Turkmenistan Embassy to find out how 40 teams could get into Turkmenistan. They came back with some kind of solution. A list of names was given to the Embassy and they would have visas issued when we arrived at the port of Turkmenibashi. I was a bit dubious about this (Normally a country will not let you leave unless you have a valid visa for the next country) but the Organisers assured everyone that the arrangement was fine and we would all be able to enter Turkmenistan.
Meanwhile, Trev spent his weekends replacing parts, securing others and making modifications. He replaced the radiator, water pump, steering knuckle, radius arm brushes, swivel bearings and added a dual battery system, additional interior lighting and a CD player. He also collected the spares we needed to take which included: 4 off road wheels/tyres, alternator, front brake pads, fuel pump, wheel bearings, fuel filters, air filters, radius arm brushes, drive belts, swivel seal. A toolkit of spanners/hammer etc was added along with trolley and bottle jacks and electric/foot air pumps. Finally metal and plastic jerry cans (25 litres each) were added to give us (with a full tank of diesel) around a 1000km range before we were out of fuel.
We also added camping gear – tents, sleeping bags, roll mats, gas stove, saucepans, plates/utensils etc, a reserve supply of tinned foods, cereal, long life milk, snacks etc. A shovel (‘Duggie’) and a couple of carpets were shoved in – in case we got stuck in sand. Finally, a couple of garden gnomes joined as extra passengers along with 2 x 10 litre boxes of cheap red wine (motivation liquid).
The official start was on Saturday July 5th at Highbury Fields in London near Arsenal’s football ground. A Mongolian Festival (Naadam) had been arranged which included a Mongolian band, Mongolian wrestling, Gers and traditional costumes. About 40 of the 80 vehicles lined up and during the day, we were photographed, got some necessary paperwork and checked out each other’s vehicles. There were teams from Scotland and Ireland and one from the USA. A London taxi a fully equipped ambulance, and a fast motorbike were also participating.
Trev drove the Land Rover (‘Disco’) down from Stratford Upon Avon and I drove down from Bungay taking all my gear for the trip. We wanted to attend the official start but we both had one more week of work to complete before we could start our own trip. A couple of teams had started already. Others would leave up to a month after us. I had a go at Mongolian wrestling and we met some Mongolians who had been living in the UK for 9 years.
At 4.30pm on Saturday July 5th, the vehicles left in convoy. The idea was to drive through central London taking in some of the sights (Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament and London Bridge) but London was gridlocked and traffic lights broke up the convoy. Trafalgar Square had a ‘Gay Pride’ festival on as well. By the time we reached Buckingham Palace, there were only three vehicles. Some were stuck in traffic. Others had abandoned the convoy to try and get to their ferries/channel tunnel. It took nearly 2 and a half hours to reach Tower Bridge (6 miles) and we were back in Highbury Fields within 20 minutes!
It seemed strange to be heading home for another week. Trev would have a few days to pack and repack the Disco with all our gear. At work I used an internet translator to generate some statements in Bulgarian, Romanian, Turkish and Russian to give to policemen, officials etc. I also asked the organisers one more time if the Turkmenistan visa situation was still ok and was assured that everything was set.
We had spent eight months preparing for this event and I don’t think we could have been any better prepared. We had a planned route, visas and a great vehicle. Looking back now, I wonder why we ever thought it would run like clockwork…
Trevor Lovett and Bob Jack at the Offical start of the Mongolian Rally 2008 at Highbury Fields, London - July 5th 2008
