The Tab, 21 Nov 2014

Online article (pasted below) at http://cambridge.tab.co.uk/2014/11/21/cantab-charity-cyclists-held-gunpoint-turkey/

Cantab charity cyclists held at gunpoint in Turkey

21st November 2014

by Anna Magee & Vica Germanova

Nick Codrington and Laurence Gribble survived being held at gunpoint during their charity cycle from London to Hong Kong.

Two Cambridge Chinese Studies students cycling 15,000km from London to Hong Kong to raise £15k for charity have reported being held at gunpoint in Turkey.

Nick Codrington, Christ’s, and Laurence Gribble, Trinity, wrote on their blog about being confronted by two men pointing hunting rifles at their chests after spending a night on private land.

Codrington wrote, ‘They didn’t seem hugely amused to be finding a foreigner in nothing but a dirty fleece and boxers in their field.’

Unperturbed, Codrington’s initial response to the trigger-happy Turks was ‘Arkadash’ – the Turkish word for for ‘Add Friend’ on Facebook.

‘[It’s] something we’ve been doing a lot of recently as we’ve met keen and friendly Turkish hosts. Thank you Facebook, I had time to think to myself.’

Supposedly, the subsequent, garbled mentions of ‘bicycle’, ‘charity’, ‘student’, ‘no problem’ and the clincher – ‘Manchester United’ – in Turkish got the boys off the hook.

The pair’s ‘Journey to the East‘ has raised £6,000 for Prostate Cancer UK so far, with a target of £15,000 before reaching their final destination, Hong Kong.

In the words of one Emmanuel economist, the experience was ‘more like gap yah harm than gap yah garm.

In spite of their bravery, a second year Johnian remarked, ‘One could raise that amount from RAG HQ from Daddy. Bullets don’t encourage charity the same way as paternal love.’ Typical of John’s.

If you have slightly more morals and slightly less cuntishness than the aforementioned Johnian, you can donate to the fearless travellers’ cause on their JustGiving page.