Teen trio in Mongol rally adventure

Dumfries lads Lewis Stewart-Gault, Ewan Donald and Sam Hall, all 19, accepted a charity challenge to drive an old Nissan Micra across remote parts of Europe and Asia to raise money for cancer and asthma charities.
Photography student Lewis, his school-leaver cousin Ewan and sports coach Sam will tackle mountain, desert and steppe in the one litre, brightly painted banger.
Setting off from London, the annual Mongol Rally gets going in mid-July and the team, who call themselves The Yurt Lockers, hope to cross the finish line in Ulan Ude in early September.
Lewis, who studies at Dumfries and Galloway College, said: “It’s going to be an amazing adventure – last year I drove across the USA from LA to Washington, but this will be something else.
“All of us love the idea of having a real adventure and of doing a bit of good by raising money for good causes at the same time – the charities we have chosen are all close to us one way or another.”
All the money they raise will be split between Multiple System Atrophy Trust, Myositis UK, Asthma UK, the Teenage Cancer Trust, Crohns and Colitis – with a further sum going to Coolearth and the chosen charity of event organisers The Adventurists.
Around £1000 has already been raised but the boys hope to double that by the time they set off.
People are invited to donate online or attend an all-day fund-raiser this Saturday at the Craigdarroch Arms in Moniave.
The Yurt Lockers expect to cross around 18 different borders as they pass through Europe and along the Black Sea coast of Turkey and onwards to Mongolia.
Their car will be carrying tents, food, water, fuel and other necessities for travellers who will be far beyond the reach of breakdown services and potentially hundreds of miles from the nearest garage.
And Lewis revealed that the boys have a special reward for when they arrive.
He said: “We have a secret compartment in the car for some whisky and we’ll be breaking that out for a dram when we get there.”
After that, there’s just the minor matter of the drive home.