Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - From Spain to Mongolia in a car with less than 1000cc. Anyone wants to join us?

Hello!

I am a motorcyclist member of this forum (with a loved Kawa KLE500) but I am preparing a four-wheeled adventure. Being enthusiasts of travelling and motor, I am sure this will be interesting for all of you.

I am preparing the charity rally called Mongol Rally with two friends. In this rally 300 vehicles will start next 19th of July from London, Madrid and Milan and will try to reach Ulan Bator, Mongolia, travelling through 13,000 kilometres, half of them on the unpaved tracks of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, following these rules:

- We have to use cars of less than 1000cc or motorcycles under 125cc (last year a guy from Madrid went there in a 200cc Vespa, and it took him 2 months and to make things easier his route went through Iran…)
- We have to raise 1000 pounds (aprox 1500 euros) for two charity foundations (Mercy Corps Mongolia and in our case the Spanish Pueblos Unidos Foundation)
- Each team is under its responsibility and risk and the organization cannot help anyone on the journey.
- The car / motorcycle is later donated for auction in Ulan Bator and the money raised is invested in a school there.

Well, here we are, we bought a 1990 Suzuki Samurai Long body (as it is 1300cc we have to pay a "fine" of 300 extra euros for donation to charity) and we are preparing it to withstand 13000 km across France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia ... and we would like it to last some more years with their future Mongol owners.

And why do we do it? Faced with this same question, after coming down the Everest having climbed it for the first time without oxygen, Reinhold Messner replied: "Because it is there" ... and something similar has happend to us (although we are nothing compared to Mr Messner in a matter of adventures ...). Always passionate followers of the Paris-Dakar and being conscious of our economic constraints, we saw in this rally our opportunity to address our dream exploring our limits driving a vehicle in extreme conditions (The trip may have been done by a lot before…but doing it in an old and small car adds a risk while makes the experience relatively affordable). We will not have to drive on timed stages of 700 km over sand dunes ... but drive 13000 kms in a car of this age and these characteristics makes it really attractive.

Anyway, all this is not as expensive as a Dakar, but it will undermine our small economies, so we make a call to all of you to ask for some help to raise the money for these donations.

Any of you who wants to collaborate with us can make his/her donation for Mercy Corps Mongolia on the Web
http://www.willwemakeit.com/aulanvan3
In this way the money will go directly to the foundation without passing through our hands or those of the Rally organization.

For those who want to help us directly for the purchase of spare parts and equipment for the trip you can get in touch with us in our email address (can be found in our blog, see below) we can give you the details.

We also appreciate donations in kind, for example:

- Spare parts for the car (transfer case, clutch, sleeves, oils and fluids, gaskets)
- Complete revision of the vehicle.
- Airline plane tickets from Ulan Bator to Madrid.
- Camping Material like tent, sleeping bag or cooking materials. - First Aid Kit.
- Food.
- Photographic and video equipment.
- Cartography from Europe and Asia.
- A radio for the car! (13,000 kms can be very hard without music ...)

All those who help us will have their names writen on the bonnet of the vehicle (please send us an email with the name or alias that wants us to write), in addition he/she will receive regularly our official newsletter with the progress of the team in the preparation and conduct of the rally.

For more information, please visit our blog, which will be updated almost daily:

http://aulanvan3.blogspot.com/

Or the Google auto translation to English
http://translate.google.es/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Faulanvan3.blogspot.com%2F &sl=es&tl=en&hl=es&ie=UTF-8

Also visit our website where you will find general information about our charity adventure

http://aulanvan3.googlepages.com/

Or the Google auto translation to English http://translate.google.es/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Faulanvan3.googlepages.com %2F&sl=es&tl=en&hl=es&ie=UTF-8

I hope you like our adventure and we can share it in any way.

A big hug and if anyone of you is in Ulan Bator in mid-August we can meet and have some beers.

Jules

AUlanVan3 (the name is in Spanish, in English it will be more or less 3ToUlan)
Mongol Rally 2008

Cheers