Around the world in a tuk-tuk
UK-based teachers Rich and Nick travel the world to promote education in a three-wheeler.
It all began seven years ago when the two British teachers, Nick Gough and Rich Sears, dreamt of travelling the world in a tuk-tuk (after seeing them in Thailand on one of their university trips), imparting and promoting education on their way. And, finally, in August last year, they turned this dream into reality when they took off on an ever-evolving journey on a Piaggio Ape.
Having traveled across most parts of Europe and the first to conquer Africa in a rickshaw, the duo has covered approximately 17,000 miles (27,540 km). They are now headed to Mumbai, where they will continue on their journey to the rest of India to explore the various unsung educational projects conducted at the grassroots level.
Childhood friends Rich and Nick grew up with a deep-rooted interest in education and development studies, leading them to take on this long and adventurous journey. “Over 61 million primary-aged children worldwide still lack access to education. Through this initiative, we attempt to travel around the remotest areas of the world that lack education. These visit projects seek to alleviate this problem and talk at various schools and universities about the roadblocks that hamper smooth education and development,” says Rich.
He adds that through the blogs and video documentaries, they post and shoot along the way, they will narrate the inspirational stories of the people they meet and share the valuable work of the NGOs and charities they go to. “This will help us in realising the charitable goals of our educational trust—the Tuk Tuk Educational Trust. Seeing the blogs and videos, our followers can donate directly to any project they wish to help. In this way, we will be giving a voice to these phenomenal projects that are taking place at the grassroots level all across the globe, and we will do our bit to help them get funds,” Rich adds.
The duo has had crazy, engaging experiences in their journey so far, right from being chased by elephants in Africa, camping on a beach in Greece, and waking up to find themselves being swept into the sea by the waves and being arrested in Egypt for allegedly taking pictures of secret military bases and others.
Talking about their encounter with the armed forces in Egypt, Nick laughs, “It took us quite a while to explain to them that if we were spies, we wouldn’t be carrying a camera and travelling in a tuk-tuk. But, on a much more serious note, we faced many obstacles that, if it hadn’t been for our passion for imparting education, we wouldn’t have been able to carry on with this journey.”
The pair visited Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and most parts of Europe in the last eight months. Despite the treacherous terrain, the Piaggio Ape only bore one flat tyre outside Paris and one cracked accelerator cable in Africa.
Having covered two continents already, Rich and Nick have 6,000 km more to set the record of being the first to travel across the globe in a three-wheeler. “We want to set the record so that more and more people get to know the message we are trying to spread,” says Nick. After India, they will be heading to Nepal and Southeast Asia.