Polar sailor and mountaineer Paddy Barry and musician and currach oarsman Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich have set off on an overland adventure in a tiny 21-year-old car.
As The Sunday Independent reports, the duo are undertaking their own unofficial version of the “Mongol Rally”, from Kerry to Mongolia.
They aim to drive 10,000 miles in their Suzuki, named “Jimmy”, to the Mongolian capital, Ulaan Bataar, via France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Barry, who sailed his Galway hooker Saint Patrick across the Atlantic, has navigated the Arctic Circle and undertaken many sailing and mountaineering trips.
He provided support from his yacht, Ar Seachrán, to Ó Beaglaoich and fellow crew on the “Camino na Sáile”, a three-summer voyage in a Kerry naomhóg from Ireland to northern Spain which began in 2014.
The official Mongol Rally has a number of conditions, as participants must travel in a car of 1.3 litres or less or a motorbike of 125 cc or less, and are encouraged to “get lost on the Pamir Highway, shred your car on the mountain tracks of Kyrgyzstan, get beached on the road to the Gates of Hell in Turkmenistan”.
With “Jimmy, mo mhíle stór” inscribed on the bonnet, Barry and Ó Beaglaoich left Kerry last week and made it as far as Hungary this weekend.
At their campsite in Gyor, north-west Hungary, they met up with and played music with a group of Hungarian gypsies, Ó Beaglaoich says.
The pair are joining two other cars en route, including one driven by father and son Mike and Mark Alexander.
Read The Sunday Independent here
