sugar+spice do the Mongol Rally 2016

What are we doing?

Billed by the organisers as the greatest motoring adventure on the planet, since 2004 the Mongol Rally has thundered 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) across the mountains, desert and steppe of Europe and Asia each summer. Team sugar+spice (aka my best friend of 35 years, Jane, and me, Rosi) will leave from the UK in July 2016 and finish some time later (probably 5-6 weeks...hopefully) in the Siberian city of Ulan Ude, just a day’s drive from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. There are three simple rules:
• We can only drive a ridiculously small car, no more than 1100cc
• No support, no back up, no fixed route
• Raise money for charity

Why are we doing it?
sugar+spice are aiming to raise about A$50,000/GBP25,000 between us for our selected charities. That’s big. But it costs A$27,000 (and two years) for Assistance Dogs Australia to train a puppy. And Jane is hoping to match that amount for her UK based charity.

I’ve been a monthly contributor to Assistance Dogs Australia for a couple of years and my admiration for the organisation has grown and grown. The scope of the work and the range of people benefitting (from those with physical disabilities, to children with autism, returned servicemen and women suffering from PTSD, and people with dementia) is extraordinary.

I am also a passionate believer in the philosophy that imprisonment should be as much about rehabilitation as it is punishment and I am delighted to support a charity that has had the vision to engage with inmates in such a positive and constructive way through the Pups in Prison initiative.

My husband and I own a Labrador (12 year old Oscar Biscotti). Our hair shedding, drooling fur kid has given us innumerable laughs and licks every single day we’ve lived together, and so we understand the uplifting of spirits that comes from having a doggy as part the family. The idea that such an animal could also be useful is foreign to us but obviously it’s all about the training!