TravelPapa Goes to a 10,000 Mile Charity Rally...
... with the Rolling Cones team of adventurists who will drive their ice-cream truck from London to Ulan Bator
Starting from July 18, the TravelPapa's logo will be riding aboard of a Virginia ice-cream truck which is participating in a 10,000 mile Mongol Rally. We sincerely hope that the Rolling Cones wonderful team sponsored by TravelPapa will send us their news and race reports as often as it will be possible in their circumstances.
Just before the long Rally starts, we want to introduce our brave partners. This story was written in the words of Joe Pyrek, one of the Rolling Cones' team members . Enjoy the first chapter of the future travel odyssey:
"The Rolling Cones are a team of adventurists all tying their roots back to the Commonwealth of Virginia. They are participating in the 2009 Mongol Rally, a 10,000 mile multi continental rally from London, UK to Ulan Bator, Mongolia with no set route and no support. While this will be a great and fun adventure, the overall point of the rally is to raise money for charity through two means. The first is general fundraising, and the second is through the auctioning of the vehicles once they reach Mongolia. The Rolling Cones are supporting Mercy Corps, a 501c3 based out of Portland, OR (more information on Mercy Corps can be found at www.mercycorps.org).
The Rolling Cones will be taking a 2001 Workhorse step van that has been converted into an ice-cream truck on this cross continental trek. It started its days as a humble newspaper delivery truck in Cherry HIll, NJ and was brought to Virginia in the last December where Joe and Andrew worked to develop it into the pink monster that it is today. The team will be giving out freeze dried space ice cream to children along the way as operating freezers in such places as the 130 degree Kyzyl-Kum desert are virtually impossible.
As there is no set route, one had to be chosen and these ice cream loving adventurists have devised a challenging, unique, and eye opening course. They will begin in the UK and head through western Europe to Prague where there will be a party with the rest of the 560 teams participating in the 2009 Mongol Rally. From there they will head south towards Turkey and Istanbul. Then it is a sharp eastward turn as the crew will rumble along the coast of the Black Sea and through the Caucasus and onto Baku. The trip takes an interesting turn here as they will be utilizing the ferry from Baku, Azerbaijan to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan. Once in Turkmenistan, they will head to Ashgabat and then northward towards the Uzbekistan border. At this point the Silk Road becomes the road of the Rolling Cones as they pass through Bukhara and Samarqand and into Tajikistan. Here they will jump onto the Pamir Highway and head through Kyrgyzstan and into Kazakhstan. It is about 1,000 miles across Kazakhstan at which point they will jump into Russia for a short amount of time before heading into western Mongolia where it will be another 1,000 miles across unforgiving terrain where roads are merely lines on a map... and unidentifiable against the Mongolia steppe.
Will they make it? Stay tuned to find out!
Godspeed Cones! Roll On!"
