Keen travellers gather around. This year’s Jailbreak is almost upon us – so this means it’s time to hitch-hike and raise some money for charity! And guess what, collegiettes? This is the first year RAG is allowing all female teams. Talk about girl power, right?
Jailbreak is a hitch-hiking challenge run by Exeter RAG. Students have 36 hours to travel as far away from Exeter as they can without spending any money on travel. Last year saw 68 teams travelling as far as Turkey and Lanzarote, with the winning team reaching Cyprus, all whilst raising thousands for charity. Previous teams, from other UK universities, have made it as far as Singapore, Australia and Florida, but so far no Exeter team has made it out of Europe. Maybe 2016 is the year? Watch this space, girls.
This year Jailbreak will be taking place on Friday 26th of February, with teams heading out at 10:30 a.m from the Forum. The sign up fee is just £20 and this covers worldwide travel insurance, a Jailbreak t-shirt, the infamous green foam thumb, a disposable camera (to record some awesome memories) and a support/tracking system back in Exeter HQ. Each individual participant also has to raise at least £100 for RAG’s chosen local charities: Exeter Leukaemia Fund, St Loye’s Foundation and Exeter Student Volunteers.
To give you more of personal insight into what Jailbreak’s like, we spoke to second year PPE student, Peter Gillibrand, about his Jailbreak experience last year, and how he’s going to improve this year…
So, tell us about your last Jailbreak experience. How far did you end up reaching?
We ended up getting to Cologne, which was amazing considering that we were stuck in the Dover services for a good 12 hours! It was all luck really! We were only going to get to France, but in the last 5 hours we found a nice British Marine on the ferry that was keen to take us all the way up to Germany, as there was an army barracks in Paderborn. Cologne is beautiful. Hopefully we’ll get further this year though!
Any funny stories to tell?
I had 2 female team mates with me and within those 12 hours, this random middle aged Indian guy tried it on with both of them and Sophie gave her number to him for banter… He kept texting her all the way until the end of the 30 hours!
And finally, what are your top 5 tips for newcomers taking part in Jailbreak this year?
1. Sign up as soon as possible! This year it is set to be bigger than ever and RAG only has a limited number of places. Many people were disappointed last year and it’s an amazing experience.
2. Plan your escape. Have a solid team meeting before embarking on the quest to try and have a firm and solid plan to get to where you want to. This could include trying the train station as soon as you set off, or going straight to hitchiking up to Bristol. The first hours are the most important!
3. Wear something funny, yet serious at the same time. Last year, my teammates made me wear a care bear outfit with the Jailbreak t-shirt on. People came up to us to ask what it was for and in the end we managed to get a lift by a lovely church union to Bristol. You don’t want to look too serious – it’s for charity!
4. Never give up. This is very cheesy, yet morale needs to be high to achieve amazing results! Think of all the people you’re helping through RAG. People generally respond greater to happier, and enthusiastic people. We even managed to keep in contact with a few of the drivers we had lifts with over the following few weeks.
5. Don’t be too scared of hitch-hiking. It might seem hard and unsafe, yet it really is quite easy. You get to decide who you go with so make sure you choose wisely – don’t end up with a creepy lorry driver! You have full control of where you go through asking people at services. Also, try not to go into cities as it is certainly hard to get out (especially London!) Only go to an airport if you’re certain of a flight, through fundraising or contacting people. Because of the recent immigrant crises border control is super tight.
So girls, what are you waiting for? Find out more about how you can participate in Exeter Jailbreak 2016 either through RAG’s Facebook page or the Facebook event page!