A teacher who grew up in Turleigh has broken the record for the longest journey in a tuk tuk (an auto rickshaw) after travelling around the world with his friend.

Nick Gough and his colleague Richard Sears, both 29 from London, set out in August 2012 with a mission to promote and advance education in developing countries. They returned to the UK last week after travelling a total of 42,000km in the auto rickshaw through 39 countries.

The friends had been commuting together from London to their teaching jobs at Royal Grammar School in Guildford and the tuk tuk idea evolved over the past few years.

Mr Gough, an economics teacher, said: “We wanted to promote education by visiting projects in the tuk tuk.”

Named Tommy Tempo after a comic book tuk tuk, the rikshaw had a 10-litre tank and although the pair carried an extra 20 litres, they had to plan their stops carefully for fuel and water.

Just before reaching the record, the tuk tuk broke down in Peru and they had to pull it for 70km before finding a mechanic specialising in tuk tuks.

Mr Gough, a former Monkton Combe School pupil, said: “There were tough times, but we had help from locals who generously shared what little they had.

Mr Gough will return to teaching for six weeks in the new year before touring UK schools for three months to promote education.

He said: “There are 57 million primary school age children in the world who don’t have an education.

“We want to get people interested. There needs to be a change in attitude.”

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