Friends walk to Paris to raise money for elephants

TWO friends from West Oxfordshire will walk from Witney to Paris to raise funds for a Cambodian elephant sanctuary.

Tom Iverson and Jack Goodchild will start the 300-mile challenge today on Monday and hope to make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower next week.

The pair, who became friends while working at Burford Garden Company, are aiming to raise £2,000 for the Elephant Valley Project, in Cambodia, where Mr Iverson’s older brother Chris is the manager.

Mr Iverson, 24, said: “I’m quite excited about the challenge and a bit apprehensive – but more excited than anything.

"We’ve got all our hostels booked along the route and now I just want to get going.

“We have wondered what will happen if we run out of conversation, but we’re going to try hard not to bicker.”

The friends will embark today and spend five days walking to Newhaven, where they will board a ferry to Dieppe.

After that, it’s another five-day journey to get to France’s capital and the Eiffel Tower, which the duo found a suitable landmark to conclude the trek.

They chose to raise funds for the Elephant Valley Project in Cambodia as Mr Iverson’s brother Chris recently took over as project manager.

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