From Saturday 19th to Sunday 20th, I participated in Jailbreak 2016 with my best friend Claudia Pellegrino.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this unique and incredible event, Jailbreak is a charity hitchhike organised by The Union’s RAG (Raise and Give) team, whereby students endeavour to travel as far away from the University WITH NO MONEY in 36 hours!
Not only did this sound extremely thrilling, but it was in aid of three fantastic charities:
Action Against Hunger: providing life-saving care for malnourished children.
Alzheimer’s Society: A leading charity in the fight against Dementia - a brain disorder affecting over 850,000 people in the UK alone!
Group 170: a local Southampton-based family group from HCPT The Pilgrimage Trust who take takes disabled, sick and disadvantaged children on holidays.
Before the trip
The aim for each participant was to raise £50 through their JustGiving page. We absolutely smashed this target with a total of £223 before the big event! Between all 27 teams this year, we managed to fundraise over £5,000.
We wanted a themed hitchhike and decided we would dress up as Pocahontas and Little Red Riding Hood and call our team name Escape from Fairyland!
Signs made, Pocahontas and Little Red Riding Hood ready to go!
We had also rang and emailed around various airlines/ferry companies and secured two FREE return tickets from Portsmouth to Caen.
Saturday
At 9am, the horn was blown and 27 teams sprinted off in different directions. We headed straight to Bassett Green where we spent an hour hitchhiking in the freezing cold in hope of a lift to Portsmouth. Although we were extremely unlucky, we bagged a ride to the City Centre with none other than an ex-Southampton Jailbreaker!
From there, we wandered around West Quay and Marlands doing bucket collections and raised enough money to fund a cheap bus to Portsmouth to catch our ferry!
At the ferry terminal we came across other Jailbreak teams and had a group photo together, before embarking on our 6-hour ferry ride to Caen! Despite the length of the ferry ride, we had a fantastic time enjoying coffee, chocolate and making friends with other passengers - we were even offered a ride to Croatia!
Having a romantic Titanic moment on the ferry!
We were extremely tired (and hungover in my case) by the time the ferry arrived at Caen. Fortunately, my friend picked us up and drove us 2 hours to stay at another friend’s house in Rouen.
It was a very surreal experience going back to the town where I had spent my semester abroad and I was over the moon to meet some of my friends again!
Sunday
We had received free bus tickets from Flixbus from Quai du Havre, Rouen to Charles de Gaulle airport. Having awoken at 6am to catch our bus, we were extremely disheartened the bus did not show up. However, we met a lovely Algerian man who let us wait in his car until 10am with his friends - at which point it became apparent that no bus was coming.
Top Tip: Always keep snacks. Never trust French transport on Sundays.
Fortunately, his friend was leaving for Charles de Gaulle airport with his wife and they kindly offered us a lift! Unfortunately, it took over an hour longer than planned (due to some directional issues) and we were dropped off rather far from the airport and having to walk down an A road for a while until we hitchhiked another lift.
At the airport we spent hours asking airlines for free/discounted flights but were unlucky so we decided to catch a 4-hour train back to Caen.
Highlight of the trip: Arriving late and desperate to avoid sleeping at the Caen ferry terminal, we thought we might as well try our luck for a cheap hotel room...and managed to get a free hotel room and complimentary breakfast!
A delightful assortment of pain de mie, hot drinks, yoghurts and condiments!
Monday
Our last day of Jailbreak kickstarted with yet another missing bus. This seemed to be a common morning theme for us! After waiting for half an hour, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for an overpriced cab to get to the ferry terminal in time. We met another team at the terminal and headed back to Portsmouth.
Appropriate ferry cafe name!
Having returned to English soil, my friend came to pick us up and drop us home- special shout out to Sam for being stuck in traffic for 90 minutes on the way to pick us up!
And so concludes my Jailbreak experience! It was a very surreal, unique experience and honestly, one of the best weekends of my life!
It was also a fantastic opportunity to put my degree into practice and speak french throughout the weekend.
A massive thank you to everyone who helped us (tried to help us) along the way and to my amazing friend Claudia for putting up with me all weekend!
I hope this has more than convinced you to take part in Jailbreak 2017!
Aditi
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