Not Fast, Just Furious
Poles of Inconvenience 2023: Rallying for Cool Earth's sustainability projects - supporting indigenous people protecting the rainforest
Fundraising for Cool Earth
Story
Hello! We're Q&M of team: Not Fast, Just Furious ;)
The Adventure: Poles of Inconvenience 2023
Our original charity rally dream to drive from Europe to Mongolia by car (the Mongol Rally) has been struck down as it's cancelled again this year so we've taken our devastated selves and decided not to wait for "one day" anymore and to embark on a different unconventional trip of a life time instead called, the Poles of Inconvenience - a cross country car rally in a dinky beat up little 1.2L vehicle which involves collecting up to 85 checkpoints across 20+ countries throughout the UK, Europe and North Africa - as far north as Norway, east as Armenia and south as Algeria and Western Sahara. We only have a few weeks to hit as many checkpoints as we can, in the most fun way possible, which by the way are in obscure places, "geotagged" by 3x3 metre squares, courtesy of What3Words technology which essentially pixelates the world into tiny chess type square coordinates (it's super cool), all while raising some money for a charity called CoolEarth (read a bit more about them below). We have just a couple of weeks to plan the whole trip - get a car, insurance, visas, map routes, teach ourselves some mechanical and survival skills, work out budgets etc - so there's a lot to do and we are less than prepared. Well, this should be fun!
https://www.theadventurists.com/poles-of-inconvenience/
https://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-rally/
About the Charity: Cool Earth
While we're covering the cost of the trip ourselves (of course), we'd love it if you'd help support good causes for the environment by donating to Cool Earth with us, the official charity of the Poles of Inconvenience 2023.
Cool Earth works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction. Local people stand to lose the most from deforestation but the most to gain from its protection, that’s why they are the forest’s best possible custodians. All Cool Earth partnerships are community-owned and led. By developing local livelihoods, their mission is to end the cycle of deforestation entrenching villages into further poverty. Creating strong, self-determining communities.
We know, we know... The irony that we are raising money to help fight the climate crisis, while driving cross-country in a petrol-engine car is not lost on us. However, seeing world (or at least part of it) via a 1L engine car vs multiple short-haul flights feels a tad more sensible (though "sensible" might not be the word you'd use to describe the rally once you've watch the Poles of Inconvenience video), it is for the environment at least. Though we're driving and this is a rally, it is not a race. We're not fast, just furious... about the state of the environment ;)
About Us: What led us here
The long story, if you're inclined to read it...
What's the opposite of a fork in the road? You know, when two separate roads lead to one, I don't know the word for it but - that's where our story begins.
M and I both long for adventure - goofy, slightly silly, not-so-serious adventure with a touch of preparation (wild aren't we!). Me as an unfulfilled, responsibility-ridden, semi-retired adrenaline junkie, living out dreams watching things like, The Amazing Race or Race Across the World; him growing up following the Mongol Rally with the ultimate goal of taking part in the distant but well-known, "one day" (the original car rally that led us to the Poles of Inconvenience - both by The Adventurist company). Unbeknownst to us when we met, the concept of an on the ground cross-country/around-the-world adventure was something we both secretly shared. Fast forward a few trips around the sun and grey hairs later, the idea of the Mongol Rally gets put on the table for real - self-proclaimed "motoring stupidity on a global scale", completely ridiculous but epic experience driving a beat up old car from somewhere in Europe all the way to Mongolia. How could a girl say no?
But I did, more than once. A combination of moral obligations, personal guilt and commitments to family and work I both love and enjoy tied me to home and not crazy unrealistic adventuring. Adulting - the crusher of dreams, am I right? Well, only if you let it, or so I'm learning (ungracefully). Not to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity or drag him down with me, I encouraged M to press on without me and head out with his life-long best friend and fellow Mongol Rally dreamer who begged him to wait a year, so he could "adult" and get married. What's another year vs the already 15+ years of waiting? Time renewed perspectives and passions. We regrouped, rallied a team together and committed to the rally the following year with renewed vigour. Oh by the way? That came crashing down - a year wait turned into 3 with an unrelenting pandemic, civil conflict, political and economical chaos, international warfare, personal and professional upheaval, it was all just a lot. The world was on fire, hardly a time to throw caution to the wind and do something a tad irresponsible just for laughs and thrills. Caution and preparation were everything to survive. Fast forward some more, after hunkering down and barricading in for a really... really long time, you start to see the world differently when it everything starts to open up again. So here we are, a notorious planner and a go with the flow, 'free spirit'... together, feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Partaking in probably the stupidest but most epic thing we've ever done!
Our workplaces have graciously given us the time to do this bucket list adventure so now we have just a few weeks to buy a beat up old car that can just about carry our big butts (and that's going downhill!), plan our route, figure out visas, map routes, pack, teach ourselves some basic survival and mechanical skills.. we're not panicking at all!
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