Cantab charity cyclists held at gunpoint in Turkey

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.

In happier, less life-threatening times on the trip

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.’

On the road. Much field

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.’

Gap yah wankers got nothin’ on these badasses

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.