Ten thousand miles with no GPS? I can't wait, says adventurer

Marc Allen from Gosport will be joined by a team of ten others as they take part in the Mongol Rally later on this year.

The rally takes entrants on a 10,000-mile journey from England to Mongolia.

The rules are simple – you cannot use a GPS and the cars cannot be more powerful than a 1.2litre engine.

Marc and his team will be raising money for three charities – one for each car.

He said: ‘To do something like this is a bit ridiculous, I admit.

‘It is something I had been thinking about for a couple of years, but also wanted to raise money for charity.

‘We will be raising money for Mind, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and the Cool Earth Foundation – which are all charities the team has a personal connection to.

‘Many people on the team have family members who have battled mental health issues; most of us know someone who has gone through cancer treatment and with how much time we spend outdoors we wanted to support an environmental charity too.’

Marc and the team have two of the three cars sorted, with a Hyundai Accent and a Suzuki Swift ready to go.

Now the hunt is on to find a third car for the event.

So far, the team has raised more than £2,000 with Gift Aid, with a target of raising £3,000 in total. Marc said: ‘We want to give £1,000 to each charity to support the work they do. Everyone has been so generous so far, which is so humbling.’

The rally will commence on Monday, July 16 – so the team still has some time to make the finishing preparations.

Marc said: ‘To be honest I am absolutely bricking it. I have done my fair share of adventuring before, but never anything like this.

‘It is probably the biggest challenge I will ever take on; it will be tough for the cars and tough for us as well.

‘But we have a good team set up for it – we have two mechanics on the team and I have a fair bit of medical knowledge. The only downside there is that if someone died it would probably be my fault. We haven’t really done too much to prepare – it is just a case of pointing the car in the right direction and praying it all turns out okay.

‘If all goes to plan we should reach the finish line by the start of September.’

To support Marc and the rest of the team in their quest to complete the 2018 Mongol Rally, people can go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/TeamTrash.