From the moment my brother and I decided to go on the Mongol Rally -- our 11,000 mile road trip from London to Mongolia -- we knew it was sure to be an incredible adventure. To give us a taste of what was in store for us, the organizers of the event sent us this infographic they created with some statistics from the previous year's rally:
(if viewing on website, click images to enlarge)
But we had barely signed up when we began having second thoughts after reading scary legal disclaimers like this on the event's website:
For guidance, I reached out to travel blogger Sherry Ott who initially had some of the same fears we did when she signed up for the rally herself, back in 2011.
"Once I stopped to think about it a little bit, there's things we encounter every day on our way to work or in our daily lives that can also be just as dangerous," she eventually concluded. "And if we had to get up every morning and sign a waiver about all the things that could go wrong that day, then we'd probably never leave and go to work. The moment we step out the door, we take on risk."
Sherry and her teammates successfully completed the rally that year without any major mishaps, and she now looks back on her adventures as an incredible, empowering, and life-changing experience.
After speaking to Sherry and seeking out advice from other experienced travelers, we decided to forge ahead with our plans, satisfied that if we thoroughly researched our route and simply took some commonsense precautions, we could successfully avoid many of the potential dangers along the way.
On the latest episode of my podcast, we embark upon our drive across Europe, heading towards the Turkish border while we continue to follow the news closely and weigh the risks of driving through Turkey just days after an attempted coup.
Follow along as we cross the English Channel
Get treated like royalty by our friends in Belgium
And have a totally unexpected but fun night out on the town.
photo courtesy of Drew Gurian
Watch this video of our little car struggling to keep up with the traffic on Germany's Autobahn:
Then listen to episode 6 here:
And if you get a chance, please take a quick second to log in to Apple Podcasts and give a rating or write a review of this podcast to help other listeners find it.
Thanks!
Scott
