Culture journalist
BbcLast year, Alfie Watts became global, becoming the youngest winner of the race around the world – the BBC show which does exactly what she says about the tin.
Teams of two run to go from one part of the world to another without a trip by plane, without smartphones, without bank cards and a limited cash budget.
After 50 days spent traveling on the land and at the Japan Sea at Indonesia alongside his friend at St Albans Owen Wood school, everything resisted a running near a beach off the island of Lombok.
The Four series final saw the Pip Pip Mother and Daughter Duo Eugenie and Isabel by only eight minutes to take the title and Price pot of £ 20,000.
He also saw Alfie catch the travel bug, sending him on his way to a new career as a guru of the trip and online Content creator.
On Wednesday, the five series of the current show, BBC News talks to the 21 -year -old player of his new life on the road, advice for other travelers and advice for this year’s candidates on how to win the show.
“All the experience (in the series) opened my eyes to real journeys,” Watts tells us about a video call from Portugal, while taking a break from the refereeing of a football match.
“I think there are certainly two different types of trips to which we are used to the United Kingdom; Superficial trips, as I would call it, where you go on vacation and you see what you want to see and you stay in your comfort zone or your hotel.
“And then I would say that there are real authentic journeys by which you see the world as it is really.
“And I just learned that I prefer the authenticity of the places … rather than the weather.”
Watts’ main advice for readers with a similar Wanderlust is to consider traveling further.
“Flights to Spain in summer can be back £ 300, but you will pay extremely high prices for food, accommodation and things like that,” he notes.
“While, in fact, if you go a little further, if you try Malaysia, Thailand, even Brazil, flights can be £ 600 to 700, but when you really are there, you spend £ 20-25 per day maximum.”
Since his big television victory, he has gone to around 30 countries, including five in one day for an online challenge based in Europe.
Another time he found and climbed the cheapest possible flights that he could find online for seven days in a row.
And he also returned to Japan to pay an bill he felt for Kobe beef steaks that were kindly given to him and Owen for free when they were worried about their budget, as fans of the show will remember. “It was a very good time,” he said.
Watts likes to travel solo because he appreciates his “own business” and do things according to his “own conditions”, while meeting new people.
He recognizes that it is not for everyone and that some people prefer to be absent from friends and family, but he wants to encourage potential travelers to “throw you away”.
“I don’t do things that would put me in danger because I think I have a responsibility for the people who follow me,” he said.
However, he admits that he found himself in a taxi with an armed government official in Venezuela – a country to which he has traveled against the United Kingdom councils.
“It was almost as eccentric as that.”
Bucket
His favorite place, he has been during his travels so far is that “undoubtedly” Angels falls in Venezuela, while his favorite country would be a Flip of room between Jordan and Malaysia.
One thing he would always like to check his list of buckets is to visit the distant island of Tuvalu in the South Pacific Ocean, which looks like land for a new television program in itself.
“It is the least visited country in the world,” he explains.
“Only 1,500 people go there every year. It is very difficult to go, very expensive to reach.”
In addition to becoming much better traveled, last year also saw him extend his horizons in other respects, acting as an ambassador for Young Minds UK, a charity in mental health for young people and Winston’s Wish, A Children and Young People’s Grief Charity.
One of the most heartbreaking moments in the Four series was when it was revealed that Watts’s mother died of cancer when he was just a child.
Speaking of His embassy workHe says: “I love him and I am so happy to have the opportunity (to help).
“But internalizing it, it can be quite difficult, listening to people’s stories.”
The race around the world resumes on Wednesday, with A new raft of candidates In the direction of this time from northeast China to the southern point of India.
They include ex-spouses gas and Yin, and the current end and sioned couple, as well as the sisters Elizabeth and Letitia, the brothers Brian and Melvyn and the mother and the duo of son Caroline and Tom.
The rules, as usual, are not smartphones, no bank cards (just a small cash budget) and no trip by plane.
Watts thinks it will be a series “really difficult” and “A Topsy Turvey”.
“China is very easy to get around but very difficult to communicate,” he said to personal experience. “And many China no longer accepts money.”
His “number one advice” for anyone participates is to learn from his mistakes and take a calculator and a whiteboard. “We had to borrow notebooks and God knows what else.”
He would also suggest taking “small traveling plots” with photos of bus, trains and active people, to facilitate communication.
“I think that now there are more and more series, people are watching him and start to think:” In fact, that’s where they are going badly. This is how we can be creative around him “.
“And I think we will probably see that this series, that people were much more streetwise with the way they prepared.”
Is he worried about losing his title as a younger winner of the show?
He responds, as a real international diplomat, that he just wants the couple who “interact well” with others and “who really appreciate the opportunity to travel” to win.
“I think they are always the people you want to do better, and if it happens to be the two years old this time, then I will be happy to put my crown back.”
