How Race Across the World winners Caroline and Tom are spending £20k prize money
Race Across the World's series five winners Caroline and Tom are going to enjoy spending their £20,000 winnings.
Forget luxury hotels and first class travel, after racing from China to Nepal and India, the champions have got the bug for travelling. But the mother and son are planning to do things differently. Now they will do Race Across the World again, this time in Kazakhstan with their heavy rucksacks, but with their phones and without the Studio Lambert camera crew.
Adventurous Tom, 21, tells Yahoo UK they want to "just be free" and Caroline, 61, says they want to be like "proper travellers" again.
As well as getting on the road again, Tom is going to use the money to set up his business Rugga Rural. The entrepreneur is working on a special deal with Mr Chhotaram, the Indian man who he worked for on race making rugs. Tom will sell the special rugs handmade in India in the UK and give some of the money back.
Mother and son Caroline and Tom sat down with Yahoo UK in an exclusive winners interview where they shared their exciting plans for the £20,000 prize money.
Caroline tells Yahoo UK: "I can't find [Kazakhstan] on a map, neither of us can... So why not? We really want to do it like [Race Across the World] again, take night buses and maybe rough it a little bit, just get on and if something takes our eye and we're told to do that, we can go there because there's no plan and there's no staying in a fancy hotel."
Tom also says: "We have no idea why [we chose Kazakhstan] I think on Race we loved – well at the start we hated the unknown, but then we got to love it. We loved speaking to people and finding out what's good to do and what's best.
"So I don't know what made me say Kazakhstan other than I've seen Borat there, which is a really silly, silly thing, but I think I met one person when I was travelling to South America, and I can remember them telling me that Kazakhstan was one of their favourite countries, and I've never met anybody else who's travelled there. I just like the idea of going somewhere that's completely unknown."
It's likely they will jet off to Kazakhstan later this year, with their sights set on October.
As if that's not exciting enough, Tom is also looking to embark on a new adventure with a business venture inspired by their travels on Race Across the World.
"When we stayed with the Indian family in Salawas who made the rugs, and they showed us the pottery, and they introduced us to their community," he says.
Tom stayed in touch with businessman Mr Chhotaram by keeping his number in his travel journal. It meant that Caroline was able to buy Tom the rug he helped make in India for his birthday this year when they were back in the UK.
"I showed a couple of people and they were like, 'Oh this rug is so lovely, where can I get one?' And I said, maybe people should be able to get them here," he says. "So I spoke to the man, Mr Chhotaram, and I said, 'Look, I've had loads of people saying how nice these rugs are and I think there is a market for them'. In a world where everything's made in China and it's all done quickly, it's all mass produced."
He explains: "Handmade stuff that actually takes weeks to make is now really, really appealing and I think people would love it. So I said, 'Look, I'd love to come up with a deal where I can try and help you sell them in the UK and give you some of the money back and help the community'.
"So that's what I'm doing. I've imported 10 rugs and then we've got a pop-up shop in a couple of weeks' time at a local cafe. So we built some rug displays and we've been doing some handy woodwork."
Tom has a website and some business cards in the works too. "It's not a forever business," he says. "Because they're all made by hand, it can't be mass produced but it's fun to start the idea of a business, see how it works, get you used to it and it helps people out, so it's kind of a win-win. It's great. And I love the rugs, it's something I'm a bit passionate about, so it's nice."
While on the race, Tom and Caroline weren't really able to bring home any physical mementos from their trips. But Caroline did bring home a special present for her husband.
"I brought my husband the red complimentary slippers from one of the hotels we stayed," she says. "That was his present from me. We couldn't afford anything, any souvenirs or anything, we just didn't know how much money we'd need and I'm really frugal."
Tom got a toy TukTuk and bought one for Fin on the race too. He adds: "Mum wouldn't let me buy anything. There were so many like fridge magnets. Usually the stuff, I love it. It helps you remember the trip, but we couldn't do it as we were on a budget."
Caroline reveals her son also wanted to be incredibly generous with tips, even though they were on a strict budget of £1,140 per person. She adds: "Thomas wanted to tip everybody and I said, 'If you keep doing this, we're going to run out of money before leg six.' So I said, 'Yeah I understand the sentiment' but we just couldn't afford it."
The mother and son got off to a rocky start but Caroline was determined to win. "I'm really competitive," she says. "I just had this inner feeling, not only should you have self belief if you want to compete, but I just did all the way along. I just thought we could win this. That's why we're doing it. We could win it."
She adds: "Obviously you don't know. But there was something inside me that just it helped keep you going, just saying, 'You've got a chance of winning this, as much chance as anybody else. So go and smash it and grab it and do it.'"
Tom was less confident that they would win. "Oh no, after leg one I was just grateful to get past the elimination," he says. "And then as it went on I thought maybe there is a chance, but I genuinely didn't go into it thinking we're gonna win this."
He explains: "It would have been lovely, but I was there more to experience what the countries had to offer and just spend time with mum and then I think winning was the cherry on top. But I think the experience itself is more like winning, so that was the main thing."
Anyone looking to take part in next year's race, take note: Tom and Caroline shared their one secret to winning the BBC show was: "Each other, not wanting to let each other down," Caroline says. "That would be my big thing."
Tom agrees: "One of the biggest reasons I wanted to win is for mum because she's just competitive by nature. No, I'm being dead serious. She is, I mean sometimes it's actually quite annoying but she is just competitive by nature. It's in her blood.
"At the start I wanted to see and I wanted to experience but then more towards the end I was thinking if we're gonna do this, then why not try our hardest to actually win? And I think that's what we did. Speaking to locals is the obvious [way] because you can't get anywhere without doing that. You don't have a phone. Speaking to people, just being friendly and just not really giving up."
He reflects: "At the start — a little bit — we let it get to us. When we couldn't find a way to get around or people told us no. We let it get us down but I think we adjusted and we learned and we became OK with doing no. Which is quite a good life lesson as well, a bit of rejection therapy."
Race Across the World is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. The Reunion episode will air at 9pm on Wednesday on BBC One.
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