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‘We seemed immature on Race Across The World but now fans see who we are’
Alfie and Owen share their experiences of Race Across The World
Race Across The World’s best friends Alfie and Owen are the youngest team on the show. They won over viewers at home after the emotional third episode which saw Alfie light a lantern as a special tribute to remember his late mum in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Alfie and Owen share their experiences of filming Race Across The World with Yahoo.
Twitter was an interesting read after episode one of Race Across The World. It was quite entertaining.
We’ve had a shift certainly in terms of public reaction from episode one to episode three that comes down to how we came across in episode one as very standard, immature, young guys. As time developed, we've added some context. People are starting to see a little bit more of who we are which is really nice as well because it does encapsulate our journey quite well.
On Wednesday, Alfie was recognised four times at work in one morning. We are just guys who have been travelling for eight weeks.
We didn't find this out to the reunion but Stephen and Viv were doing hikes, Eugenie and Isabel were learning languages to prepare. We didn't do anything. All we did was guess where we thought we were going to be going.
Betty and James were the ones we thought instantly were gonna be hot on our trail. Then all of a sudden, Eugene and Isabel were on our backs for the entire thing. It was unexpected.
Race Across The World was bloody hard! You really don't get a sense of how tough Race Across The World is just by watching it on TV. They only show when something goes right. So it looks like we've gone up to the first person we've seen and asked for help, [and] they've been able to help when in fact we've spent an hour or two hours before that asking 20 other people who haven't been able to help us.
So it makes it look like a lot of it goes our way. The amount of effort that goes in behind the scenes really doesn't get portrayed on the show which is quite frustrating because you put all that work in and then they only show the good bit.
Getting help from strangers was rewarding more than anything else. When you've asked so many different people and then one person is really willing to help. People are so much more willing to help than you would think, even though they don't know you and you can't offer them anything.
It was a no-brainer decision to do the race together. We have travelled quite a bit together before and we just happened to be with each other at the time of applying. We know each other inside out and it was really helpful because in leg one, as you saw, it was a bit ropey at times.
But we got our heads together at checkpoint one and decided that we were going to be a lot more organised going forward. That was the main testing point. We had a conversation to remember the reasons that we were here on the race.
Episode two and three was certainly a lot more how we wanted the race to go than leg one was. We balanced the experience with wanting to win and we put ourselves in a great position ahead of the rest of the race.
The toughest thing we faced along the way?
For me, Alfie, certainly more than Owen, missing my phone was tough. The worst part is genuinely the boredom. What you are seeing is great but when you’re travelling overnight on a bus and you’ve got nothing but an MP3 player, it’s quite boring. But the boredom is outweighed by the amazing things that you see and being able to get the opportunity to do Race Across The World.
For me, Owen, the lack of food was tough. You’ve got to suck it up and get on with it. Especially in countries like Japan and South Korea where the food looks really nice and it smells really nice. You’ve got to walk past it, instead buy a loaf of bread and cheese slices from the supermarket because it’s the cheapest, most sustainable option.
Naturally as the race progressed, we had our ups and downs in terms of our friendship but it was never tested. We went in as best friends and we wanted to come out as best friends. We didn’t go into the race needing to learn anything about each other — we already know everything. We’re best mates. Our friendship is pretty much exactly the same as it was before the race.
Alfie is the quick thinker out of the two of us. So when we needed to make a split decision, it was his strong point. There's a big decision in episode four (which you have to tune in to find out about) but we probably spend three hours talking about it. It is Owen's rational thinking that helps us come up with a decision.
Watching it back now, we're doing better with the budget than we thought at the time. The budget was a constant overhanging cloud. Jobs were the ideal scenario because you've got to experience something and you earn money at the same time. Countless times we are asked, would you rather have a really good experience or win? For me, Owen, it was always experience. And for me, Alfie, it was always winning.
You can never do Race Across The World again. As painful as it was at times, it was the experience of a lifetime because it can't be recreated. That's what made it so special and makes it so special to look back on for us.
For those taking part next year, take a calculator and make sure your watch works. Think outside the box. You forget when we do maths at home, we swipe down on our phone and the calculators there. A calculator would have been really helpful.
And don’t lose the map. Although to be fair, we adapted pretty quickly. In the moment it felt like the end of the race… But it was not race-defining at all.
Alfie and Owen told their story to Lily Waddell.
