University student from Pusey has adventurous trip delivering ambulance to Mongolia

8:18am Thursday 6th August 2009

By Tom Shepherd

AN adventurous university student has returned from a 7,000-mile trip to deliver an ambulance called Dolly to a hospital in Mongolia.

Will Lowry, 20, from Pusey, near Faringdon, took on the challenge with university pals Charlie Brooks and Luke Taylor.

They set off on Sunday, June 28, and arrived in Mongolia exactly one month later to present the ambulance — a converted Land Rover — to Shastin Central Hospital in the capital, Ulan Bator.

Along the way, they conquered mountain ranges and deserts as they motored through nine countries — France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

The trio completed the epic journey in the 22-year-old Land Rover they purchased for £1,700 and spent £7,000 fixing up — with money they raised themselves.

Mr Lowry said: “I took a gap year after school. I coached football for five weeks in Costa Rica and travelled from Mexico to Argentina. But this trip was hard to compare to a gap year. There were so many highs and lows.”

Most nights, the friends camped outside, using the ambulance to protect them from the wind. If the temperature dropped, they crammed inside.

Tuna, pasta and sweetcorn ready meals tested their spirits and they found that crossing borders could be a nightmare.

Mr Lowry, a languages student at Bristol University, said: “We had some problems getting into Kazakhstan.

“It took two or three hours because they were so difficult, but we got through in the end. Actually, I think Ukraine was the most difficult country. We got stopped so many times by the police for silly reasons. I couldn’t really understand why.”

Asked to pick a highlight of the trip, Mr Lowry described struggling for hours to find a place to stay in the Russian city of Astrakhan which wasn’t too expensive.

Eventually they stumbled into a friendly establishment, only to discover it was a brothel.

They made a hasty retreat before bumping into a group on inline skates, who introduced them to a politician out on the town with two beautiful women and a couple of heavies. The politician invited them back to his bachelor pad for caviar, put them up for the night and picked up the bill for lunch the following day.

Mr Lowry said: “It was a fantastic night. Words can’t really describe it.”

The team, who have so far raised £1,800 for Save the Children, thanked Oxford mechanics Gordon Russell and Tony Cox for making their Land Rover roadworthy and usable as an ambulance. The effort can be supported at mongolambulance.com