黑洞社区

Last month Mat Kier, a technician for Ridge & Partners, embarked on the Mongolian Rally challenge, a 15,000km road trip that starts in Brussels and ends in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar in five weeks.

The annual charity event鈥檚 organisers The Adventurers call it an 鈥渆pic journey over mountains, across deserts and through rivers鈥� 鈥� while trying to avoid massive potholes and boulders.

Kier, who is in the structures team in Ridge鈥檚 Winchester office, is blogging for 黑洞社区 about the trip鈥�

19th July

The done thing is to attempt the Mongol Rally in an old banger in as bad a condition as you dare. To quote the organisers鈥� rule verbatim, your car must be 鈥渟mall and sh*t.鈥� Along with my two team mates 鈥� friends from school Sam and Jon 鈥� I have duly acquired for this odyssey a 1.1 litre 1994 Metro Rover (pictured). For 拢75.

To prepare this mighty machine for the trip of its life, Jon used it for his daily run and I tinkered with it as necessary.

One day we went to fit it with a sump guard and ended up with a sound system.

The car was renamed The Ulaan Bouldar-Mobile.

We set off on Saturday 16 July for our five week adventure at the starting line at Goodwood motor circuit, Chichester. Our first stop was in Ghent, Belgium, where at the Ghent Beer festival we picked up a bag of carrots and a new team mate. On to Heidelberg next鈥�

We鈥檙e raising money for two charities as part of Ridge鈥檚 initiative to raise 拢70,000 for charity this year - in celebration of its 70^th anniversary. Our chosen charities are Parkinson鈥檚 UK and Cool Earth. If you鈥檇 like to donate please visit:

We鈥檝e raised 拢2,000 so far but would love to raise more 鈥� thank you for any donations. And I鈥檒l keep you posted on our progress.

Mat Kier is a technician for Ridge & Partners