Ulaan Bulance

It never used to be this hard to raise a bit of money for charity and have an adventure into the bargain.

Turns out we can't take a car on the rally either. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The vision I've had in my mind over the years is a dusty veteran car careering over the desert. But apparently, dem's the rules for the particular rally we're signed up to - all to do with import duty at the border and a vareity of other Mongolian rules apparently. So, we're limited to one of about 3 different types of vehicle, none of which have enough seats for the team. It's not going well. I'm now on the waiting list for the "rival" rally, which has a higher entrance fee but lets - nay, insists - that you take a car with a 1.2L engine or smaller.

We still really want to do something to raise money for charity and figure the only thing we can take which would have room for us all is an ambulance. It appears that this is the vehicle of choice for the charity anyway and most of the website is trying to persuade us that it's 'a good thing'. Typically though, even that has conditions attached - it has to have done less than 65,000 miles. How many ambulances have done that few? We assume if we find one it will be ok to take, and we assume we'll be able to drive it, and we have to assume that in the event of us getting a puncture or dumping it in a ditch, it won't be a complete impossibility to get it fixed...! It does seem that perhaps we're being taken for a bit of a ride and in my lower, more cynical moments it seems like the Mongolian government are taking advantage of our good nature - I can't afford to drive a car less than 10 years old / 90,000 miles on the clock in the UK, never mind buy one with the intention of just giving it away to someone. We've flirted with the option of buying a Toyota Hilux or something and doing a round trip to Mongolia and back (thus avoiding the customs tax for importing into the country), but then it's just a huge road trip and none of us could ask for sponsorship without feeling a bit guilty.

So, err, anyone know an ambulance salesman with no space left on his driveway?