KEY POINTS:
Blokarting, a phenomenon that sprang out of Tauranga, is set to leap on to the global stage in a daring series of sprints across the arid landscape of Mongolia.
Five Western Bay of Plenty men have teamed up with seven international adventurers to tackle a new frontier in the sport of blokarting.
Apart from a tentative test sail into the Gobi Desert last year by Frenchman Christophe Gombert - an experience punctuated with punctures - it is virgin ground for these swift, sturdy and remarkably compact little land yachts designed and manufactured by Paul Beckett of Tauranga.
Twelve blokarters will crisscross the same terrain where Genghis Khan gathered his army 800 years ago to create one of the greatest empires the world has known.
Starting on May 3 and timed to coincide with the windy season in the Gobi, the blokarts are expected to reach speeds of at least 80km/h across a "huge expanse of flatness" that seems to go on forever.
There are so few landmarks that the blokarters will rely on GPS to navigate from village to village in a landscape that adventurer Steve Saunders described as arid rather than a desert.
In what turned out to be almost mental telepathy, Saunders was discussing an expedition to the Gobi just one day before Gombert used the international website for blokarters to gauge interest in a fully-fledged test run across Mongolia.
Saunders was first on board from New Zealand, followed by Bruce MacPhail and Gordon Browne, Ted McDonald and Don McKenzie.
The event will be captured on camera by a Frenchman who will be in the support vehicles, supplemented by footage from a camcorder and a pencil cam attached to helmets or blokarts.
The resulting DVD will be the forerunner of a full-scale production planned for next year when an Auckland documentary maker joins a second expedition to make a film up to a standard to attract Sky's Discovery Channel.
Saunders realised the potential of the Gobi Desert when he flew over Mongolia during one of his frequent business trips to the Far East.
The Frenchman's first visit last year highlighted how the tyres would need to withstand spikes up to 15mm long on the desert's boxthorn bushes.
Apart from tougher tyres, plus a racing pod, the blokarts will be as they come out of the factory.
The event is being dressed up as a "challenge" but Saunders said that when co-ordinates were set each morning to go from village to village, few doubted it would become a race to see who got there first.
They plan to spend eight days sailing through the desert on winds of between 19km/h and 35km/h.
And with temperatures ranging from -4C to 8C, the men are hoping for a bit more spring by the time they set out.
Saunders said there was a lot of potential for an adventure tourism enterprise with blokarts as one of the attractions - although that would require karts being kept in Mongolia.
A big part of of it would be the cultural experience of living Mongolian style, sleeping in the distinctive yurts and plucking up the courage to drink rancid mare's milk.
Beckett plans to go to Mongolia next year to pick up on the momentum gained from next month's "raid" on the Gobi.
Age is no barrier to participation, with the oldest participant aged 67. Each man is spending about $7000 on the trip and the action will be relayed with daily updates on www.gobiblokartraid.com.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
