Last updated at 12:38, Friday, 07 September 2012

An Eaglesfield woman has raised £2,000 for charity after driving 10,000 miles across Europe.

DRIVING FORCE: Louisa Knox, of Eaglesfield, with her brother Peter, who has cystic fibrosis

Louisa Knox, 22, of Westcroft, took part in the Mongol Rally for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and a Mongolian charity for orphans.

Her brother Peter, who studies maths and statistics at Warwick University, has had cystic fibrosis since birth.

Louisa and three friends from Manchester Metropolitan University, where she has just completed a physiotherapy course, set a budget of £1,000 to buy a car on eBay that had to be less than one litre and under 10 years old.

They set off from Goodwood on July 13 and spent four weeks travelling through France, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan before arriving in the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Bataar at 3am on August 10.

Louisa said: “We drove the last 300 miles without a clutch, so when we stopped we had to push it to get it going again and then jump in the moving car once it was in gear.

“Halfway through Mongolia our tent blew down in a huge storm so we had to sleep in the car for the last few days as the tent was broken.

“Moldova was also a tricky border to cross and it took us five hours to travel 500 metres.

“However, it feels great to have finished. The best part was driving through the remote west of Mongolia.

“In Russia we had our car fixed twice and both times they refused payment, and in Mongolia we had to force down a glass of fermented horse’s milk so as not to be rude to the locals who offered it to us.”

Following the rally Louisa and her friends sold the car to make more money for charity.

First published at 11:49, Friday, 07 September 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk