£959 of £1000

African Panda

http://www.WillWeMakeIt.com/africanpanda

Minimum donation £1.20 / €1.20 / $1.20

About the Adventure The story so far goes thusly...

After spending copious amounts of time together over the summer, and even taking what some might call a romantic holiday together in Paris (although there was certainly no romance!), Matthew Hall and Ross Dobie (i.e. Team PANDAmonium) decided they were bored with life.

So, the only logical solution to that would be to take a car less than 1000cc from London to Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. This is known as the Mongol Rally....but they didn't get a place.

Alas, the team dispaired for short period of time before finding out about THE AFRICA RALLY!!!

Never attempted by anyone before, it's the same rules. Leaving this summer in a car less than 1000cc, with no back up crew, no experience in mechanics and never having been in Africa before, Matt and Ross will drive a 1989 Fiat panda (which is essentially a box on wheels) across roads, dirt tracks, hills, pot-holes and across country borders which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office suggest avoiding because of 'High instances of kidnappings for ransom, carjackings, robbery using unnecessary violence and where armed banditry is common.' Not to mention all the mosquitos, snakes, spiders and unbearable heat. (1989 Fiat Pandas don't have a fith gear or radio, so they sure as hell don't have air conditioning!)

Unlike the Mongol Rally, which has been running for a few years now, the Africa Rally has never been done before. This means that no one really knows how safe it is going to be. The chances of us making it all the way are very low, and the chances of dying somewhere in North Africa are very high. As the disclaimer read, there 'is a very high chance that you could die' and if involved in anything other than a minor accident 'there is a very high chance that you could die'. Go figure...


Our planned route means we leave from London on 18th July 2008, make our way to Amsterdam, then through to Berlin, sidetrack slightly further east into Poland and then south west again to meet up with all the other teams in Prague on the 20th July. From there we will go south into Austria, drive west through Austria and into Lichtenstein and Switzerland, then south to Genova in northern Italy. From then we will follow the mediteranian coast through France, Monaco, France again, detour slightly to Andorra, then make our way to the very southern tip of Spain. From there we will get a ferry across to Morocco and drive through the Western Sahara, then into Mauritiana, east through Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, then into Nigeria before finally sipping Cameroonian wine in Central Africa. We're not really sure how long this will take, but if the car is still in good condition when we get there we may be driving it back! (But probably not...)

So this is our fundraising profile. Please help us to risk our lives in the name of charity. We need to raise at least £1000, so every donation counts however small. Take a look at the worthwhile charities we will be supporting below. You can spend a pound and vote on whether you think we will make it or not or you can simply donate some money for the cause. For some reason the minimum donation is £1.20 online, but if you want to help us but don't want to give that much then you can give money to either of us in person and we can put it in for you. Seriously, any donation would be appreciated, no matter how big or small and the charities it will be going towards do a lot of wonderful work in Africa. Every penny of the £1000 will be going to charity, so don't worry about either of us trying to pocket any to fund our petrol costs, that all comes out of our own pockets.

Also, we hope to organise a couple of fundraising nights out in Glasgow and/or Stirling and/or Dumfries which everyone on the planet is invited to!

More information: http://africarally.theadventurists.com/pandamonium

Minimum donation £1.20 / €1.20 / $1.20

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES //