Ages: Caroline is 60, Tom is 21
Relationship: Mother and son
Why Race Across The World?
Caroline: "I saw the South American series and absolutely knew that that was the programme I wanted to do with Thomas. I've never applied for anything like this before, I've never done anything like this, I've never done anything out of my comfort zone or ever arranged any travel and i just knew it was made for me and the perfect person was Thomas. Thomas felt the same. We were made for it, or the programme was made for us."
Tom: "Exactly the same as mum, I love travelling – I never thought I'd travel with my mum, but the fact that i get to travel and see the world, and do it with her is just perfect."
Do you have a strategy?
Caroline: "We know we are going to struggle with the budget because Thomas needs to eat a lot - a huge amount! So to make up for that we were thinking, perhaps we could ask for favours with people, or work extra hard, or offer to do something in return for an apple at the side of the road.
"We are determined to race and Thomas is the one who wants to immerse himself and see the experiences and now I totally agree with him, so our strategy is we'll always keep an eye on the race but while we can, were going to make the best of every opportunity. It'll make it more exciting as we'll have to race harder as were not putting the race at the forefront. We're also hoping to take overnight accommodation whilst travelling so save on accommodation."
Tom: "We still don't know exactly where we're going, or how things work in the country we're in, I think our strategy will depend on how we do in the first leg and it will adapt as we go along."
What's the most unusual thing you have brought with you?
Tom: "One of my one of my best mates gave me a compass before we left. And I don't really know how useful it's going to be, but it's a really cool compass. It's like an old antique compass. I brought it with me in hopes that at some point I might use it. And even if I don't, it's just nice to have."
Caroline: "My husband was asked specifically not to buy me anything and I was meant to be coming out with no jewellery, but he still went out and bought me a beautiful little gold elephant, because I am desperate to meet an elephant and see elephants for real. And it's for luck."
What will your biggest challenges be on the race?
Tom: "Lack of sleep. Lack of food will be tough. I think just lack of comfort as well. When I've been travelling previously it wasn't on a race format so if you get overtired and you get hungry you can stop where you are, recover for a couple of days, go see some nice sites, meet some new people and then carry along your journey. But this until you get from one checkpoint to the other you kind of can't or don't really want to stop. So I think that will be quite tough."
Caroline: "I'm a little worried about lack of hygiene. I'm used to home comforts, nice hygiene. I like to feel fresh even if it's just brushing your teeth properly and I wear contact lenses and of course you need a hygienic situation to put those in. I'm worried about letting Thomas down. I'm going to work hard at not doing that, and he's going to make sure I don't."
What's your partner's most annoying habit?
Caroline: "Not an annoying habit but having to eat all the time will be something that will slow us down. That's not really an annoying habit."
Tom: "Walking too fast. I get it, it might be good for the race, but the majority of the time mum does that speed walking that you see in the Olympics. I think once we've got off a long bus and we're carrying a lot of stuff, it's just going to get on my nerves."
Race Across The World airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Neil Wilkes
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