Alfie Watts impressed the nation in 2024 when he won Race Across The World with his friend Owen Wood, trekking from northernmost Japan to the Indonesian island of Lombok.
Now, the 22-year-old, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, is about to embark on his latest travel challenge – driving a tuk-tuk from London all the way to Norway to raise £100,000 for YoungMinds, a mental health charity.
The adventure begins on May 24 and will see Alfie travel through 12 different countries across 30 days.
And now, the TV star – who has spent the last 18 months planning the trip – tells the Daily Mail why this challenge is ‘a lot harder’ than the much-loved BBC show.
‘At the end of the day, everything falls on my head,’ Alfie explains. ‘If the project doesn’t work, it falls on my head. If we don’t raise as much money as I want to, nobody’s going to obviously criticise it, but that still falls on my head.’
He admits he feels ‘a lot more responsibility’ this time around.
‘Before I just went – there were camera crews there for me, I wasn’t in charge of them, I wasn’t paying them, I was just there,’ he explains.
‘But this very much feels like I’m owning my own edition of Race Across The World, and liability is mine.’
Race Across The World winner Alfie Watts (pictured) is about to embark on his next travel adventure – driving a tuk-tuk from London to Norway
The TV star’s final destination will be North Cape, in Norway (pictured)
As part of the challenge, Alfie is taking the scenic route from London to Norway in his tuk-tuk, travelling across Germany and Poland, then through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, before heading up through Sweden and Finland to the North Cape.
The journey is ‘about 700 miles longer’ than the most direct route, he says, but will be ‘much more rewarding’.
Alfie hopes to ‘cover as many cultures and many different countries’ as possible, while ‘raising awareness about the ever-present issues around mental health that young people face everyday’.
‘It’s similar to Race Across The World in the sense that I’m going to be going through a lot of countries, moving at quite a heavy speed, talking to people, having deep conversations and things like that,’ he adds.
But there’s no comparison when it comes to cost.
Alfie and Owen were given just £1,390 each to get them all the way from Japan to Lombok during the TV series. ‘We were on a proper budget,’ Alfie says.
His tuk-tuk adventure, however, has come with a ‘bone-shaking’ price tag of £55,000 – far more than the £12,000 he initially expected.
‘It’s a very expensive challenge,’ he admits. ‘Sponsors like eSIM provider Airalo and M&S have been a big help, but it’s still costing us a lot out of our own pockets.
The avid traveller hopes to raise £100,000 for YoungMinds, a mental health charity
He thinks the challenge will be both ‘similar and different’ to his Race Across The World adventure
‘But I see it as an investment. I believe it’s the right thing to do.’
Major expenses include a cameraman, follow car and editor back home. Insuring the tuk-tuk has also proved difficult, with only a handful of companies willing to cover such an unusual vehicle.
That’s perhaps unsurprising, given Alfie describes tuk-tuks as ‘very poorly engineered’ and ‘not very advanced’, with plenty of scope for things to go wrong over the 200-mile-a-day plan.
‘Everything could go wrong,’ he says. ‘The tuk-tuk could break down, I don’t know how many spare parts we’re going to find for a tuk-tuk in Germany!
‘The follow car could break down too. That’s less of a problem, but probably more likely.’
Thankfully, Alfie has taken a crash course in basic repairs.
‘We’ve given ourselves enough time that if something does go wrong and we need a specific part, we can have it shipped to us and still get back on track,’ he says. ‘And while they’re not sophisticated, tuk-tuks are built to keep going – they can travel thousands of miles across India.’
Still, he acknowledges the risks. ‘There could be incidents on the road. We could be pulled over for being too slow. There’s so much that can go wrong.’
Alfie also reveals how the journey will cost a ‘bone-shaking’ £55,000
Ultimately, though, it’s the people he’s most excited about.
‘I can’t wait to walk into a bar in Poland, find someone who speaks English, and have a conversation about how mental health differs from London to wherever we are,’ he says.
Alfie has planned nightly stops, booking accommodation in advance at each stage of the journey.
Once the challenge is complete, the team will tow the tuk-tuk back to the UK.
‘We’ll drive to Norway with a trailer,’ he explains, ‘then fly out additional drivers to bring it home.’
And, with the Race Across The World finale airing on BBC One tonight, Alfie will no doubt be tuning in for inspiration ahead of his own challenge.
He finishes: ‘This has all come from Race Across The World – that wanderlust, that desire to travel and to believe in what we’re doing. It all stemmed from the show.’
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