Could you do Race Across the World?

[Probablywont]

I have just watched last night’s episode and thought with all the waiting around, bus journeys, heat, lack of proper food, little money, stress of racing, no proper rest/sleep I don’t think I could do it.

I love seeing all the different countries and locations they visit but I could only do that if I was younger, say early 20s, I could have coped with the discomfort then maybe but not any more!

Absolutely. I started solo backpacking when I was 50ish (maybe 15/16 years ago?) before smartphones, armed just with lonely planet guidebooks and their maps. I've taken all sorts of primitive, unreliable and uncomfortable forms of transport.

Obviously I've got lazier and more dependent on internet access since then, but I have a friend who takes similar trips, and I reckon (as long as we didn't fall out) we'd manage it. It's the time limitations and race element that might cause us to kill each other though. I'm very time conscious, my friend very much not!

I'd love to do it. I don't like coach rides but I'd suck it up to win. I'd only do it with my husband tho.

No. I said as much to my kids when I got out of breath running up the escalator and through the terminal to get to our gate at the airport. Thankfully the flight was delayed (5 hours). 😀

Love to but I have IBS at the best of times and I can’t imagine that working.

Type 2 fun.

I bet the memories looking back would be incredible and so funny, but I'd be surprised if my husband & I didn't kill each other while doing it.

We recently did an hour long cycle in the pouring rain and I was grouchy enough after that, never mind days of it!

id love to do it. I did backpacking with just a lonely planet guide in the early 2000s. The race element would be stressful! my DH hasn't travelled much but i think he would be great, very good map skills

we're taking our tweens/kids on a trip around malyasia, thailand and Cambodia next year. backpacking style!

I like my dp's idea of just staying in the check point hotels.

Yes, as long as I can do it from my sofa 🤣

I'd love it. I saw the first series and thought it looked a lot easier than when I backpacked across Central Asia 20 years ago (also without smartphones and credit cards). The light on the trains worked and there were no cockroaches on the walls. Luxury!

Agree I'd be straight down the bookshop to buy a Lonely Planet, they tell you all the info about busses, prices etc (at least they did back in the day)

However in reality you'd have a film crew with you, wouldn't you? Which would somewhat spoil it.

Agree I'd be straight down the bookshop to buy a Lonely Planet, they tell you all the info about busses, prices etc (at least they did back in the day)

I wish. They're rubbish now. Nowhere near the amount of practical info that they used to have.

I'd be tempted to cash a chunk of my money and buy a v v cheap car and just drive to whether I needed to go.

Yes! I love it and would love to do it. I did some back packing and part of the challenge was to spend as little Money as possible.

I did some mammoth overland journeys but we were not in a hurry - that part I might hard

Good grief no. IRL you'd get really lost, mugged, dysentry, disappear, the list is endless.

I'd HATE to do it. I love watching it. But imagine going to all these amazing countries and instead of being able to enjoy them and explore them you just have to spend hours on hot sweaty buses and sleep in cheap hostels.

Oh give over. Loads of us do independent backpacking trips like that. The only difference is that we're not competing with anyone, or trying to do it as fast as we can.

The pleasure in it is being off the beaten track, navigating local customs and basic forms of transport, and trying to find accommodation.

In 16 or 17 years of travelling on my own this way in Africa and Asia, none of those things have happened to me. There've been adventures, madness and mishaps, but that's part of the experience.

Tongue in cheek. But I do prefer 5* travel 😀

Ha! I'll save 5* for when I can't carry a backpack any more. Hell, I might even take a cruise! (Though I have to say that's unlikely... Maybe a coach trip!)

In fairness they do have a camera crew with them, you’d have to be a pretty tenacious serial killer.

all the waiting around, bus journeys, heat, lack of proper food, little money, stress of racing, no proper rest/sleep

I could do all of that easily EXCEPT the actual racing part as I’m old, fat and unfit. Can cope easily with shit transport, heat, lack of food and money, lack of sleep (although I can sleep in literally any situation, I’d sleep directly next to a brass band if that was the opportunity for sleep). But, no way could I get physical speed on.

DH and I try and work out how long it would be before we got divorced! He would love to do it, me not so much! I would love to see some of the places they visit, but would need to be teleported there and have a clean fully functioning toilet 😀

I've done a lot of independent travelling...and only once had a bad experience due to another person being threatening. I've taken taxis across deserts, hitch hiked, sleeper trains across continents, ended up sleeping outside a hostel in the middle of rural china as they'd shut up for the night...caught endless night buses and ferries...

But at the age of 56 would I do this with bugger all money and a time pressure and my husband...hell no.

I could have till I was about 50 but my back couldn’t cope with the sleeping and bag carrying now unfortunately as I have a congenital issue that worsens with age and have to be very careful.

I'd like to think l could, did backpacking long before mobile phones or Internet around, in the 80's. In reality my knees and back would probably give in and l would be a grumpy old lady.

I could do it with the safety net of the TV cameras in case it all goes tits up.
On my own, Id need to have someone very cool and calm to take charge. I’d be freaking out about lack of planning before we’d even got off the plane.