That was what laid ahead of more than 300 people when they departed the Dubbo Showground on Saturday, embarking on the 2017 Mystery Box Rally.

The Mystery Box Rally is the little sibling of the much better-known Shitbox Rally, but the premise is the same. Entrants are raising as much money as they can by taking old vehicles to far-flung places.

But the main difference lies in the ‘mystery’ element of the rally.

Just minutes prior to leaving, the entrants were told their first stop off point would be the tiny town of Tilpa.

And that was as much as they knew about what laid ahead of them.

“We don’t tell them where they are going until the day they’re going there, which makes it a lot of fun,” organiser James Freeman said.

“Each day is a mystery for the people taking part, but for us it has been carefully planned for a long time and a lot of work done with the various communities that we will be visiting.”

The rally is the small brother of the infamous Shitbox Rally, and over the past eight years about $13 million has been raised for the Cancer Council.

The target for the five-day Mystery Box Rally is $700,000, with the cause one that is close to many including the organiser himself.

“I lost both my parents to cancer within about 12 months of each other, and a lot of the people involved in this rally have been in a similar situation unfortunately.”

The Mystery Box Rally will culminate on Wednesday, when the 150 vehicles return to Dubbo and the entrants get together for one last night together.