A Mongol Rally
This blog is about a road trip of two guys from Europe (Netherlands & Germany) driving through western and central Asia with the final destination in Ulaanbataar/Mongolia. The total route is going to take seven weeks on 14000 km of road. The idea to do this trip arose from watching a documentary about the “official” Mongol-Charity-Rally. The purpose is to collect charitable donations plus taking utility vehicles to Mongolia for local people to use them.
Our Route will be (roughly) like this. Changes are always possible due to reasons unknown 🙂
In terms of preparation (besides buying a car) the most important thing to know is that if you want to drive through Iran you need a so called “Carnet de Passage”. It’s something like a travel ID for your car that needs to be bought in the country the car is licensed. In Germany it can be acquired at the ADAC in Munich. And only there. Additionally, a deposit of 5000€ is required. Apart from that you need of course some Visa for yourself. As a German citizen you only need 4 Visa for this trip. Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Russia (which got harder and harder the last months). However, citizens of all other countries in the world need further Visa e.g. for Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia.
Equipped with a Ford Maverick, a tent/sleeping bag, Jerrycans to fuel up before entering Turkey, an essential toolbox, some paper maps, a DSLR and a lot of motivation the trip will kick-off on the 23rd of July. Wish us luck!