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Ryan revisited MSV to give a final presentation on the Mongolian Rally which raised £500,000 in total.

He undertook the trip with his cousin Tom and they covered 9,500 miles and visited 22 countries in SIX weeks!

In Azerbaijan, there was an extremely ancient ferry, which they boarded - a Soviet relic consisting of a dilapidated lifeboat engine on a rusted hulk. There was great concern over its sea-worthiness!

In Turkmenistan, it took 9 hours to complete the paperwork to enter the country, in addition to being relieved of huge amounts of money for the privilege.

Their car had its first breakdown in Turkmenistan where the suspension took a battering on the poorly made roads. Repairs were made in exchange for cigarettes and a bottle of Orangina. All this in temperatures of 50 degrees in the shade!

In Uzbekistan, they saw another Rally vehicle with Rotary Club stickers. They also ate the best watermelons there, which was strange as they were growing in a desert region!

In Central Asia, they saw many people with the 'Asian Gold Smile' (gold teeth) - which may explain the expression' Put your money where your mouth is'.

Ryan strongly recommends Bukhara, which he described as the most stunning place they visited, with beautiful mosques, castles and ancient forts. The local girls were selling pottery and tapestries along the road. When asked why they weren't at school, they said that they needed to earn money for the family. But as they spoke so many languages, they had obviously had some excellent early schooling.

Tajikistan was the smallest country they visited, about the size of England and Scotland together with a population of 2,000,000.

Mongolia was the largest country visited but only had a population of 3-4million. In a restaurant they visited, the dessert menu consisted of such delicacies as: Chewing gum, Chips and a Wispa bar!

It was in Mongolia that they nailed a cow's skull to the front bumper. This has become a tradition with the drivers of the Rally.

One car in the Rally was entitled ''A Very British Adventure''. It was a mini with a full size wooden replica of a red phone box on the roof! The only clothes the two drivers had taken for the 6 week trip consisted of cricket whites and suits with bowler hats.

Another car had two large plastic horses strapped to the roof, which were for an orphanage en route.

At the end of the Rally, all the cars looked like they were fit for the scrapheap, but we were told that they would be repaired, cleaned and sold locally. The Rally creates great excitement and the cars would probably be going strong for many years.

After 6 weeks they were back where they started their epic Rally, in Hyde Park. They were fortunate to only have incurred 3 flat tyres, a battered suspension and a broken brake line.

Ryan looked significantly older and greyer at the end, but he assured us that it was the result of ingrained dust! Both he and Tom are hoping to take part in a new Rally along the west coast of Africa in 2009.