Kathmandu

Cycling is not only fun but also good for your health. This exciting sport can also be more than that — three British boys Rory Buckworth, Philip Hunter and Sam Day have just proven this by choosing cycling as a medium to raise money for a charitable cause.

Covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km on their bikes, the three friends arrived in the Capital on June 18. With an aim to raise funds to build a home for Nepali children who have been trafficked, the graduates of the Newcastle University, UK started on their bike journey from Shanghai, China on February 7. Cycling through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and India, they arrived in Nepal, their last destination.

“We wanted to do something fun, adventurous and remarkable after our graduation,” shared Hunter. And their adventure got a meaning with this drive. He added, “Nepal was devastated after the April 25 earthquake and many children have been fleeing to India in search of work and for a better life. As we came to know about Chora Chori Nepal, a charity rescuing Nepal’s displaced and trafficked children from India, we wanted to help them. To provide shelter for such trafficked children, we are constructing a home.”

Before setting off on this journey, they worked in England and saved their university allowances for their “dream project”. “When we felt that the money was enough to travel and for charity, we started on our journey. We also collected money from people in England,” Buckworth revealed.

The journey from England would be too long. As they were going to explore Asian countries, they started cycling from China. Everyday they would cycle for eight hours despite difficult roads. “We reached villages in our journey, but the roads there weren’t in a good condition,” informed Day. They kept moving ahead despite the challenges they faced in various places.

Lots of adventure were in store for them, from challenging roads to injuries to broken cycles. “Myanmar is very hot and  the roads in Nepal are very challenging,” shared Buckworth. He injured his knee while in India so he had to “return to my home in Hertford, England to get an injection, before resuming my journey”. And his cellphone was stolen too “though I managed to get it back later”. Many times the parts of the bicycles were broken and they were forced to camp at places where there were no hotels. Language was another problem for these cyclists. “When the language you speak doesn’t work, you try to communicate via your body language. But in China even the body language didn’t work. So, we would just point at the things we needed, and people would give them to us,” recalled Hunter.

And they raised funds wherever they went. “People donated money in our website when we shared about our fundraising effort,” Buckworth said. Their targeted amount is £50,000 and they had collected £36,733 till June 19. As per him, they are donating all of the proceeds to the construction of the home which will start from September. If you want to help them, visit takingthehighroad.co.uk