Latest news
29 October 2007
A project we have been working on for some time has now come to life. Along with a group of friends and ex-ralliers we have set up a UK charity and we are helping to organise a 100% charitable rally to Mongolia http://www.mongoliarally.com/ as part of the Charity Rallies network http://www.charityrallies.org
Please direct all enquiries about driving to Mongolia through the new site at http://www.mongoliarally.com. All of the import arrangements we were handling are now through this site, and you can choose to travel at any time of year, as part of the new rally or on your own. There are also forums available for you to chat to others who are doing the same thing.
The new charity and the Charity Rallies site provides a genuinely charitable alternative to the (sadly) now profit making Mongol Rally.
18 September 2007
In summer 2007 we helped a number of teams drive to Mongolia and they all imported their cars without any charges or import duties being incurred. Their cars were all donated to a charity based in Mongolia. We made these arrangements without any charges and all that we required was that the teams were also fundraising for a suitable UK registered charity working in Mongolia.
We will continue to offer this to anyone who contacts us. We have received a number of enquiries from people who want to take part in the 2008 Mongol Rally but are concerned about the increasing cost of entry (£456) and the commercial nature of the event. If you do not want to take part in this kind of event, our recommendation is to save your hard earned £456 (or donate it to a good UK charity like CAMDA - look beyond their slightly dated website - your donations go a lot further) and send us an email with the full details of you and your vehicle and when you expect to arrive in Mongolia. We'll do the rest. Just email nova@drivetomongolia.org with the subject MONGOLIA so that we can see you in all the spam.
So far we've helped quite a few cars do the trip (we must dig through the emails and count them at
some point). Some of them didn't make it for mechanical reasons, some got into a visa nightmare (easily done!),
some completed the trip with nice websites to prove it:
http://silkroadbysubaru.blogspot.com
http://devontomongolia.googlepages.com
One team even decided they liked their car so much
they drove it back home!
Some of the teams travelled at about the same time as the Mongol Rally teams and bumped into teams along the way. There were a lot of jealous teams, miffed that they had worked out a way to do the trip without paying the Mongol Rally entry fee. The Mongol Rally entry fee does get you entry into some parties, but as many have pointed out, these did not appear to justify the fee (see: http://mongolianrally.co.uk/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1189176613).
