The teams entered in the 2005 Mongol Rally had the choice of three routes. North, Middle or South. The first checkpoint was in Prague followed by a choice of Moscow, Kiev or Istanbul which defined the different routes. Subsequent checkpoints of Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Tsaganuur (Just inside the Mongolia border) and Ulaan Bataar were the same for all teams. See the Mongol Rally Route for full details.

We chose the central route for a number of reasons. We didn't have a good feeling about Russia and the constant Police harassment which ruled out the northern route for us. The southern route was really appealing, but looked particularly tough on cars and even tougher on our wallets. The cost of the extra visas and the choice of an expensive Caspian ferry crossing or $400 carnet to take the car into the Iran put an end to that plan.

Apart from the checkpoints the teams were free to devise their own routes. Our route through Europe took us through France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and the Ukraine:

It was then onto Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, before crossing through Kazakhstan and Russia again before entering Mongolia. Just in case you hadn't figured, the map above is not the same scale as the one below, but to give you an idea Kazakhstan (east to west) is a greater distance than that we covered in the whole of europe!

The table below shows a daily breakdown of our trip.