Team Driving Miss Daisy - Mongol Rally 2007

Sophie and Helen will be undertaking the 2007 Mongol Rally. 

The challenge is to travel a quarter of the way around the earth, from London to Mongolia in a car that has an engine with no more than 1 litre of power.

To put this in context, when looking at a map the tip of Mongolia is north of the top of the tip of Australia and past Saudi Arabia and India.

Team Driving Miss Daisy have now pretty much decided on the route to be taken, and this is expected to be around 10,000 miles (maybe a little bit more depending on how many times they get lost).  The rally starts from Hyde Park, London and the team is to cross the following countries:

France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia or Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkministan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia.

The rally finishes near the Mongolian capital Ulaan Bataar about a month and a whole lot of adventure later, through deserts, over mountains, from cold to 50 degrees Celcius.

In a normal year just over half the teams make the finish line in one piece.  (No statistics are available for teams making it to the finish line in more than one piece).

No GPS or Sat Nav is allowed (or at least it starts getting complicated in Russia as you need a permit), there is no back up in an emergency and no help to be expected.

Proposed Timeline – Mongol Rally 2007

21st July: Hyde Park, London

(overnight somewhere in Germany)

22^nd July: Arrive Prague, Czech Republic in evening.

23^rd July: Arrive Budapest.

24^th July: Arrive in Romania, overnight in Transylvanian Alps.

25^th July: Arrive in Bulgaria, overnight somewhere there.

26^th July: Arrive Istanbul, Turkey in evening.

27^th July: Arrive Ankara, Turkey.

28^th July: Arrive on Turkish Black Sea coast, overnight there.

29^th July: Continue along Turkish Black Sea coast, another overnight there, near Georgian border.

30^th July: Arrive Tblisi, Georgia.

31^st July: Drive to Baku, Azerbaijan. Overnight there.

1^st August: Baku, Azerbaijan

2^nd August: Ferry across Caspian Sea.

3^rd August: Turkmenistan.

4^th August: Overnight in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

5^th August: Drive to Mary, Turkmenistan. Overnight there.

6^th August: Drive to Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Overnight there.

7^th August: Samarkand – maybe meet other teams for convoy to Tajikistan.

8^th August: Probavbly waiting for rest of convoy to get together

9^th August: Tajikistan, SWORDE-Teppa’s place

10^th August: Tajikistan, SWORDE-Teppa’s place or somewhere in the mountains - travelling at 3,300m on the 2nd highest highway in the world and attempting to get the micras and ice cream van over the passes!

11^th August: Drive to Kyrgyzstan, overnight somewhere there.

12^th August: Drive to Almaty, Kazakhstan or Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for overnighting there.

13^th August: Driving through Kazakhstan.

14^th August: Driving through Kazakhstan.

15t^h August: Drive into Russia.

16^th August: Driving through Russia.

17^th August: Mongolian border, overnight hopefully on the Mongol side.

18^th August: Driving through Mongolia.

19^th August: Driving through Mongolia.

20^th August: Driving through Mongolia.

21^th August: Arrive Ulaanbaatar 

.....and then it should be trying to catch a train to Moscow and a plane to get home - nothing booked so its just doing the best as it comes along.  The rough route through Mongolia mentioned above is estimated to take 5-7 days and as such this timeline is slightly optimistic..