Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mongol Rally - Making Life Less Boring

© 2009 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
.

"We don't want guided tours up the first third of Everest. We don't want some gangly suntanned arse from Peckham explaining how the “locals” cook pickled gonads while ushering us around tourist sites we saw last week on the telly. Flush your guide books down the loo people. Join The Adventurists in our battle with an increasingly boring, sanitised world."

I am carefully minding my own business when I get an e-mail from Mike Spinneli over at Mike's Travels...and Travails. It seems that Mike has made a motion to induct our fearless overseas correspondent, SBW, and the foolhardy Florida correspondent, ME, to participate in the aforementioned Mongol Rally!

Besides the fact that I am clear over on this side of the proverbial pond...

Well, there really isn't anything holding me back from participating, other than I don't have two cents to rub together, but that's has never stopped me from doing anything senseless before.

So now I am giving serious consideration to this potential misadventure.

All I will have to do is line up some sponsors, get a case of Booker's, find a car, grab SBW, and rally to Mongolia. What could be simpler?

While I was reviewing the maps of the un-route, I noticed they have a scenic by-pass through the northern reaches of Afghanistan! What could be better! I've heard that most of the people are friendly, they have a Fourth of July type of celebration almost daily, and that the goat and rice dishes are to die for!

The more I read about the Mongol Rally, the more enthused I am becoming. SBW and I would become "Adventurists," challenging the world and quite possibly going down in a flames of glory, or ending up in prison after causing some kind of international incident that only Bill Clinton can get us out of.

"These adventures are genuinely dangerous things to do. The website is written in a light-hearted fashion but you cannot underestimate the risks involved in undertaking this kind of adventure. Your chance of dying can be very high, some past teams have been seriously injured. These adventures are not a glorified holiday. They are an adventure and so by their very nature extremely risky. You really are on your own. If it all goes wrong, that's it, tough."

Man! could they have phrased it in any other way that would not have drawn me like a moth to a flame? I don't think so!

Daihatsu Charade before TROC/SBW makeover.

After the makeover...



Post Rally...


Yes my friends, I get the feeling that this may take a life of its own.

Now to convince SBW...


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles

8 comments:

Michael Spinelli said...

Albert,

I will be the first to donate to your worthy cause! Put up a donation box, and make it happen.

I can see it now, webcam, satellite uplinks, blog posts from out of the way corners of the world, road blocks, tax collectors, can you say "Bakeesh?"

You may be drawn into this faster than a Hoover sucks up dust!

Cheers,
Mike S

Anonymous said...

Good Luck & God's Speed. :)

Gun Slinger said...

OMG!

Put me on the sponsors list too! If you can pull something like this off, you will go down in the annals of Blogdom!

Shoot Straight!
Gunslinger

Uhhhh... You're not serious about the southerly route are you?

Of course you are...

Anonymous said...

You know the definition of an adventure. Somebody else, very far away, having a very difficult time.

Norman

Rabid Outdoorsman said...

Where do I send the check? :)

Albert A Rasch said...

Fellow adventurers!

Looking into the Corporate sponsorship thing. You need to be part PT Barnum, part Mother Theresa, part accountant, and part Black Beard. I've got to bone up on a couple of those...

Seriously...

Albert

Holly Heyser said...

Well, just make sure you can get good wireless all the way so we can read about it. Do they have Starbucks in Kabul?

Albert A Rasch said...

NorCal,

If such an adventure should come together, I'll be taking a classic Cuban coffee maker called a "Cafetera." The cafetera, some properly ground expresso coffee, and a cup of yak milk should suffice.

Albert