Emon and Jamiul win Race Across the World Series Two

Race Across the World series three continues to enthrall viewers as they eager follow the progress of the teams on each leg of their epic journey across Canada. Many fans of the BBC series are keen to know more about what happens behind-the-scenes and if what you see is really what you get. Season two’s winner Emon Choudhury open up about his experiences on the show from 2020 when he and his nephew Jamiul trekked across South America and collected the £200,000 cash prize at the finish line.

Budget

The big one is money in each series on Race Across the World with the teams trying hard not to fritter away their limited funds.

Emon said: “To be honest with you, the trickiest part for me was budgeting because I think it was about £26 a day. That’s for everything: food, accommodation, travel, so you had to be really savvy with that money.

“That was tricky and also not knowing what things cost in these countries and the exchange rate and having the right currency, having all of that added to the stress of it all. The whole money situation I found a bit daunting.”

He revealed the teams were given the money for the entire trip upfront and it was up to them to then budget it for the whole journey.

No technology

Race Across the World contestants aren’t allowed to use their mobile phones or modern technology to help them on their journey.

“You get used to it, to be honest with you. It’s almost taking you back to basics, asking people for directions, asking people where things are and it was invigorating. The first week I was like, ‘Where’s my phone?’ but after that I forgot about it.”

Adding it was something he’d carried from the show into his life: “Everyday when I get home from work, I put my phone in a box and it stays in that box until the next day. If anyone wants to contact me, they can ring my house phone.”

Sleep

With the teams trying to hit each of their checkpoints on time, sleep is often relegated.

Emon said: “We had to learning to sleep whilst driving like on the buses. We had to learn because we did a lot of overnight buses to save on our accommodation, so our sleep was out of the window.”

The camera crew

Each of the teams are filmed and Emon said there were about six or seven people on the camera crew capturing every step of the journey on the BBC show.

“The job that they do is just incredible because Race Across the World is just split second decisions, so we could be on one bus one minute and then think, ‘I’m getting off this bus and getting on another bus.’ So they have to re-jig everything because of what we’ve said.”

Elon said while he and the other contestants had bags to carry, the camera crew had the arduous task of carrying their heavy equipment including trekking up the side of mountains while the contestants raced ahead.

Over time, Emon and Jamiul got to know the crew with the contestants building up a camaraderie with the production team.

Food

Due to their limited budget, food is always an issue for the teams with many having to eat whenever they had the means to do so.

“I lost over a stone, a stone and a half and the same with my nephew, he lost quite a bit as well. The food was an issue,” he said.

“You always think on these TV shows, you get a sandwich off-camera or water or a little snack here or there but no, it wasn’t like that!

He admitted they both struggled for the first couple of weeks but got used to it and they resorted to asking for people for food or water.

Emon said this put the duo outside of their comfort zone as it wasn’t something they’d ever had to do before.

“And people were more than happy to help as well. It’s the people that made the journey for us as well.”

Clothes

Having time to do laundry also becomes another luxury on Race Across the World with time and money being in short supply.

He said: “When we were staying in hostels, they tend to have washing facilities, so we would wash what we can there.”

Again, due to only being able to take limited clothes, contestants also had to try and make do with what was available to them.

For more information about Emon’s fundraising, please click here

Race Across the World airs on BBC One on Wednesdays at 9pm

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