LITTLE ROCK — The farthest Little Rock resident Michael Buckner had ever ventured from home was Seattle. The last time he went camping, he broke the poles to his borrowed tent. Driving a car with a manual transmission was as foreign to him as, say, Kazakhstan.
Yet, Buckner found himself with three other Arkansanstraveling across Europe and Asia - including Kazakhstan - in July and August this summer, camping most nights and, yes, taking his turn at the wheel of a car with no automatic transmission. It was all part of Mongol Rally 2012, a car rally that begins in England and - about 10,000 miles later - ends in Mongolia and which organizers bill as the “greatest adventure inthe world.”
Buckner joined the team of Chase Green of Fayetteville, Joseph Vance of Sheridan and Alyx VanNess of Little Rock, who dubbed themselves The Arkansas Chuggabugs and laid claim to being the first Arkansans to enter and complete the competition, all the while raising $2,000 for a couple of charities.
Buckner and friends wentthrough 16 countries, ruined three tires, wore out the aforementioned transmission and changed it out in Kazakhstan for $100 and were almost jailed after refusing to pay a $500 bribe to clear a speeding ticket. Not all say they would do it again, but Buckner would.
“When you get to the finish line, you say, ‘Man, I wouldlove to go back and do all of that,’” he said.
The Mongol Rally is an annual event that began in 2004 with six teams. By this year it had grown to 297 teams from 39 countries. Requirements for entry are few: Teams must use a very small vehicle with an engine displacement of no more than 1,200 cubic centimeters, which makes crossing about a third of the planet all the more challenging. Teams choose their own routes for the roughly 10,000-mile journey from England to Mongolia.
The teams also must raise at least $1,000 for charity. Team Arkansas Chuggabugs members said they raised about $1,000 for Heifer International and a like amount for Lotus Children’s Center in Mongolia, which cares for abandoned children.
Green was the driving force behind the Arkansas team. Now 25, he became enchanted with Mongolia in high school when thumbing through atlases trying to imagine what the maps of countries on the page looked like in real life. He went on to study geography in college.
“I had fallen in love with the idea [of going to Magnolia] my sophomore year of high school,” Green said. “It’s one of the least populated places on earth and everywhere was gorgeous.”
The population density of the nation is about 3.27 people per square mile compared with the United States, which has a population density of 51 people per square mile.
Mongolia didn’t disappoint.
“It blew my expectations out of the water,” Green said. “Every 30 kilometers is the most beautiful scenery you’ve ever seen in a completely new way.”
Green learned of the Mongol Rally when he was a senior in high school in 2004, and figured that would be his ticket to Mongolia. “If you Google Mongolia enough, there’s only so many things that pop up.”
It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that Green began planning in earnest for the Mongol Rally 2012 when he had enough money to pay the entrance fee, which is about $1,600. Green recruited two friends who later got jobs and had to resign from the team.Joseph Vance, a friend from Green’s days at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs, signed on.
“If you have the stomach for it, I recommend it,” Vance said.
Buckner and VanNess signed on earlier this year. Buckner, who obtained a degree in digital filmmaking from the University of Central Arkansas last December, said he was won over by the chance to use the trip to make a documentary. Buckner, withthe help of the other team members, hopes that it will be finished early next year for entry into film festivals and for sale to the general public.
As part of the planning, Green had to locate a small, affordable car. Through rally connections, the team obtained a 2003 Suzuki Ignis, a four-door subcompact for about $1,600. They also found a roof rack that came from a Mercedes van. It hung over the roof line by several inches, causing team members to bump their heads getting out of the car, Vance said.
That, however, wasn’t as problematic as getting used to not only the manual transmission but, at least starting out in England, driving on the opposite side of the road. Vance was the only one with experience driving a manual, but even he was unprepared not only for driving on the left side of the road but sitting on the right side of the car as well.
“It was real scary,” Vance said.
On a lighter note, because the instruments were reversed, team members spent much of the trip turning on the windshield wipers when they wanted to turn on the headlights, he said.
The four spares they carried came in handy because they ended up using three of then, Buckner said.
The clutch was unable to hold up under the misuse of four drivers and gave out in Kazakhstan. It was the one time Vance thought theywouldn’t make it. It didn’t help matters that a spare Suzuki clutch was unavailable. But Kazakhstan ingenuity won the day.
Mechanics fitted an Opel clutch into the Suzuki and the team was on its way, only $100 lighter for the trouble.
“It was amazing,” Buckner said.
Green and Vance miss the Suzuki, which they were required to leave with organizers who turned it over to Mongolian authorities to resell in Mongolia.
“That little guy, he went through everything,” Vance said. “We treated him so bad, and he still took care of us.”
Not everything went smoothly. VanNess dropped out in Georgia about a month into the trip, fearing the misery she felt would be a bane to her teammates.
“Everyone had a different experience,” she said. “I had gotten to the point where I learned what I wanted and grew as a person.”
Besides, VanNess said, her teammates could use the extra space they gained with her departure. “Our car was incredibly tiny and cramped. I knew they would appreciate the extra space.”
Indeed, on the last three weeks of the trip, the remaining teammates took turns sleeping in the back seat.
Both VanNess and Vance were struck by the friendliness of the people they encountered. All described chance encounters with people who invited them into their homes, introducedthem to family and friends and shared their food.
“It blew me away how generous everyone was,” Van-Ness said.
Their least favorite country was Azerbaijan, where a speeding ticket could only go away with a $700 charge, that included a bribe, they refused to pay, the team recalled. The police didn’t jail anyone but did hold Green’s visa and other travel documents before finally relenting.
Buckner missed having ready access to the Internet as well as the concept of free drink refills that is regular part of life in the United States. The cash economy took some adjustment for people used to debit cards. Eating food on a budget was interesting. Pickled tomatoes, for instance, became a breakfast staple.
Showering was an infrequent relief.
Green liked that the adventure had higher aspirations than just completing a journey.
“That’s the idea that stuck with me, that you also were raising money for charity,” Green said, adding that fundraising was the most difficult part of the planning. “That money wouldn’t have been raised otherwise. People don’t raise money to go to Costa Rica and donate to a charity.”
Vance said it would be difficult for him to travel anywhere as a tourist now. “Full immersion is the only way to go.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/24/2012