Yes, I really did this.
The Mongol Rally is an unsupported road rally (for charity) from London, England to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia put on by the Adventurists. In July, 2011 four well-traveled, and some may say crazy travel bloggers set out on a 10,000 mile journey to Mongolia. This was no fluff press trip…this was us against the open road, in a car that was not meant to be driven to these lengths.
Crossing 10,000 miles over unforgiving deserts, perilous mountain ranges and non-existent roads, we will faced the possibility of bandits, breakdowns and corruption while navigating our way through 13 countries and 2 continents. Oh yes, and not a one of us had any mechanical knowledge.
Driving to Mongolia Photo Essay on Everything Everywhere
Far From Home Podcast Episode 2 – I was interviewed about my experience in the Rally. But I recommend listening to the whole podcast as it’s a great one about Scott Gurian’s experience on the rally
The Mongol Rally Podcast with Sherry Ott
Once the sun came up, they started appearing. They were just puffs of dust off in the distance, and as they got closer, you could see 3 or 4 people squeezed on the motorcycle. They were curious about what two little tents and a car were doing in the flat, rocky landscape they call home. […]
We get in the car, adjust the seat so that the pedal distance is just right, buckle up, and put two quarters in the slot. I choose three players, level of difficulty, my route, start the engine, hear the rumble of a muffler-less rally car, and I’m off…as if I’m in a video game. Driving […]
Mongolia is flat…and so are our tires. A little photo essay on our tire changes…and there were many. The roads in Mongolia are brutal on tires…especially when you start out with rear ones that are bald already! I seemed to be bad luck on the tires as we only got flats when I was driving. […]
We slowly moved deeper into Mongolia where the foreign landscapes, people, and towns started to become normal to me. We were moving from western Mongolia into Central Mongolia and the Gobi Desert; from Altai to Bayankhongor. The landscapes changed dramatically as we left the Altai mountains and hills behind and had nothing but a perfectly […]
The first thing we did when we woke up was check the rear tire to see if it still had air. We already had one flat from the day before and had to put on our spare which had a slow leak in it – but it seemed to hold ok overnight…whew. We had 100km […]
“What’s that smell?” asked Deb. “I don’t know, but I smell it too,” said Dave. “I don’t smell a thing,” I said from the back seat. We stopped to investigate under the car and the hood. We had already had a tire repaired again today in a little ger truck stop…but now we had only […]
I believe that there is something very special about the Mongolian skies. Out of all of the countries I’ve been to, the skies in Mongolia are the most memorable. They are vast. They are the most perfect color blue. Even when they get angry and dark, they are perfect. They make me feel small. And […]
I woke up giddy, excited, anxious, and a bit sad. This was it – our last day of the Mongol Rally. It started exactly 5 weeks earlier on a Saturday in London. Now here we were 300 km from Ulaanbaatar Mongolia’s finish line. The day started like any other; local visitors brought gifts of food […]
It’s hard to put into words what those last 20km were like as we drove into Ulaanbaatar. All I can say is that is wasn’t easy. It was actually some of the worst roads and construction we had experienced. There was no real time to relax and soak up the moment, as we had to […]
As much as participating in the Mongol Rally was to satiate my need for adventure and something different – it had another purpose…a big purpose. It was for this…. For Them… These are some of the children who live at the Christina Nobel Foundation Blue Skies Ger Village in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It serves as a […]
