Stainland man Simon Dixon returns from ‘mad’ Mongolian rally

Aug 21 2009 By Nick Lavigueur

HE survived river crossings, corrupt police and herds of camels.

But Mongol Rally participant, Simon Dixon, said he would definitely do it all again.

The Stainland businessman has just returned from an 8,000 mile, four-week adventure across Europe to Mongolia in a city car.

Simon, 40, a building industry consultant, signed up for the epic drive with co-driver Wayne Harris.

Safely back home after coming 12th out of 400 entrants, Simon described Mongolia – sandwiched between China and Russia – as “mad”.

The duo were forced to cough up bribes to border officials and were stopped by the police 12 times.

He said: “In the Ukraine I was taken into a booth and shouted at in Ukrainian for five minutes. I thought they were going to send us back to Poland but then they just let us through.

“We were also stuck at the Mongolian border for 48 hours.

“We were only hit for $20 two times. They start off at $500 and you bargain them down, but some people had to pay about 20 bribes.”

Simon said driving along the tracks of Mongolia in a nine-year-old Suzuki Swift had been an experience.

“There is only 80km of Tarmac in Mongolia, the rest of the roads for the 1,600km we drove there, were at best farm tracks.

“The terrain was mountain passes and desert, tundra. We crossed eight rivers, saw golden eagles, camels, vultures, and buzzards.

“On one of the river crossings we had water up to the windows. We just about managed to keep it out.