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[The Ghost Of Fudge]

An almighty adventure, the Mongol Rally is a dash across a quarter of the earth's surface in cars that most people consider underpowered for doing the shopping. There’s also stray camels, wolves, Asia’s only native species of bear, bubonic plauge, Russian traffic cops, temperatures of over 40C in Iran and snap blizzards on the Mongolian steppes to worry about.

But we won’t - we’ll let our girlfriends do that...

Over July/August 2010, teamFUDGE will be attempting to drive from Scotland to Mongolia in what will, frankly, be a shitty little second-hand car. Mad? Yes. So eveyone keeps telling us.
But at least we're not the only ones. It’s a rally afterall. And if we die along the way then at least it'll be for some hella good causes.

That's right, it's all for charity! The basic premise is that we have to get ourselves a wee car that's no more than ten years old with an engine that's absolutely no bigger than 1.2l. We're talking bottom of the range Ford Fiestas, Vauxhall Corsas, Nissan Micras or Ford Ka's. We then spend four weeks hunched up in this car driving for ten to twelve hours a day until we reach our destination, break down, get arrested, or die trying.

The team willl be leaving Aberdeen at the end of July 2010 and hope (hope: pah!) to reach the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, some four weeks later having driven across Europe... Scotland. England. France. Germany. Czech Republic. Slovakia. Hungary. Romania. Bulgaria. Turkey. Iran. Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan. Russia. Mongolia... Once we hit the road there'll be no support from anyone at all other than fellow ralliers and whichever locals we might be lucky enough to communicate with using more than rudimentary hand gestures.

Please note that not all the money donated will be going directly to the charities - driving from the UK to Mongolia obviously comes at a price and we are but a poor student and a poor gig promotor. Some proportion of the money raised will go towards our costs, but at least £1,000 cash will go directly to charity (even if nobody bothers donating), and when we get to Mongolia we will be donating our mighty rally car to the charities, either to be sold or used for charity purposes. Rally rules dictate that the cars will cost around £1,000 so that's another large chunk going to good causes.

All the money left in the pot once we've got home will also be going to UK charities of our chosing. In case you think all that might a bit off, sleep well in the knowledge that charities like Oxfam spend up to 70% of the total money they raise on advertising and covering expences, so we're not the only ones!

So. In summary then. This will not be a holiday for the members of teamFUDGE. Sleeping will be done either in the car or a tent, and it'll be cheap local food, roadkill and maybe a McDonalds here and there along the way.

Although... Do they have McDonalds in Iran...?

The Mongol Rally :: fighting to make the world less boring

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CYPPD - Children and Young People's Protection and Development
Children and Young People Protection and Development NGO

Mercy Corps
The Mongol Rally | Mercy Corps

CNCF - Christina Noble Children's Foundation
www.cncf.org

Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK: the UK's leading cancer charity

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If you wish to donate, please get in touch

[RossP]

I'll definitely be throwing some money your way... but not for a few months yet, as i'm still trying to clear credit card/overdraft debts from Japan/Oslo adventures in August.

Expect my donations to reach you after xmas

[stuartmaxwell]

ping me some details and I'll stick something into that!