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February 2, 2007 Vol. 77,
no. 4S
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| DRIVER’S SEAT: Javad Golji takes a turn at the helm of “Le Car,” the Renault he and three friends raced in the Mongol Rally.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JAVAD GOLJI
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Eight weeks, 18 countries, 8,000 miles
BioE student races in the cross-country adventure, Mongol Rally
Last summer, bioengineering graduate student Javad
Golji and three friends drove from London to China, in a 12-year-old
Renault hatchback christened “Le Car.” They were competing
in the Mongol Rally, an adventure race whose challenge, explains its
website, is to “travel one-quarter of the way around the earth,
from London to Mongolia, in any crap car that has an engine with no
more than one liter of power.” The goal is not to finish first,
but to finish, period, and in the process, raise money for Mercy Corps
and Send a Cow charities.
The Technomads, which Golji and his engineering friends named themselves,
came close to finishing. In eight weeks of travel, they drove roughly
8,000 miles through 18 countries in Europe and Asia to raise $6,000,
before their car died.
“It was a great experience,” says Golji. “I learned a lot,
saw a lot. I’d do it again, but with just one backpack and without
those eight cans of tuna I brought. We always found food.”
The four friends decided to do the rally, which began on July 21, in
mid-April and raced to find a car, a corporate sponsor, contacts and
visas. They plotted a route from London down through Germany, Serbia
and Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and over to
Mongolia.
Once the race started, they drove on roads that ranged from the slick
Autobahn in Germany to crumbling, one-lane roads in Bosnia that took
them through tunnels so dark and narrow they had to honk like mad before
they entered and hope no one was coming from the other side. They took
wrong turns, got lost, and were stopped by police. They saw beautiful
things and scary things. “Our host in Afghanistan warned us about
random checkpoints manned by guys in hoods carrying AK-47s,” Golji
recalls. “He told us to not stop, just step on the gas. We worried
that they would shoot us, but they didn’t because they didn’t
have any bullets, we found out. But they whacked their guns against
our car as we sped by.” Yet the mountains between Afghanistan
and Uzbekistan were so beautiful the team stopped for a half an hour
just to appreciate them.
Fifty miles from the Chinese border, they popped a tire, then another
tire, broke a shock and punctured the fuel tank. Out of repair options, “Le
Car” struggled ahead on its rims, inches from the ground, leaking
fuel, before it finally conked. Officially out of the race, Golji and
his friends hoisted their backpacks, ready to proceed on foot, when
a Russian truck driver stopped to help them. Not only did he buy their
car, but he fed them lunch and drove them to the Chinese border. Two
days before he was due at Berkeley, Golji flew home from Beijing.
As for this summer, Golji’s travels will be tempered by the demands
of the lab, but he plans to squeeze out a trip, perhaps a bike tour
down the California coast.
Read more about Golji’s adventures at www.thetechnomads.com.
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