19 April 2013

Drive from UK to Pakistan

This blog is to share my experience of THE BIG DRIVE which was a charity event organised by Muslim Hands where we drove a convoy of 30 Ambulances from UK to Pakistan. This was most certainly the experience of our lifetime and we want to share this with our readers.

Dates: 19 April 2013 - 03 May 2013
Handover Ceremony: 05 May 2013
Origin: Nottingham Forest Football Club, Nottingham, UK
Destination: Islamabad, Pakistan

The journey was as follows: 

Drive from UK to Pakistan 


It all started when my brother and I saw an advert of The BIG Drive on an Asian TV channel. We always wanted to do this adventure of driving from UK to Pakistan but there were several constrains that stopped us. When we saw this add, we decided straight away to go for this. We only saw the add 2 days before the deadline. The event seemed interesting and the cause was a wonderful idea to setup Ambulance network in deprived areas of Pakistan.

There was a £7,000 target to be raised per Ambulance. Although initially it felt almost impossible as we had never raised money before but by the grace of God, we managed to raise over the target. We raised a lot more than we expected and want to thank all our donors.

Below are some interesting facts and figures from our friends at Muslim Futures who were in our group.

Some interesting facts & figures, courtesy of Muslim Futures

The BIG Drive – Facts & Figures

9,902 Kilometres Travelled
2,190 Metres Elevation Reached
1,754 Photos Shot
1,116 Water Bottles Drunk
61 Volunteers Driving
44 Degrees Reached
41 Hours without Sleep
35 Petrol Stops
30 Vehicles Driven
25 Paramedics Recruited
15 Days on the Road
11 Countries Crossed
9 Cities Entered
7 Vehicles Broken
6 Driver Groups
4 Football Stadiums Passed
3 Imams Present
2 Sleepless Nights
1 Mission Completed

Best Roads – Luxembourg
Best Food - Pak Foods, Nottingham (ok .... Turkey!)
Easiest Day - Italy
Fastest Country – Germany
Flattest Country – Belgium
Friendliest Country - Iran
Hottest Country - Pakistan
Longest Day- Iran
Most Amazing Landscapes – Turkey
Most Boring Country – Belgium
Most Diverse Country – Turkey
Most Fun Driving in – Greece
Shortest Country Visit – France
Wettest Country – Austria

Best Moment – Crossing the border into Pakistan