20 / 68
Although a definite
setback, this part of the trip
was also a turning point for
Manente and her team. “We
all worked together to push
the cars out. At one point,
I just started laughing to
myself. ‘This is ridiculous.
I have a chest cold in the
middle of nowhere-Mongolia,
we’re lost in the Gobi Desert,
and I’m pushing a car out of
the sand in a valley. What is
my life?’ We ended up finding
the road a few hours later and
didn’t get lost again.”
Although Manente admits
becoming frustrated often
while in Mongolia, she
said giving up was never
an option. “Even when my
morale was at its lowest and
I was cranky and annoyed
and feeling awful, we had to
finish. Not finishing wasn’t
even in my mind. I wanted
to do this for three years. I
planned the majority of it. We
were going to finish. End of
story.”
And the trip was for
charity — the Mongol Rally
is literally about “Saving
the World.” They ask every
team to raise a minimum
of £1,000, at least £500 of
which goes to their official
cause, Cool Earth, an
environmental charity that
works in partnership with
indigenous communities
to protect rainforests that,
without intervention, are
scheduled to be destroyed
within the next 18 months.
“I literally googled adventure
travel one day and the rally
popped up,” said Manente. “It
looked hilariously dangerous
and something I wouldn’t
forget anytime soon. That was
around three years ago. This
was the first year everything
lined up and I went for it.”
The Mongol Rally states
that “you can get to Ulan
Ude however you want.” The
entire rally was tackled in a
’94 Vauxhall Corsa, which
had no business making it to
the finish line. “It was a beast
of a little car,” said Manente.
“We called him ‘Eddy.’ He was
our home for those four and
a half weeks and something
we could always rely on.
Through border crossings,
rivers, rocks, sand, mud and
who knows what else, he was
our rock. Whenever we spent
more than a day somewhere,
getting back into Eddy was
like going home.”
Manente knew one person on her
Rally team, but their other two
passengers were complete strangers.
“Sora has been a good friend of mine
for a few years and she said she
wanted to travel more, so I convinced
her to jump into the deep end,” said
Manente. “Scott and Maartje are both
‘professional travelers’… we literally all
met two days before hitting the road.”
X
sora
maartje
kristina
scott
20
LYCOMING COLLEGE 2016 SUMMER MAGAZINE
F E AT U R E