6 weeks, thousands of miles, and tens of countries later, the world’s greatest overland adventure has finished. Covered in dust and glory, the mighty teams of the Mongol Rally 2025 and their slightly less mighty steeds rolled over the Official Finish Line. This year, it was hosted by the City of Oeskemen, capital of the Far East of Kazakhstan.

The Finish Line

Oeskemen played the most noble of hosts, rolling out the red carpet for the Ralliers’ diminutive wheels as they arrived at the Palace of Culture. Music, dancing, welcome speeches and crowds of baffled onlookers were assembled in honour of the Ralliers and their adventuring glory.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of making it across the Finish Line. Weeks of patching your car, yourself and your team mates together as you cross multiple miles, borders and terrains in a car more suited to going to the shops eventually takes its toll. At the same time, the gauntlet of the world’s greatest adventure draws to an end. So it can be an emotional moment, ripe for some overzealous balancing on your car and partying.

Awards for Rally Spiffingness

We like to make sure we recognise Mongol Rally excellence by handing out some swanky awards. For 2025, Team Bomsogboller won Spirit of the Rally Award and Team 2-Steppe won the Cool Earth Charity Fundraising Award.

Team Bomsogboller receiving the Spirit of the Rally award.

A Nod to the Fallen.

Not everyone makes it, and this year we must doff our hats to the efforts of Teams Mike Steenvoorden, Rocco Your World, Pints, Prayers and Pistons who had to bow out fairly early in the Rally due to various catastrophic failures of their vehicular companions. As we like to remind ourselves here at Adventurists’ Towers, if nothing has gone wrong then everything has gone wrong. So in a way, they were lucky not to have made it this time round.

Routes in 2025

Northern, Southern or Central Route?

Routes these days are a tricky business for the Ralliers, what with all that pesky geopolitics getting in the way. The Northern Route via Russia is pretty much off limits, as is the Southern Route via Iran for most. But the Ralliers are an intrepid bunch and those that took those routes were welcomed with the same enthusiasm as ever.

Most of them however, chose the Central Route, heading across Turkey and Georgia, then into Azerbaijan and across the Caspian Sea. A mighty route indeed, it’s replete with mountains, deserts, rivers, seas, non-roads and some of the world’s most dangerous roads. The D915 in Turkey is glorious on a sunny day, but on a foggy one feels like you might die

Getting across or around the Caspian Sea

The Central Route is still not as open as it was before the pandemic, because Azerbaijan’s borders remain closed for overland travel. However, it is possible to freight your steed over the border and meet it on the other side, which the majority of the Ralliers did. Others went north from Georgia, skirting around the top of the Caspian Sea through Russia and then dipping back into Kazakhstan.  

From the port of Alat in Azerbaijan, there are ferry routes across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, both solid options if you’re happy with Caspian Sea shenanigans. Most of the 2025 ralliers headed to Kazakhstan given the high price of visas to travel into Turkmenistan, but for those that headed to Turkmenistan, it was well worth the investment. 

Mongolia

For the hawk eyed of you out there, you’ll have noticed that the Mongol Rally Official Finish Line wasn’t in Mongolia this year. That’s because for most nationalities on the Rally, getting in and out of Russia these days can be tricky. Some tried, and after a spluttering start, Team Marchal Transport made it all the way to Ulaanbaatar, as did 2 and a Half Geezers and Team Klapa enGINe.

It’s not guaranteed that you’ll be allowed back into Russia, so for some, like 2 and a Half Geezers, the only choice was to carry on to China. A splendid detour indeed if you have the time for working out how to get home.

Central Asia

Central Asia though, provides more than ample opportunity for getting into a pickle and boasts some of the world’s best off-road routes. This year’s Rally teams coaxed their tiny steeds from the southern borders of Afghanistan and the Wakhan Corridor, across the deserts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and over the mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Pamir Highway in Tajikistan is the second highest pass in the world, taking those who travel it to a height of 4655 meters. Perfect for a 1 litre car or a diminutive bike. 

To see all the routes taken on the Mongol Rally 2025, check out our tracking map and hit replay.

Some 2025 Rally Stats

The Vehicles

We don’t have many rules for the type of vehicle someone brings on the Rally. To keep up adequate levels of silliness and the likelihood of feeling in semi-constant jeopardy, we ask them to use a vehicle that’s small and slightly rubbish, so that it’s verging on not-at-all-suitable for the job.

For cars, we strongly encourage teams to stick to and engine size of 1 litre (1000 cc), though we will at a push allow up to 1.3 litres (1300 cc) these days. For bikes, it’s 125cc or less. We’d applaud a 49cc monkey bike with no room for luggage.

This year, that complex matrix of vehicular rules resulted in 101 cars and 8 bikes, of which the top 3 most popular cars were the Nissan Micra, the Fiat Panda and the Toyota Yaris.

In the Car Category…

The smallest vehicle was Team Kegland’s Daihatsu Hi-Jet, with an engine size of just 540cc. They were closely followed by Team Klicenka’s 450 For 2 Cabrio at 599cc. Team Mike Steenvoorden’s Citroen 2CV4 and Team Marchal Transport’s Citroen Arcadiane, came in third smallest, at 602cc.

Meanwhile, the oldest vehicle in the car category was a 1972 Ford Escort, coaxed all the way to Oeskemen by Team Watchful Eyes, and the newest was a 2013 Hyundai i20 crewed by The Eh-Team.

Team Watchful Eyes and their 1972 Ford Escort at the Finish Line.

In the Bike Category…

Across 8 teams, 5 rode a version of a Honda, one a Suzuki, one a Brixton and one a Herald. The oldest bike was a 124cc Honda from 1986 ridden by Team Rolling Breakdowns and the newest was the Brixton Felsberg from 2019, coming in at 125 cc and also ridden by Team Rolling Breakdowns.

Team Rolling Breakdown crossing the Finish Line of the Mongol Rally 2025.

We’re a bit miffed that no one tried it on a 49cc Monkey Bike this year. Hopefully someone will take up the gauntlet in 2026…

The Teams

This year, the Ralliers hailed from 22 different countries, with most coming from the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia.

The oldest Rallier, from Team Tyred and Emotional was 69 years old, and the youngest, from Team Shitstack Shamans, was 19 years old.  We like to see a half century gap like that.

The average team size for 2025 was a comfortable 2.6 team members. Far too comfortable we think…there’s plenty more room in a 1 litre adventure machine than that.

Charity Fundraising So Far

As of the last report at the end of August, the Ralliers had raised a hefty £26,000 for our official charity, Cool Earth, with more still coming in. Though all the teams have to raise a minimum of £500 for charity, they make different choices about who they raise money for and how, so the total raised across the board is much higher. We’ll be updating the figures on our website soon, once we’ve verified the amounts.

To find out more about the splendid work Cool Earth do, and why we support them, visit them here.

One world record

Apart from having the smallest engine,Team Kegland also broke a world record for beer brewing whilst on the Rally. The team set up their micro brewery at the highest point on the Pamir Highway – the Ak-Baital Pass which sits at 4655 meters above sea level. Splendid work chaps and our many congratulations on the world record. 

Thank yous 

Making sure the Mongol Rally can happen each year is no mean feat. We have a most excellent team of people around the world who work year round to ensure that it can happen: that the Ralliers have the information they need; that we give them a splendid send off; that they can actually cross thousands of miles of the planet across multiple borders; and that they have a Finish Line they can cross with a solution for their car at the other end.

So here’s a ginormous thank you…

…to all of our crew both in HQ (mainly Mr Tim and Ms Mila) and on the ground in the UK, Czech Republic and Kazakhstan, to Mr Buddy, Mr Omri, Mr Nathan and to Junktown and the Launch team, to the photographers, musicians, dancers, organisers and marshals who put up with us every year…

…to all the baffled border guards for letting our motley lot through to the next stage of their adventure (they’re a scruffy bunch we know…), to the Governor of East Kazakhstan for hosting the Finish Line, to Visit East Kazakhstan and their team for making the Finish Line happen, to the people of Oeskemen for the hearty welcome, to our sponsorship partner this year Napapjiri who so magnificently followed and covered the adventures of 2 of our teams, to Cool Earth for saving the world…

…and finally to the teams of the Mongol Rally 2025, for making the Rally what it is and for raising so much money for their charities whilst they adventure. God knows, the world needs you more than ever. We salute you all.

Fancy taking on the gauntlet of the Mongol Rally yourself? Find out more here or sign up for 2026 now.