A TEAM of adventurers hope to have simplicity on their side as they take their Volkswagen Beetles half way across the world.

Trainee teacher Kay Godfrey, 25, from Swindon and her boyfriend Daniel Bamford, 26, from Anglesey, are taking part in the Mongol Rally 2006.

Their friends Chris Roberts and Neil Jones, also from Wales, are joining them in their challenge.

The four-week long event will push the team dubbed Team Yakatak to their limits driving clapped out cars the 8,000 miles from London to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, crossing five mountain ranges and two deserts.

The team will be using two second-hand Volkswagen Beetles loaded up with their equipment, food, tools and spares. And although the going should be okay for the first few thousand miles, as the teams head further east, the roads will deteriorate.

In fact Mongolia has just 80 miles of paved roads in the whole country, less then Swindon has.

Daniel said: "In this challenge we have to be prepared to lose everything. The further east we go, the worse the roads get and potentially the cars could just shake themselves apart.

"If one breaks down, we won't be able to take all four in one car, but we hope to have simplicity on our side. The Beetle is so common and so simple, we hope that if something goes wrong we can easily repair it."

The team are raising money for two international charities. The first is the Christina Noble Children's Foundation (CNCF), which works with street children in Mongolia while the other is Send a Cow, which works with some of the most vulnerable villages in Africa by providing farmers with livestock training and advice.

But it is CNCF which has moved Kay.

She said: "Mongolia has particularly harsh winters and these children are forced to shelter from the cold under the streets in the city sewers. Some children ask to be put into prison for warmth and food. It's a sad situation for them."

Once in Mongolia, the cars will be auctioned off to raise more funds for charity, but the odds are not favourable.

Of the 43 cars that attempted the journey last year, only 14 made it to the finish in Ulaanbaatar, and one team had to reverse up a mountain as they lost all forward gears.

The team are being sponsored by Swindon-based drainage supplier Drainex and are looking for more local firms able to help out.

To find out more, visit the team's website at www.yakatak.co.uk