TWO Jersey adventurers have arrived in the land of Borat.

Paul Doublet and Tony Scriven might not be wearing ‘mankinis’, but they are going to turn heads in their rather unusual choice of long-distance transportation.

They last posted an update on their progress in the London to Mongolia banger rally from deepest, darkest Kazakhstan. The pair, who make up the Jersey team Band of Brother-in-Laws, are competing in an old Daihatsu charade.

The rules of the longest banger rally in the world state that teams must drive a car of less than 1,000cc across the world. They can take any route they like and the crazier the motor, the better. The pair left Jersey by ferry on 18 July and travelled to Hyde Park, where the rally began the following day. Everything was going well until they hit Poland and a temporary hitch stopped them in their tracks.

‘Now in three-star hotel,’ they wrote in their blog. ‘Will look at it in the morning (what a shame). Nice shower, oh! The problem is a fuel blockage.’

They were back on the road again very quickly and the joy was evident in their next posting. It read: ‘Yippee! We’ve just completed 2,000 miles. Have left Kiev, heading to Xapkib. Making good, steady progress within speed limit now. Will be camping tonight in one of Ukraine’s national parks with team Starlet Enterprise. Thirty degrees today and very warm.’

Then things started to get interesting and the realisation that they were heading into some cowboy states really hit home.

‘En route to Kiev, we managed to get stopped by the local police for speeding – apparently,’ the boys reported. ‘They wanted to take us to the local police station, but after mentioning that we had some fine Scottish whisky on board we managed to kiss and make up. Didn’t realise how easy it was to bribe the local constabulary. They even posed for a photo -– bless.’

Then, days later: ‘Stopped again by road safety police. Just changed driving with Tony, so he was called into the office to check papers. No offence committed, but they still wanted 20 dollars. Tony said ten. They said that we would not proceed without paying, so Tony said, “Okay, I’ll stay put”. As they’re lazy so-and-sos, they soon agreed to the ten dollars as they would have had to process paperwork. This is becoming a habit. Can’t wait to get shot of the place!’

Before setting out, the lads said that they planned to travel through Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Russia and then Mongolia. They anticipated that the 10,000-mile odyssey would take around three and a half weeks.

While they are in Kazakhstan the boys intend to head to the Aral Sea. ‘It’s basically a massive dried-up sea,’ explained Paul. ‘You come across boats that are just rusty hulks. Where there used to be water there is just nothing. The boats are just sitting on sand. It is supposed to be an amazing place to visit.’

• More information about the boys and the rally can be found at www.willwemakeit.com/band_of_brother_in_laws.

• Picture: Paul and Tony in optimistic mood at the start in London