I have a few dreams. Ok, maybe that's an understatement. I have loads of dreams, but some are bigger than others. One of the really big ones is to participate in the Mongol Rally. This is a one-of-a-kind event. It's not off road, it's not on road, it's in a class of its own. Everyone who ever participated labeled it as "insane", at best. The traditional start is in the UK and ends in the capital of Mongolia, Ulanbataar.
People from all over Europe and beyond sign up for this event, whose sole purpose is to raise money for the Mongolian infrastructure. They do so by selling off the competing vehicles. Sometimes, people would drive utilitarian vehicles all the way there, to personally donate them to a hospital or firefighter station. It's not uncommon that you will get passed over by a Mongol Rally fire truck, or a Mongol Rally Ambulance - and this is where our story begins.
The Romanian Mongol Rally team took an ambulance this year. Needless to say that the effort was pretty big. They bought a used but great VW T4 ambulance for the sole purpose of completing this particular race and donating the vehicle to a Mongolian Hospital. They were helped along the way by a race driver who, after seeing the wheels on their van, decided to give them his own brand new race tires. After all, the trip would take them through 16.000 Kilometers of tracks, through 5 separate mountain regions and 3 deserts.
I felt very excited to meet the guys at the end of their journey and hear about their adventures. Surprisingly enough, for such a long trip, nothing serious occurred, which can only mean good preparations and suitable logistics. Events of all natures did come their way however, since leaving for the heart of Asia in an ambulance isn't something everyone does. The guys described their start, from the CzechOut Party as being very much like the famous Cartoon Network show, "Wacky Racers"
Turns out, they made their plan to each drive 400 kilometers at a time, in order to make their deadlines for border crossing and, more than anything, to get to their destination pretty much in time. And that's what they did, too. Driving through a long, flooded tunnel, through three deserts, up to 4500 meters above sea level, through thick and thin, the team made it to the Finish line while also earning themselves the "Heroes of the Mongol Rally" award. There's so many events, stories, locations and ideas to be told, from their adventure, but that would very much turn into a biography rather than an article.
We should leave you with this thought: The Mongol Rally has become the biggest charity race in the world. Why not attend in the next edition?
For more information, the Google Translate version of their blog is available here
Radu Tudoroiu
Radu Tudoroiu is a photographer and an editor for 4x4 Off Roads and other publications as well as an off-road enthusiast. Radu lives in Romania.
