FORMER Oxford Mail journalist David Treanor braved searing heat and freezing temperatures on an 8,000-mile drive to raise money for street children.

Mr Treanor raised more than £3,000 for Save the Children on the charity road trip to Mongolia.

On the five-week journey, Mr Treanor, 56, and friend Geoff Stayton had to negotiate mudslides in Kazakhstan, snowstorms in Siberia, and thousands of miles of rough mountain tracks before crossing the Gobi Desert.

Mr Treanor and Mr Stayton were both news editors in the BBC Radio news room at Television Centre in London until they took early retirement two years ago.

Mr Treanor used to work for the Oxford Mail in the 1970s.

They raised almost £3,000 for the charity before they set off and another £500 on the trip itself.

Once they reached the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, their van, a 1999 Nissan Terrano once owned by Anglian Water, was sold to a mining company, raising more money for charity.

The pair covered all the costs of the trip themselves.

Mr Treanor, who lives in Great Milton, near Thame, said: “Some of the worst conditions were in Kazakhstan where it had been raining hard and the roads were littered with abandoned lorries.

“When the locals give up, you know things are bad.

“Once over the border into Mongolia, maps show a nice red road leading all the way to the capital, 1,000 miles away.

“This is the greatest lie in the history of cartography.

“There are just rough tracks almost all the way. It’s been described quite fairly as the worst road in the world.

“The van kept on going despite damaged suspension, while we kept going on boil-in-the-bag curry and beer.”

Mr Treanor has now written a book about the trip called Mission Mongolia: Two men, One Van, No Turning Back, which is released in July.

He said: “As well as the natural hazards, we faced some human ones, crooked cops and bent border guards, but also found kindness from local people along the way.

“Our worst moment was probably at the Mongolian border at Tsagaanuur when the van was impounded in a row about import duty.

“It’s a desolate moutainous place and it was well below freezing and snowing hard.

“But thanks to a helpful man from Mongolian intelligence we found a mud brick shack to stay in which was kept warm by a yak dung fire.

“But I’m afraid we dodged their offer of a meal of goats’ testicles.

“The best times were the nights we spent in the Gobi Desert.

“We’re not used to such space and emptiness, huge horizons and total quiet.”

Father-of-two Mr Treanor and Mr Stayton completed the trip last summer.

Mr Treanor added: “As the memories of the hardships fade, the prospect of going on another trip like this seems quite attractive.

“The money we raised is helping Save the Children to rescue street children from Ulaanbaatar from the terribly cold winter.

“They provide basic education and somewhere for them to shelter.”

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk