Students overcome being held at gunpoint to reach halfway on cycle to Hong Kong

Having been held at gunpoint in Turkey and deported from Azerbaijan, two Cambridge University have reached the halfway point in their ride to Hong Kong.

Nick Codrington and Laurence Gribble set off from London on July 10 and hope to reach their destination in March 2015, but the journey has not passed without incident.

“There’s nothing quite like having a rifle pointed at you to make you think on your feet,” Codrington wrote of the incident in Turkey on the trip’s blog. “I found myself looking up at two men on either side of their blinding tractor, each with hunting rifles aimed at my chest. They didn’t seem hugely amused to be finding a foreigner in nothing but a dirty fleece and boxers in their field.

“I gulped and waited for it to come up with ideas, and sure enough it did, producing the word “Arcadash” which I promptly blurted out, hands in the air lit up by the tractor like a scene in some bad spy film. “Arcadash” is the Turkish word for “Add Friend” on Facebook… Thank you Facebook, I had time to think to myself. Who said you were a waste of time? Then I stood still again, hoping these particular two would catch my gist.”

Codrington’s father Richard told the Cambridge News that despite the hairy moments, the overwhelming reaction to the duo’s trip is that of generosity.

“It's certainly an adventure and they have had all sorts of experiences so far,” he said.

“The main thing is that they have encountered such generosity along the way which is quite astonishing.

“People are even more supportive when they find out they are doing this for a good cause as well.”

Codrington and Gribble are set to tackle the deserts of Uzbekistan before moving on to Tajikistan, where temperatures can get as low as minus 30 celsius.

The pair have raised £6,000 for Prostate Cancer UK so far, with a target of £15,000 by the time they reach Hong Kong. You can find their Just Giving page here.

Source: Cambridge News

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