NOW THIS BRINGS a whole new meaning to the term ‘road trip’.
This morning, two Wicklow lads completed the road trip of a lifetime having crossed the finish line of the Mongol Rally in Ulan-Ude, Russia, after travelling over 15,000km in 228 hours.
Craig O’Rourke and Ronan O’Neill, who hail from Blessington, set off from Dublin on July 16th to participate in the Mongol Rally, which bills itself as “the greatest motoring adventure on the planet” and takes drivers across thousands of miles of treacherous roads in Europe and Asia.
These are the rules, per the website:
You can only take a farcically small vehicle.You’re completely on your own.You’ve got to raise £1000 for charity.
With that in mind, O’Rourke and O’Neill set off in a 1992 Toyota Starlet that they picked up on DoneDeal for €500 with the aim of raising money for Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, a charity that offers support to the families of children suffering from cancer in Ireland.
They documented the entire journey on Instagram, sharing photos from stops along the way.
Some of the roads were INSANE.
Teresa Mannion would have been horrified.
They drove through some fierce exotic places along the way
Like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, for example.
And witnessed some incredible sights.
Sure, they entered into some difficulties along the way…
But nothing a little imagination couldn’t solve!
And after driving through Mongolia, they finally made it to the finish line at 2am this morning
After an eight-hour long wait at the border, that is.
They were the 6th team to finish the race and the first Irish team to make it across the finish line
Amazing.
Anyone else got a hankering for a road trip?
