TWO former Knox Academy pupils are getting ready to leave East Lothian’s roads behind for a trip across 19 countries.

Stephen Barcroft and Chris Crawford, also known as ‘The Gingerbread Men’, will swap the A1 for roads through not only England and France but also Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as part of the Mongol Rally.

The man behind the adventure is Stephen, who spotted it online more than three years ago.

The duo will wave farewell to their Haddington and Dunbar homes today (Friday) in a beast fit for the mammoth drive.

Chris, from Wilson Place, Dunbar, said: “We’ve got a Peugeot 107, which is just under one-litre.

“It’s brilliant and in a good condition.

“We actually got it free through SMA Vehicle Remarketing, who do car auctions.

“They have got their logo all over it and it has only done about 6,900 miles.” The duo were making minor changes, with the back seats potentially removed to store camping equipment, while installing rally tyres was also considered The duo leave East Lothian today before taking part in the official launch in London’s Hyde Park two days later.

From there, roughly, the route could see them head through England, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Germany and Austria are next on the list before moving on to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Turkey will be the final stop in Europe before heading into Asia and Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally into Mongolia and the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Stephen, who will return from the trip to go into his final year of a civil engineering course at Glasgow University, was looking forward to the journey.

He said: “It’s one last blow out before branching out into the working world.” Then, when they reach the capital, it is a case of turning round and making their way back to home shores.

Chris said: “It depends on the car but if we can drive it back then that is the cheapest option.

“If not, we would need to get it shipped back to somewhere.” Already, they have surpassed the £1,000 fundraising target.

Money in the event is split between Macmillan Cancer Support and Cool Earth.

Cool Earth is committed to the protection of the rainforests through securing land that would be destroyed by logging within 18 months and was chosen by the event organisers.

Meanwhile, Chris and Stephen chose Macmillan after Chris’ grandfather was diagnosed with bladder cancer last year.

And with the start upon them, they have finally got their hands on the machine that will propel them more than 1,000 miles across the globe To make a donation, go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/gingerbreadmenrally