Team Stranded - Rally to Mongolia... Brave or Stupid?

[Deleted]

or both?




Me and a few friends who are going to different universities are reuniting in the summer to do something for charity.

We are planning to drive from Oxford, United Kingdom to Mongolia... and back again! The entire trip is 20,000 miles, to put this in perspective the Earth's circumference is under 25,000 miles so essentially we are nearly driving the entire distance of the planet without crossing any major oceans.

To add even more challenge we are doing it in an Austin Maestro. It is over 20 years old (which is as old as us!). When we brought the car off of Ebay for £230 we decided to get it recovered home as it had 'flaws' that we deemed to be too dangerous without a better look at them.

The Charity and our reasons

The team chose the Friends of Frankwise charity as one of the team member’s siblings has Cerebral Palsy and is attending the school. The school is in need of money as it relies partially on volunteering and donations, we took a tour of the school and know that the money raised will be used wisely and effectively by them.

Friends of Frankwise are a charity that fundraises for Frankwise School in Banbury; it is a special school that covers a large range of ages from 3 to post 16 education, there is over 100 students in the school that rely on the services they provide. The money raised will go towards giving those students much needed equipment and opportunities to develop their skills in independence and confidence. The school tries to not label people by disabilities and believes everyone has varied ability levels, regardless of any condition. They do not ‘group by disability’ and have mixed classrooms. The team believes this is a great approach and is a good reason to support the people that run the school and the students there.

http://www.frankwise.oxon.sch.uk/

http://www.frankwise.oxon.sch.uk/fri...raising-focus/

The Risks

We are mostly students so money is tight but we are entirely independent, we only have help from those we have sought from. We have organised everything from Visas (£800 each for the trip) to petrol, which will be around £2000 split between the 4 team members. Personally I planned the day to day itinerary of where we will be on what day, plans for worst case scenarios. We have no backup and no way to get home if we utterly break down, there are inherent risks of what we are doing as if you cannot export your car from certain countries you can get huge fines of up to £10,000 or imprisonment, the visas can be extremely unforgiving in duration. All of this for charity and the adventure!

The Route

The amount of countries the team will go through is over 25, including 2 continents - Europe and Asia. The intended route is southern, meaning we are going through Europe towards Turkey and into the Middle East through all of the ‘Stan countries such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan before going north into Russia towards Mongolia. Once we reach Mongolia, the trip back is through the entirety of Russia, and into Northern Europe for the home stretch. The duration the team intends to take is around 6-8 weeks depending on mishaps and eventualities. Some of the places we are going are the Transfargarian Highway in Romania, the Doors to Hell in Turkmenistan (which is a leaking gas pit set on fire for over 20 years), the Pamir Highway that goes from Tajikistan through Kyrgyzstan (incredibly dangerous mountain road, said to be one of, if not the most dangerous road in the world).

The cultural and geographical differences we will encounter upon passing each border will be staggering and frequent. For example the change from a Christian influenced country to Islamic countries, we are also planning on being in the desert ridden middle east around half way through the journey, then a few week later be visiting some of the snowy landscapes of Russia and possibly Finland if we have time.

Links

If you are still reading then I hope you will want to support us!

Here are some of the links that you can follow us on:

The Facebook Page is: www.facebook.com/teamstranded
We are relatively active and will post during the trip as well as for the fundraising events we participate in
Give us a like if you cannot spare any donations!

The website is: www.teamstranded.info
This also has the method to donate via Paypal, we will not beg but the money you donate will go to a good cause. Any size donation will be massively appreciated.



Thank you for taking the time to read this, from Team Stranded!

[Deleted]

Advertising is not allowed here, and doing it in a £230 car is stupid anyway.

[Deleted]

Why would we take a beamer or a merc on this journey? o.o

[Deleted]

Why would we take a beamer or a merc on this journey? o.o

Take an off road vehicle and not some clapped out old banger, when you are stranded 500 miles from help you will remember my post and feel like a right berk.

[Deleted]

Take an off road vehicle and not some clapped out old banger, when you are stranded 500 miles from help you will remember my post and feel like a right berk.

Some people that do this takes a 4x4, the point of this is it is meant to be dangerous and an adventure. We have mechanics on the trip and plenty of spares as well. I have complete faith in the vehicle. IT will break down but we can fix it...

[Deleted]

Take an off road vehicle and not some clapped out old banger, when you are stranded 500 miles from help you will remember my post and feel like a right berk.

THIS!!... Plus why do you call it a charity event, when it's just a adventurous roadtrip?

If people really want to donate their money to charity, I suggest they look up their local red across, at least they ain't throwing away money on you using it to be reckless, plus they can get tax deducations in certain countries (at least you can in Denmark).

[Deleted]

THIS!!... Plus why do you call it a charity event, when it's just a adventurous roadtrip?

If people really want to donate their money to charity, I suggest they look up their local red across, at least they ain't throwing away money on being reckless, plus they can get tax deducations in certain countries (at least you can in Denmark).

I did not think of it like that, how much is this trip going to cost you and how much have you raised for charity?

[zealo]

Driving 20 000 miles in a car that costed you 230 bucks is stupid at best, if the price point is that low something is bound to break down way before you reach your goal. If you are even going to attempt going such a distance you need a reliable vehicle.

[N-7]

Why don't you just donate the money you collected to charity instead?

[Orange Joe]

Why don't you just donate the money you collected to charity instead?

Cause then they wouldn't get random people to fund a vacation for them :P

[anveena]

Why don't you just donate the money you collected to charity instead?

but then they wouldn't be able to have any fun!

[Deleted]

Do it. Have a r8 adventure get out into the world with your pals and make some moola for charity. Its a win win. This is advertising but don't let the nerd squad here discourage you.

[Sunseeker]

Sounds like the makings of a really lame reality TV show...that you want the viewers to pay for.

[Deleted]

Why don't you just donate the money you collected to charity instead?

We are aiming to make much more than we are spending, hence why we are trying to do it on the cheap...

All money donated goes 100% to the charity as well, I don't see how donating to a charity is funding us really. The amount of time and effort we are putting in is huge. We are doing it for a reason as well, its for one of the team's sisters who goes to the charity we are fundraising for.

Honestly if we take the money donated we would get arrested as we have charity collection licenses and real media involved as well.

[Decra]

Some areas in Mongolia you can go weeks without seeing people, breaking down in one of those areas you are pretty much dead, would not risk it in a crappy car

[Deleted]

Sounds like the makings of a really lame reality TV show...that you want the viewers to pay for.

Again no money we raise is going to us, all donations will be given to the charity ALONGSIDE the transactions for the paypal bank statement to prove we are legitimate.

The events we do are also checked by an official there and then as well.

[Deleted]

We are aiming to make much more than we are spending, hence why we are trying to do it on the cheap...

All money donated goes 100% to the charity as well, I don't see how donating to a charity is funding us really. The amount of time and effort we are putting in is huge. We are doing it for a reason as well, its for one of the team's sisters who goes to the charity we are fundraising for.

Honestly if we take the money donated we would get arrested as we have charity collection licenses and real media involved as well.

So, you're not going to use a single dime of the "charity funds" to get gas, food, travel back home or unforeseen expenses?...

[Deleted]

So, you're not going to use a single dime of the "charity funds" to get gas, food, travel back home or unforeseen expenses?...

No, we are paying out of our own pockets for this. We are all uni students who are working weekends and nights after uni to pay for this. Personally I'm doing 60-70 hour weeks and my entire paycheck will go towards fundraising.

We have sponsors that are giving us spare parts and donating as well. One company is doubling whatever is donated by the end and giving it directly to the charity.

So if we hypothetically "take the money" then they will double the £10 left over and we would have a scandal on our hands. Totally not worth it for a bit of money tbh.

[Dendrek]

right berk.

Can you explain to me what I'd have to do to feel like a berk?

[badaku]

It's stupid, but go for it. Because why the hell not?

Edit: The team name is excellent, I might add