Which route?

The plan is to go in convoy with my brother and his girlfriend. This means of course that we need to agree on the same route.

We'd both pretty much thought the Southern route was preferable to the Northern route.

I printed off a few simple maps last night, since my geographic knowledge is rubbish. I mean, awful. Really, really dreadful.

A couple of days into the rally all the teams meet up in Czechoslavakia and getting there should, in theory, only take about twelve hours or so from Calais. I've picked the the Chzech capital (Prague) as my starting point for deliberations.

The two basic ideas are this:

The Northern Route: Pretty much a straight line heading east through Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and then into Mongolia.

The Southern Route: Slightly more complicated. South-East from the Chzech republic through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and into Turkey. Across the border into Azerbaijan and then up the coast into Kazakhstan and then into Mongolia.

The Southern route is definitely more driving, but takes us right between Georgia and Iraq - neither of which are looking particularly hospitable right now.