It’s A Long Way To Tipperary

Why Drive?

The idea of self driving adventures came from a few different books and films I saw a few years ago.

My favourites out of these were Emillio Scotto’s journey around the world on a Honda Goldwing, Chris Scotts journeys in the Sahara and “The Places In Between” by Rory Stewart. Most of all however, Ted Simons’ “Jupiter’s Travels” really spoke to me and was a huge inspiration. I’d recommend this book to almost anyone, you wouldn’t even have to be a traveller, or even an arm chair traveller, to enjoy this one; it really has something for everyone! Ted Simon was also the inspiration for Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s recent trip “The Long Way Down” so I’m clearly not the only one who was inspired by the book!

One thing I particularly love about driving overland is seeing the gradual changes in the landscape, people and the flaura and fauna. When arrive somewhere you feel much more in tune with your surrounds than if you had just jumped off a plane from Europe. You feel like you’ve evolved with the landscape and people all the way from your own home landscape and people. Ted Simon talked a lot about his method of travel and one quote of his I liked, when he was talking about how little of the world any of us can ever see was “I tried to trace my own infantessimally small line around the world the longest way I could”.

Another great inspiration for me was undoubtedly my parents. They drove from South Africa to Ireland, stopping in Kenya for 2 years, 30 odd years ago in an original VW camper. Hearing them talk about their trip has definitely played a big part in me wanting to travel like I do. On one side of their camper van they painted “It’s A Long Way To Tipperary” and needless to say, that is where I got the name for this website! As homage to their trip, on my drive to Senegal last year I made this sticker for our back window. Apparently on their trip they got plenty of welcome attention because of the quote. Last year we only got a couple of people enquiring about it but the few people appreciating it were good enough for us!

Why Mongolia?

I want to drive to Mongolia for a few reasons.

Firstly, I’m not the biggest fan of people sometimes! I love the emptiness of the desert and getting away from people. I’m not an unsocial able guy and I live in Dublin by choice but I need a good dose of the wilderness at least once a year. Mongolia and Kazakhstan are both in the list of the 15 least densely populated countries in the world and that fact really draws me!

Secondly, Central Asia has been described as “the last great wilderness” by a few sources I’ve read. While I don’t fully believe this I think that it is certainly one of the few last great wildernesses. The sad thing about this is that it’s starting to change rapidly. I’d really like to see this area before it’s ruined forever.

Thirdly, I’m really interested in the history and religion of the area. Many (or even most?) of the greatest civilisations in the world influenced this region and it seems that their effect is more obvious to this day than ancient history is in many other parts of the world. The religion of this area is obviously very controversial at the moment and I would like to know more about it as a result.

Lastly, the national sport of Kazakhstan is kopkar tartu. This is basically horse polo but instead of using a stick and ball players play with a headless goat! This was introduced to the west very artistically in Rambo III if that helps you visualise it. Any country with a national sport as interesting as that has to be worth visiting!