The Mongol Rally 2008

The Ugly Ducklings

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Welcome to our Team Website

We are three students who have decided to drive ten thousand miles from London to Mongolia next summer. In a one litre car. Like you do. We don't have any experience of doing this sort of thing, and none of us know much about cars (yet), but we're going to give it our all and hopefully raise lots of money for charity and get back home in one piece!

Why are we doing it?

Well like any good idea it was formed over drinks - quite a few drinks. When we realised it was for charity we decided we were actually going to participate. Danny’s friend Alistair had successfully participated in the 2007 rally, so Danny bravely announced that he would be doing the Mongol Rally in the coming summer. Having nothing else planned for the summer we all decided to join him and get a load of money together for charity by travelling to the other side of the world. With the incentive to raise money for charity, the team, The Ugly Ducklings came together.Better known by its quirky acronym DUCK (Durham University Charities Kommittee) is the official organisation for charitable fundraising for the University of Durham and as we're all Durham University students we decided to name our team after our university's charity organisation.

Overview of the Challenge

London to Ulaanbaatar in a 20 year old crap car to raise money for Charity!!!!!!!
• Drive half way around the globe
• Over 10.000miles
• Thousands of miles of no proper roads
• Five mountain ranges
• Two deserts
• No support team
• No GPS or decent maps
• Did we mention black bears, wolves and mosquitoes?

Most recent blog...

Hobsons choice: Death by hard sand
At 08:32 on 25-08-2008 Joe said...

Danny called from Altay with the following update:

All are well and they seem to be quite upbeat if somewhat tired.

After getting Percy's suspension repaired ($40 for a new spring) Scooby then decided to overheat and stop. After being towed to the next town (snapping the tow rope 3 times in the process)a malfunctioning distributor was diagnosed. Having a spare one with them helped and following adjustments to make it fit our intrepid adventurers were on their way again. They are now in Altay a mere km 600 from UB with Scooby running on 2 cylinders and an unfixable leaking radiator and Percy has broken another spring. They think another 3 days might see them at their destination (give or take 2-3 weeks I suspect).

Steve (Danny's dad)