Trio’s Mongol Rally adventure

Trio’s Mongol Rally adventure

8 July 2015

A 10,000 mile trek in a tiny car across some the more inhospitable parts of Europe isn’t everyone’s idea of a holiday. But for three local students it is the perfect summer adventure.

Matthew Gourley, and Jordan Barr, from Ballygowan, and Andrew Bennett, from Ballynahinch, are preparing to get lost, use their wits, raise money for charity and hopefully cross the finishing line in the world’s greatest motoring adventure.

Taking part in Mongol Rally, the 

former Down High School students will depart from Goodwood Race Track on July 19 to travel through 31 countries eventually reaching Mongolia. This year is the first year that the official finish line isn’t actually in Mongolia, but is instead a further day’s drive north to Ulan Ude in Siberia.

Back home is a shorter 5,000 mile route through Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland, France, England and Ireland.

“The point of the rally is to do this journey in a 1.0 litre car, unaided for charity,” said Matthew. “Our chosen charity is a local one, TinyLife, and the chosen charity of the rally is Cool Earth. We will be raising money for both.

“We had the idea about 18 months ago when we saw a promotional video and we have been properly planning for about 12 months on the road.

“There’s no set route and no support. We’ll be going through Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Turkey, 

Turkmenistan and taking a ferry across the Caspian Sea.”

The boys, all 21, have the confidence of youth, but realise there are one or two stiff challenges ahead.

“There will be a mountain range near Afghanistan, the Pamir Highway border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which goes higher than Mont Blanc,” said Andrew.

“And in Turkmenistan they have banned beards, so that’s a bit worrying,” added Jordan.

Getting their 2001 Nissan Micra up to scratch has taken help from Jordan’s dad Mervyn Barr as well as local mechanic Robert Nixon. 

There’s a roof rack, a sump sheet below the car to try to prevent gravel getting into the system and the brake and fuel lines have been moved in a bid to keep them safe in the rough terrain.

“The brake and fuel lines which are normally below the car are now at our feet so they cannot get cut,” said Matthew.

Jordan added: “We have learned a lot about mechanics. The mechanic has been making us do stuff rather than doing it for us.”

Matthew and Jordan are both studying at Queen’s University Belfast and Andrew is currently at Belfast Met. They have holidayed together before but admit this adventure is off the scale.

“Not many people go to Kajikistan for their holidays,” said Jordan. “But hopefully there will always be someone there to help us.”

“One of the best things is seeing how hospitable people are,” said Matthew. “Everyone is pretty excited.”

The boys said they had no particular links to TinyLife, the premature baby charity, but picked it because it was locally based and doing good work.

To support the boys in their Mongol Rally adventure visit justgiving.com/carofthecountydown, where donations go to TinyLife and go to justgiving.com/carofthecountydown2 for donations to Cool Earth.

There is also a Facebook page to keep up with their travels at: https://www.facebook.com/carofthecountydown