“Find out what’s there when you arrive. Unleash the unexpected.”.
That’s the philosophy behind the route planning during Mongol Rally. NO road book, no mandatory roads: you are free to go wherever you want! So at the end there is just a starting line and a finish line, everything else is up to the team. That’s why organizer calls it: the UN-ROUTE.
Obviously, using Google Maps and Google Earth is the beginning, to check all border crossings, but during our adventure we will try to use as much as we can good old fashioned maps.
So let’s go through our itinerary! In 35 days (we hope) we are driving from Italy through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tagikijstan, Kighizistan, Khazakistan, Russia (twice) and Mongolia. Like modern Marco Polo we will drive along the old Silk road, passing deserts and mountains, challenging the Pamir Road, sleeping in Samarkand, asking locals where to head for a shower or a mechanics!
Here the most remarkable places we are going through during this 13500 km long adventure: