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| The Route |
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| | The London Tashkent route
Some might argue that the name is rather misleading. Participants in the London Tashkent rally do not have to set off from London (or necessarily the UK), and the 2009 / 2010 route doesn't actually visit Tashkent either! Instead we continue on for another couple of hundred miles to Almaty, where a heroes welcome awaits... and the chance to see lots of nutters play a game on horseback involving a dead sheep.
The rally starts with a high speed crossing of Europe, heading for Poland via the Nurburgring (what do you mean, it's not on the way to Poland? Of course it is...) and then we expect to make slightly slower progress as we go into the hotbeds of corrupt cops and dodgy taxi drivers that are Ukraine and southern Russia...
Don't feel any obligation to stick to this route - depending on the weather, capability of your vehicle and what time you left the bar last night you may find that you have to be a bit inventive. And by going off the beaten track you may find great new options for the next group to look at.
Note: several 2010 teams have decided that the 5000 miles to Almaty will leave them unsatisfied, and expressed a wish to continue on for another week or so to Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia. We are always happy to accommodate any such foolish requests. So on your registration form you can specify whether you wish to stop at Almaty or carry on to Ulaanbataar.
The route to Ulaanbataar is identical up to Almaty, after which you'll head NW back through Kazakhstan and into Russia again, before heading due east across MMM (miles and miles of Mongolia). | | Timetable
The draft timetable for 2010 is as follows. This assumes a fast pace and limited rest (repair!) days - if you have the luxury of not being a wage slave and / or intend taking a low-powered vehicle (which is doubly heroic) you may wish to consider giving yourself a headstart!
| July 15th | Depart the UK, sleep overnight in the vicinity of the Nurburgring. | | July 16th | Lap the 'Ring, then get your toe down as you need to be at Wroclaw, Poland, by nightfall. | | July 17th | Wroclaw to Krakow. (You may want to take a few hours to look round Auschwitz - when are you likely to pass this way again?) | | July 18th | Krakow to Kiev (sounds easy, but take a look in your atlas!). Chicken for dinner... | | July 19th | Rest day. Trip out to visit Chernobyl orphanage. Detail to follow on charity page of the kind of things they need. | | July 20th | Kiev to Dnipropetrovsk. Home of nuclear missile silos! Possibility for phallic photographs for the childish among you. | | July 21st | Dnipropetrovsk to Rostov, Russian vodka tasting session in the evening (optional)! | | July 22nd | Rostov to Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. Visit war memorials, then another vodka tasting session (it's important to understand regional variations). | | July 23rd | Volgograd to Atyrau | | July 24th | Rest day | | July 25th | Atyrau..... looong desert road | | July 26th | More long desert road.... Aktobe | | July 27th | Aktobe to Aralsk | | July 28th | Rest day. Visit ship graveyard, maybe a beach barbecue... | | July 29th | Aralsk to Turkestan. Visit Baikonur cosmodrome, it is nice! | | July 30th | Turkestan to Almaty | | July 31st | Donate car and any equipment you're not taking home to charity (it's allowed to shed a tear as you sign your car over), fly home... Or stick around for a couple of days enjoying the hospitality of the locals and discussing the best way to pick up a headless sheep on horseback. |
Please note: the schedule above is a very rough estimate. The actual distance you travel and time it will take will depend greatly on your choices, mishaps and mechanical failures along the way. We recommend either booking a flexible flight back, or searching for one only on your arrival in Almaty. |
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