The Route

The Beijing Rally 2014 route covered 8,100 miles from London to Beijing. The map above was extracted from thousands of GPS waypoints captured continuously while we were driving. The actual path we took, not the path we planned. What's also worth preserving is the path we didn't take: the route went through several rewrites before we ever left London.

Update: September 2014 — The final plan

Our initial route was plotted to drive to Prague before a rest stop, then continue on through Ukraine. Due to the circumstances in Ukraine, we had to change course. Instead of driving through Ukraine, we'd be heading north of it through Belarus. Our first rest stop would now be in Gomel, Belarus, instead of Prague.

Our route no longer really resembled the Mongol Rally 2007 apart from in some small sections. In both Kazakhstan and Mongolia we'd be taking northern routes.

Update: May 2014 — Initial full route

The initial route described below was later invalidated by the situation in Ukraine.

Our initial full route had been plotted. In some sections we'd be covering the same tracks as the Mongol Rally 2007, but we were making significant changes. We'd be going through Slovakia, a new country for us on a rally. We were also picking a rather scenic route through Ukraine. Almost the entire route through Mongolia and a large part of the Kazakhstan route differed from our 2007 path.

Update: May 2014 — European section planning

The European section described below was later invalidated by the situation in Ukraine.

There isn't an exact science to our route planning. The planning usually involves a measuring tape, a map, previous experience of the area if we have it, and some satellite imagery. For the European section of the rally, we don't need any of that: we just want to get out of Europe and the decent roads and into off-road terrain as quickly as possible.

In typical Rusty Rhinos rally fashion, the first part of the route, known as European Exit 1, would be a non-stop drive to Prague, equating to 800 miles (1,280 km).

We'd have a rest stop in Prague because we had quite a journey for the second section, European Exit 2. We'd be driving from Prague to Sevastopol in Ukraine: another 1,300 miles (2,080 km) of non-stop driving. We'd be rewarded with a rest night in scenic Sevastopol before making our final dash for Kazakhstan where the serious off-road could begin.