An Irvine man driving a Highland Cow car to Mongolia is back on the road after border bother in Azerbaijan.

After a near seamless trip travelling through Europe, Turkey and Georgia, Graeme Donohoe eventually ran into bother in Azerbaijan after a visa mix-up with his co-driver.

The former Greenwood pupil – and son of former MP Brian – is driving a tiny Ford Fiesta called Morag, kitted out like a four-wheeled Highland Cow, from Scotland to Mongolia to raise money for the Race Against Dementia charity.

When contacted by the Irvine Times, Graeme said: “You phoned at the right time, it’s going a wee bit pear shaped!

“My co-driver for Baku to Mongol Jasper Bundy is having a few visa issues, so wasn’t able to get into Baku on Saturday.

“He’s got his letter of invitation and transit visa but supposedly you’re needing a tourist visa. So we’re going to need to wait and see what happens.

“He might have to act really dumb, which probably won’t be too hard for him.“

“I’m stuck at a ferry terminal with no timetable and the ferry will just comes when it comes – so that’s great fun.

“They do say the motto of the rally is ‘if nothing goes wrong everything’s gone wrong’. So this is certainly our big challenge.

Fortunately, just before we went to press, Graeme tweeted: “Good news after a couple of bad days. Jasper made it into Turkmenistan after Azerbaijan visa cock-up!

“I’m now sweating on catching the world’s most erratic ferry service from Baku to pick Jasper up before his five day visa expires.”

His Justgiving page for his charity challenge has now reached more then £3,000.

He added: “It’s been going great. We’ve been getting a great reaction in the car.

“We’ve been getting repetitive strain injury from waving at folk and sticking the thumbs up. 

“It’s like riding in the Popemobile, everyone waving at you.

“It’s funny when you rock up to various landmarks in Europe and Central Asia and Morag the cow car gets all the attention. Folk snapping away while there stood next some of the world’s most famous landmarks but just interested in Morag.

“But it has been really entertaining - until that revelation.“

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/MongolRally-RaceAgainstDementia