Cambridge RAG Jailbreak: Top tips

There are just a few days left to sign up for RAG Jailbreak, the wacky, one-off Cambridge charity event in which you have to try and get as far as you can from the university in 36 hours, using none of your own money:

Check it out here!

Here are some pearls of wisdom to guide you on your attempted escape:

Don’t wear chinos:

In 2012, Zammin and Cameron raised £400 in Cambridge before getting a train to London. They planned on heading to Mayfair where they implemented the ‘Chinos plan’.

They were soon thrown out of the bar for ‘soliciting’ money.

Top tip: wearing chinos will not guarantee you jailbreak success but it will successfully make you look like a moron. Looking like Colonel Mustard isn’t going to help.

Lol we’re posh. Give us money.

Choose who you go with carefully:

If you’re unsure about whether to continue a friendship or relationship with someone, Jailbreak is the ultimate test. Why not take your college husband or wife on an exotic honeymoon?

Don’t forget to pack a condom though… they can hold one litre of water and you don’t want to get thirsty.

Alternatively, achieve real RAG synergy by taking your Blind Date.

The perils of walking:

Nadia and her partner Ollie smugly attempted to walk the mile-long Bosphorus Bridge from Istanbul into Asia.

These conquerors of continental boundaries ended up being stopped by the police, who yelled at them in Turkish and made them take a cab to the other side. Not so smug now.

Fact: significantly larger than the Mathematical Bridge

Yichuan and Aaron however should legitimately be proud of themselves, as they managed to run the 49 miles from Cambridge to Big Ben!

Use the tracking system correctly:

Everybody was surprised that Oliver and Cheng had made it so quickly to Massachusetts in Jialbreak 2013, especially as the tracking system indicated that they had been on the train to Stansted half an hour previously. It turned out they had inputted got the wrong Cambridge.

Caitlin and Rob did a great job of getting their team put up on a billboard in Piccadilly Circus only to get the hashtag completely wrong, meaning that none of the Londoners could donate towards them.

Be Prepared for Sleep Deprivation:

Pete and Aaron won Southampton’s 2014 Jailbreak by getting to Cyprus. However, they were so over-tired that Aaron started hallucinating that their mate Steve had gone with them, and had been kidnapped needing their urgent help.

Sounds like the start of a horror film

Top tip: sleep whenever you can – last year 6 teams ended up in Tenerife and slept on the beach when no hotel would take them.

The perils of hitchhiking:

Way safer back then

When it comes to hitchhiking, you go where they go. Road trips with beer and leather jackets and hot babes pale in comparison to the reality of the social awkwardness of sitting in a stranger’s car for hours on end.

Joseph and Pavlina’s experience demonstrates perfectly the risks and rewards: they got as far as the Czech Republic, but their driver wouldn’t acknowledge any difference between homosexuality and vegetarianism. 

Make friends:

Ben Dalton neatly showed the benefits and drawbacks of hitching when he landed a sweet ride out of Calais only to be accidentally dropped back. He was subsequently forced to spend the night under a motorway bridge then take two hours sleep on the ticket office floor with a lost Slovakian immigrant. At least he made a friend…

There you go! Best of luck, and be sure to check out The Tab’s live feed on the day!

The absolute winners, who made it to Sydney