Charity Overdrive
By Megan Jayne
What happens when you take a Brit and a Yank, stuff them in a tiny Citroën Saxo named Mitch and tell them to drive from London to Ulan Bataar with nothing but their wits and whatever old school maps they can scrap together in the name of charity? According to Megan Jayne, charitable thrill-seeker, a seriously epic adventure.
In a little over a month, we broke down, bungee jumped off bridges, bribed policemen, ran out of gas and money at random border crossings, ate strange foods, got sick, laughed and crossed mountains and deserts. We drove the last three days across Mongolia with no roads, a busted exhaust, an overheating radiator and only third gear. We had a great time.
So what happened after the adventure ended and we returned to Shanghai, our jobs and our normal lives? Well, we felt disappointed, let down, bored... We started to look for something new, and so we’ve found that something.
Gone are the days of a roof, foot brake and even four wheels. If we’re going to do this, it’s going to be a challenge. Enter the Mototaxi Junket. The man behind The Adventurists (the company that loosely organizes these trips) says a mototaxi is far and away the most difficult and least practical of all the vehicles they utilise, and we’re supposed to take it up the Andes and down through the Amazonian rain forest. We’re to expect lots of punctured tires, slipped chains and to tip over a few times.
The Mongol Rally took us from Goodwood, England to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia via 8,762 miles and 14 counties in about five weeks. The Mototaxi Junket will be a mere 1,200 miles from Cuzco in the southwest of Peru to Ayabaca all the way to the north at the Ecuadorian border in 14 days launching on the first of the year. Gone is Mongol Hair, this time it's QuecHair. Quecha is the indigenous language of Peru, so we've modified our team name to stick with the "Hair" theme from our previous adventure. We have high hopes (and low expectations). Will there be more road signs? Fewer bribes? Shorter breakdowns? Actual roads? Less of a language barrier? Even more laughs? Gasoline? Coffee? A compass that works? Epic travel companions? Hopefully all of those things, but one thing is for sure this time. There won't be any border crossings. Yay!
Sounds like a great holiday doesn’t it? It is, but it’s also for a good cause. The Adventurists are a group of fun loving young entrepreneurs, but they’re doing good work. In fact, whilst driving across Mongolia we saw more signs for things the Mongol Rally had done and provided than we did actual road signs. This is not your regular holiday. Every team that participates in their trips has to raise £1,000 to be donated to charity, £500 of which goes to a charity named by The Adventurists and £500 of which goes to a charity of each teams’ choosing.
For the Mototaxi Junket, QuecHair will be supporting Practical Action, a charity that works in poor communities in Peru to develop appropriate technologies in renewable energy, food production, agro-processing, sustainable transport, water and sanitation along with helping to adapt to climate change. Peru is rich in resources, but is still finding its footing in how to harness them. In addition, we have both lived in China for a number of years and thought this time around we could give back to the country that has given us so much, so we’ll also be supporting BEAN Shanghai. The big picture goal is for members to gain rewarding experiences and close friends, while the community receives a tight-knit group of volunteers and global collaboration. One hundred per cent of the money donated to our team will go to these two charities.
Web: www.theadventurists.com, www.mongolhair.com, www.quechair.com
