Hi, 

My name is Sarita and I’m taking part in a non-competitive charity fundraising rally over 3,000 miles in 18 days, from the UK to Morocco and back again! I'll be travelling in a temperamental 14-year-old 3-door Mitsubishi!

I’m taking part in this adventure in memory of my wonderful grandmother who died last year aged 102. I would like to raise £7,000 in the process, to support the work of InCommon, a charity that works to bring young and older people in the UK together, tackling isolation by connecting these people across generations. The serious negative effects both mental and physical of prolonged loneliness are becoming increasingly well known, so this charity's work is essential.

I’ll be accompanied by my oldest friend Amy, who has agreed to join me in supporting this cause. All being well, we’ll complete the challenge on the 30th of October 2022, almost a year to the day my grandmother died.

All costs of the trip, including the car and fuel are covered by me and 100% of all donations that you make will go directly to the charity. We are acutely aware of the environmental impact of cars, so we are also offsetting 100% of our carbon emissions by contributing to a carbon offsetting scheme.

The route:

Our driving challenge starts on the 13th of October 2022 in Portsmouth, UK. From there we will head down through Spain, across the Straits of Gibraltar and then onwards around Morocco (including part of the original Dakar rally route across the Sahara Desert). We will then return back through Gibraltar and Spain, ending up in Portsmouth on the 30th of October 2022.

The challenging terrain will vary considerably from busy built-up cities and tarmacked roads to remote areas where we’ll need to tackle sand dunes, wadis, errant Camels and rocky tracks. Also Scorpions and snakes when we camp out at night!

The set-up:

We’ll be joining other teams of people, each driving their own vehicle for their own respective charity. Relying on teamwork and supported by an expedition specialist, we’ll all attempt to reach the finish line and raise much needed funds for a broad range of worthwhile causes.

Our charity of choice:

www.incommon.org.uk

InCommon is a charity that brings generations together. It connects groups of young people with their older neighbours to learn and build friendships together. The charity believes in the value of relationships between people of different ages to help us live in a world that supports us all, young and old, to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives.

All of its activities are about building more connected, inclusive, age friendly communities. It runs intergenerational workshops in retirement homes where different ages come together to get creative, make social change and share stories and heritage. It also supports other grassroots intergenerational projects and have developed an online platform to support more and more of these to happen across the UK. It partners with schools, youth groups, housing associations and other community organisations.

Why are we supporting this charity?

Both myself and Amy have been lucky enough to enjoy close and loving relationships with our grandparents; without whose help and guidance we would not have becomethe people we are today. People often say that what you leave behind is notwhat is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.Our respective grandparents very much live(d) to that principle. What we have understood from our own relationships with an older generation is that both parties (our grandparents and us) benefitted from this closeness in so many ways.

Bringing younger and older generations together, regardless of whether the respective individuals are family or not, is therefore something we both strongly support and encourage.

Please support us by donating funds via this page to InCommon, to support the charity in continuing and expanding its tireless work in connecting people across generations.

You can follow our journey on Instagram @bridgetheigap and/or on Facebook @Bridge The I Gap. Please feel free to like, comment and share our posts with friends. We’ll be posting daily updates enabling you to follow our progress…both the ups and the downs!

Whilst we can't guarantee that we'll manage to complete the challenge as our car is anything but reliable, we're going to give it a damn good try!

Thank you for all of your much appreciated support.

Sarita and Amy x