So we crossed the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul and are now officially in Asia. After our short visit to Istanbul, we split up with the other Belgian team ‘Silly Coincidence’ because they needed to take another route to go into Iran. Our first planned stop was Amasra, a small port town at the Black Sea. After 7 hours of driving, we finally arrived there at sunset. But unfortunately, it was too crowded and too difficult to find a good camping spot. It was already dark when we drove further to find a place to sleep. This became an extra 3 hours drive until Cide, where we found a small hotel at 11pm. We just went for it because at this time, and with all the mountain roads, it became too difficult to camp. We had some late night köfte in town and went back to the hotel for a good night rest. However, we didn’t know that the local minaret would wake us up at 4am.
charity
Because we really needed to start raising some money for our charity (PLAN) we searched for something that we could sell to people. We could have done a lot of stuff like selling self-made T-shirts, candy or other stuff that people wouldn’t actually need. After some brainstorming, we have found the perfect thing that we could easily relate to the fact that we’re participating in the Mongol Rally.
One of the rules to participate in the rally is to raise money for charity. Because it’s only fair if you’re going out of your way to see what the world has to offer that you make an effort to give a little something back. Each team should raise £1000, with at least £500 raised for the Rallies official charity Cool Earth. The other charity is one of our own choice. Therefor, we’ve chosen the awesome charity ‘Plan’ and especially ‘Plan Belgium’.
So what do these charities do?