I’ve been doing initial brainwork on (“daydreaming about”) the Mongol Rally this week.
Our route is probably going to look something like this:
(Not shown: England to Prague. It appears that the UK is the only place foreigners can buy a car and get papers that will pass muster at border crossings. I’ve got a pal in Leeds—a criminal barrister—who is willing to help find the car. The start line is outside Prague.)
I’ve read a couple of Rally ebooks: Convoi Exceptionnel and Mongol Rally Stories (I recommend the former only to readers who are thinking of doing the rally; the latter to anyone). It looks like most ralliers go south from Constanța, Romania; through Bulgaria, Turkey and Azerbaijan; and across the Caspian by ferry from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan.
The ferry is a chokepoint. It runs intermittently and takes about 30 hours. The boats are of varying comfort and cleanliness. Ralliers spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for something to happen. But it looks …