Lonely Planet Founders in The Banger Rally

The fourth and last group of the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2007 (PBC07), locally known as The Banger Rally, will start the 3,699 miles (5918km) journey this Friday, 2 February.

Close to 200 old, banged up cars split in four groups are taking part in this fifth challenge, and amongst the 43 cars starting in group 4 is a Mitsubishi Colt (1989) driven by Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler.

Under the team name “Original Lonely Planet” the two will travel from Plymouth, South West England, (well they’ll be starting in London actually), to Banjul, Gambia where all cars that complete the challenge will be sold at an auction in aid of Gambian Charities.

The now annual rally was started in 2003 by Julian Nowill, who wanted to test his Lada on a journey from Plymouth to Banjul. Under the name The Plymouth-Dakar Challenge, (referring to the Paris-Dakar race), he challenged others to join him under the following rules:

1. Competing cars could cost no more than £100.
2. A maximum budget of £15 for preparing the vehicle for the rally.
3. No form of formal assistance from the organisers during the rally
4. All vehicles that made it to Banjul were to be auctioned in aid of Gambian charities.

Over the years as the rally gained in popularity, a fifth rule was added: All vehicles must be left-hand drive, as Gambia is a left-hand-drive country.

Julian Nowill received so many applications for the PBC07 that he added an additional challenge, The Bamako Run, for the applicants he had to turn down for the original challenge.

I personally don’t really see the appeal of driving an old car through Europe to Western Africa, and I can certainly find many better and environmentally friendlier ways of supporting Gambian charities.

But if you want to follow the final group of the rally, head on over to the official
Plymouth-Banjul Challenge web site. This is also where you’ll find information about how to join the PBC08 challenge, which will start in December 2007. Be warned though, the web site is as much of an old banger as the cars participating, complete with scrollable frames and a nauseating, half-hidden, red news ticker. Seriously, Julian Nowill, once this year’s challenge is over, get in touch if you need some help with that web site!

If you just want to follow the Wheeler team, you have the option to head over to a much healthier looking site: Tony Wheeler’s blog.

Technorati Tags: The Banger Rally, Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2007, Lonely Planet, Gambia, England, travel

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