England

After 8 weeks, about 8,000 miles, 287hrs, 15mins actual travelling time, 1 boat, 8 buses, 3 pick-up trucks, 11 trains and 12 completed challenges later, I finally make it home to England. It’s great to be back! I haven’t been home in almost 3 and a half years, mainly working in Thailand in that time but also travelling a fair and not just on this trip.

I hoped as a Grande finale to the trip to break a world record. This would hopefully give much needed publicity to this trip and therefore to the reason why Dragonfly did all this, the children affected by the tsunami, still so much in need of our help even after nearly 2 years. Unfortunately trying to organise 1000 people to attempt the World’s Largest Wheel Barrow race hasn’t been as easy as I’d hoped. Not because we couldn’t find the people but instead finding a suitable venue. We will still be attempting the record, sometime in the New Year most likely.

I have been in England for almost a month and away from my work for over 3 so it’s time to pack my bags and get back to my new home, Thailand. Once arrangements have been made I will come back to attempt the record, or perhaps we may attempt it in Thailand.

I would just like to say a massive thank you to all of you that supported this trip. Many people gave up their time, and effort to help us. Lots of money has been raised so far, just over £4000. I know that we will raise the rest with your support.

Thank You.

France (click for video)

This is the last country of the 12 in which I was challenged to do a task. I must appear on French TV somehow, not easy with the limited time I have and, my even more limited French. My plan up until the day before I arrive is to first go to a major football match and get on camera somehow, perhaps by using the very British peculiarity of streaking across the pitch. Plan B is to try and get into a TV studio by getting into the audience and then drawing attention to myself somehow. The potential problems are fairly obvious, plan A means I may well get arrested by French police believing I'm an English football hooligan, where as plan B, unless I get on a live show they can just edit me out.

Once again fate is kind to me. The evening before I’m due to leave Belgium for France I’m informed of an Indian festival that’s due to start the day I arrive. There will be TV cameras everywhere, as it’s going to be a huge event. The festival is being held in Lille, which is pretty handy as it means I can travel in relative luxury for the first time on my trip on the eurostar direct to London.

When I arrive at Lille train station I can see immediately that I have been well informed. Lining the main street are 10 giant ornately decorated elephants, several huge stages and, most importantly, loads of TV cameras. After wandering around for a while looking for a friendly face I notice a cameraman plus his assistant filming the crowd for his network. He readily agrees to film me in the middle of the crowd, while his assistant films me with my camcorder.

They explain that they are getting footage that will be used on local TV and, National networks but can’t guarantee if I’ll make it on or not. He gives me a name and address that I can send a request for the footage of me, whether I’ll get it or not, he’s not sure. He promises to try and get that particular piece on for me but for now you can see the footage taken by his assistant if you click the link.

Next stop, home!

Holland (click here for video)

This is one of the more stupid tasks I've been set. Go-cart down the highest point in Holland with wheels made of cheese. You may be thinking to yourself there is no highest point in Holland, it's flat as a pancake. But you couldn't be more wrong, Vaalsberg is a terrifying 325metres tall, compare that to the mere 9000metres of everest. You may also be thinking to yourself how is this quite tall and rather portly chap going to be supported by cheese?

After wasting a couple of perfectly good Gouda cheeses I decided to use a little license to get going. My friend Yan in Belgium had supplied me with some wheelbarrow wheels which after weighing up not getting going at all or cheating slightly I decided that I could quite reasonably attach the cheese to the outside of the wheels. This would at least give the appearance of having cheese wheels.

Not the most spectacular or highspeed go-cart run but could still quite possibly be a contender for the land cheese speed record.

Belgium (click here for the video)

I'm now in Antwerp, with my good friends Yan and Jane for probably the most difficult, technically, challenge. Walking on water isn't something people do very often for obvious reasons so it should be interesting to see how I manage this one.

I have a few days to prepare for this task as Yan, Jane and Yan's brother Edo have organised a benefit party for this weekend. They have arranged an outdoor venue near a lake so I can make my attempt sometime during the party. There will be between 8 - 10 bands, a magician, full bar, food, and a huge sound system to help encourage everyone to spend lots of money, thus earning lots of money for the children in Thailand.

It's been amazing to see just how much time and effort they have put into organising this event. I can't thank everyone enough for their kindness, all performers donated their time for free. The party in the end raised 887 pounds, which is incredible, a big step towards the final amount.

As far as the challenge goes, take a look at the video to see how I managed it.

So, I'd just like to thank everyone that donated time, money and effort to raising money and helping with the challenge, especially Yan, Edo and Jane - THANK YOU!!!!!!

Germany (click here for the video)

The challenge for Germany was quite an interesting one, "get photographed with someone famous". Now we all know that celebrities love nothing more than having some complete stranger throw their face towards theirs and going click with the camera. Trouble is, finding one when you need to.

I decided that being a footie fan I´d try my luck down in Munich, home of Germany´s most famous club, Bayern. Just before leaving though I heard from a fellow traveler that the Oktoberfest was on as well. For all non-beer drinkers out there, Oktoberfest is one of the largest festivals in the world, not only that, it is solely about drinking beer, great big steins of the stuff. I can honestly say I had no idea it would be on, as you would imagine it would happen in October, but no, it was brought forward a few years ago because of the cold weather and now starts early September and finishes around the 4th of October. Fantastic!!

This proved to be a welcome distraction as my planning for this one let me down badly. I arrived on Tuesday as was due to leave Thursday, unfortunately Bayern were on their way to Italy to play Inter in the champions league, and wouldn´t be back until Friday. Even then they would be having a closed training session, Saturday they would be playing and Sunday resting, so no access.

I put my departure back a day to give me a little more time to come up with a plan. I visited the training ground twice, first time to check it out and the second time on the Friday I was leaving to see if I could get into the closed training session some how. The security I must say seemed a little over the top, three times I was thrown out of the grounds. Each time the guards getting a little bit more angry.

I noticed a creepy looking little guy with a folder, he kept watching to see what I was up to. So I decided to see what he was up to, as he certainly didn´t work there. It turns out he was a major fan, he had posters, cards, pictures of the players and match day programs all covered in signatures. I asked if he spoke English, obviously not, judging by his response but I thought this guy could be useful so I´d better keep an eye on him.

And true enough at some unseen signal he took off, so I followed from a distance. He went to a little fence hidden around a corner, and after not 10mins a flashy car pulls up and out pops Oliver Kahn, the goalkeeper for Germany, followed shortly by Roque Santa Cruz, forward from Paraguay, Andreas Ottl, midfield Germany, and someone I´m not quite sure who they are (sorry I´m sure you´re very famous too).

So a big cheer for creepy guy, and the players at Bayern Munich for letting me shove my head at theirs and going click. 9 for 9.

Poland (click here for the video)

It wasn´t a challenge as such in Poland, instead I was asked to visit and lay flowers at Auschwitz. Auschwitz is a place most of us are aware of, it was after all the scene of one of the most brutal and insane chapters in human history.

I decided to take a tour as I wanted a guide to give me more of an insight into the place, then perhaps I would have got visiting by myself. On the bus from Krakow to Auschwitz we were shown a disturbing 50min documentary that included original footage taken by Russian cameramen when the camp was finally liberated by the the Red army.

It´s very difficult to describe what happened to the victims in a few short paragraphs. So I would recommend anyone that has the chance to go there and see for themselves. It`s also worth looking into finding books on the subject. It shows how easily people can change into something, and do things they wouldn´t believe possible of themselves.

Even though this happened 60 or so years ago, that´s actually frighteningly recent. It shows that unless we ourselves guard against this kind of thing it could happen again. As it already has in Rwanda, East Timor and the old Yugoslavia and many other places besides.