The Mongol Rally – An Interview with Spunky Girl Monologues

Author: Debz Become a contributor

When I heard that Pamela MacNaughtan from Spunky Girl Monologues was planning to do the Mongol Rally this year I had a whole host of questions I wanted to ask her. Pamela is a solo female traveler from Canada who decided to quit her job in 2010 to pursue her love of travel, she says “It was by far the best decision of my life”.

We caught up with her to find out more about her love of travel and why she’s taking part in the 2012 Mongol Rally.

 

Pamela, what made you want to do the Mongol Rally?

The Video! I watched this video once and I was hooked! Seriously, watch it!!

I love that the Mongol Rally is an unsupported adventure and that it has a charitable focus. I also loved the fact that I was joining an all females team as the rally is a fairly male-dominated adventure. The Mongol Rally is an adventure that will stretch me in ways that I cannot fathom and I love the idea of that.

Who will be going with you/be your team mates?

My teammates are equally fierce and adventurous women. Charlie Grosso is a professional photographer in New York, and Deej Forza is a Kiva Fellow from Seattle. It’s a great combination for a team. I’m the travel blogger, Charlie is the photographer and Deej is the volunteer guru. As a team our talents compliment each other and each of us will bring something a little different to the experience as a whole.

What equipment will you need to do the rally?

Equipment is a huge part of the rally. Charlie, DJ and I will be camping along the way once we leave Eastern Europe, so we’re looking into camping gear, as well as things like compact camp chairs, headlamps, a camp stove etc. However camping equipment is not the only equipment we need. We also need things like spare tires and small car parts, camera gear, video gear and so on. It’s kind of a daunting task to list all of our equipment needs, but I’m working on it and will have it posted on our team website www.smstowaway.com in the next week or so.

Can you tell us how are you able to pay for it all?

Sponsors! Our goals is find enough sponsors to offset the cost of the rally. There are a lot of expenses involved with the Mongol Rally. We need to buy a car, have it registered and insured. We need to buy visas and book hostel beds. We need gas and repair money. We need bribe money. In other words, we need a lot of things.

We’re slowly bringing in sponsors. We’re also going to give our family, friends and readers the option of donating towards the charity we’re supporting, donating money towards our team costs, or buying us gear through our team Amazon wishlist.

What vehicle do you expect to be driving?

OMG we have no idea! I’m told the Nissan Almera is a great car and does really well at the auction which takes place after the rally.

At the moment we may have a sponsor for our car.We’re waiting for the final word to come in before we start shopping in Europe for our it.

What advice would you give to people thinking of doing the rally?

Planning for the Mongol Rally is really involved. Pick teammates who compliment you and are willing to share the workload. Communication is huge when planning for something like this. Think big and go for ‘the impossible’ in terms of sponsors and goals, you never know what will happen and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results!

What locations and countries are you looking forward to visiting most along the way?

Honestly, I’m really excited about Eastern Europe, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

I’ll be visiting 12 new countries on this trip, I’m planning an extended trip back through Central Asia where I’ll be doing more exploring, so 3 or 4 of those countries will be explored more slowly at that time.

Thanks Pamela!

Many thanks to Pamela for giving us an insight into her preparations for the 2012 Mongol Rally. We wish her and her team the very best of luck.

To follow her progress on getting sponsorship and on the rally itself go to her website Spunky Girl Monologues. If you have any questions for Pamela please post a comment below. If you would like us to interview you about your current or future travel plans please contact us.