Guys plan epic 15,000km journey in Nissan Micra

FROM England to Mongolia by road in a hatchback.

That's Curtis Island worker Steve Madden's vision, and he's planning to do it in a one litre Nissan Micra.

Mr Madden, 26, and his team of Brisbane friends will depart London next month on a 15,000km journey through more than 16 nation states to Ulanbataar, capital of Mongolia.

The trip will be unassisted, and will pass through countries with diverse legal and cultural requirements, including Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.

But the challenge of co-ordinating visas and other logistics is fun for the engineer, whose main motivation is his need for a more difficult goal in his life.

"Every holiday I've had has been a landmark challenge," he said. "This is the biggest challenge we could think of."

The trip will be a "feral, unsupported adventuring chaos", according to the team's website, and will form part of the pancontinental adventure challenge event, Mongol Rally 2014.

"I'm hoping it all comes together," Mr Madden said. "I'm pretty excited about it."

The trip will raise cash for Cool Earth, a charity which works with indigenous communities to protect threatened rainforest, and for Bowel Cancer Australia.

So what kind of person would dream up a trip like this?

"I play a lot of sport. I'm a hyperactive, don't sleep kind of guy," he said.

A mechanical engineeer, he will join an all-engineer cast of teammates, who met at university in Brisbane.

"We all did engineering, but that doesn't mean I can fix a car," he said.

Mr Madden said donations and in-kind contributions toward the trip would be gratefully accepted.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog