Supporting Charities & Good Causes At Home & Abroad

When the wife’s car fails the MOT, most people take it to the scrapyard and spend a nice relaxing Christmas with the family.

Two idiots, Mark (Woody) Knight & Lee Wright (team Lowland Rats) decided to leave the family at home and spend this coming Christmas taking a 7000km drive from Somerset in England to Timbuktu in Mali through war torn African countries that the foreign office warn against all travel, with the challenge of nursing Anna's (Lee’s better half) MOT failure banger that most people would not drive to the local supermarket, through the heat of the Sahara Desert to Africa..........

 

And all in the name of Charity!

 

The big question of course, is has this been done before and how easy or difficult is it going to be? Well yes, it has been done before, but not quite like this, well..... as this one is a little different - read on!

 

Leaving on Boxing Day 2015, the plan is to cross the channel driving south through France to southern Spain where we will catch the ferry to Morocco. The real challenge lies ahead as we travel south through Morocco, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. After the Sahara Desert crossing we will head inland to Mali perhaps via Senegal or the more direct route, arriving in Timbuktu or dependent on security risks at the time, Bamako in Mali, or maybe end in Djenne or the Dogong, before flying home.

 

The vehicle will be donated to the Rotary Club in Mali, where it will be auctioned along with other vehicles taking part in the challenge and will go towards funding works for the EDEN MEDICAL CENTRE in DINFARA (copy and paste the following link into your browser):

 

http://www.upperedenrotary.org.uk/enterprises/mali.htm

Back at home, we will be collecting donations for Somerset Community Foundation (copy and paste the following link into your browser):

http://www.somersetcf.org.uk

The Somerset Community Foundation is a charity that provides funding to Somerset Charities, Community Groups and Social Enterprises and you can make a charity donation here on this page.

Charity Donations will be accepted and we will also be auctioning advertising space on our vehicle, as well as having the following sponsored games:

GUESS THE FINAL MILEAGE TO THE FINISH LINE &

GUESS HOW MANY BREAK DOWNS THAT WE HAVE

With the nearest guess on each count winning a prize!

 

The basic trip is sponsored by Pointcloud Limited, with Lee & Mark paying for their own travel costs, accommodation and importantly beer, therefore ALL proceeds collected will go the charities and good causes listed.

 

The trip is likely to take 3 weeks, providing we don’t get kidnapped, killed or eaten by wild animals! At present, the finishing point is likely to be slightly short of Timbuktu in Djenne, Mali, as there are currently significant security concerns in the Timbuktu area, including the death of a tourist.

 

Irrespective of this, the trip still has its dangers whichever route is taken, as we will be passing through countries where the foreign office warns against all travel. See The Latest Foreign Office Travel Warnings by copying & pasting the following links into your browser:

 

• Western Sahara​: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/western-sahara
• Mauritania​: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mauritania
• Mali​: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mali

However, don’t worry too much about the dangers as Mark & Lee have properly researched the trip and having discovered that the indigenous north African Berbers travel the desert with 'caravans', we too decided to heed tradition and take a caravan and (optimistically) tow it behind us! Afterall, you would not want the trip to be too easy now would you!

 

Which begs the question, will the caravan make it!

So come on all you rat fans and please support team Lowland Rats, spread the word and make a donation or even sponsor some advertising space with all money going to the charities and good causes. The aim is to raise as much as we can for Somerset!

If you would like to view our Timbuktu Challenge page on the Dakar Challenge Website, then please copy and paste the following address into your browser:

http://www.dakarchallenge.co.uk/profile/Lowland+Rats/