Students flee from Bristol to Vienna in 36 hours

Wilf Middleton and Leon Luithlen outside the Grand Palace in Vienna

Press release issued: 5 April 2013

An intrepid team of students from the University of Bristol ‘escaped’ 872 miles to Vienna as part of the Jailbreak challenge, which has raised over £7,000 for charity. Wilf Middleton and Leon Luithlen travelled through England, Belgium, Germany and Austria in 36 hours without spending any money to emerge victorious in the RAG event, organised by the University’s Students’ Union (UBU).

Wilf Middleton and Leon Luithlen travelled through England, Belgium, Germany and Austria in 36 hours without spending any money to emerge victorious in the RAG event, organised by the University’s Students’ Union (UBU).

Going under the team name of ‘Ukraine Catch Us, We’re Wilf and Leon’, the pair beat 26 teams and helped to raise an impressive £7,277 for charities supported by RAG.

All but four teams made it out of England, reaching destinations such as Monte Carlo, Milan and Frankfurt. One team even ended up sharing a taxi ride across London with Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of the Pretenders.

Wilf and Leon’s victory was both an adventure and test of their endurance as they survived a snow storm in Belgium and sat through seven hours of generic dubstep music whilst hitchhiking.

Wilf, who is studying for a Masters in Civil Engineering, explained: “We were lucky because some students from Munich were coming back from St Paddy's day in Dublin so offered us a lift. They hadn't slept much in the last three days so when we hit a snowstorm in Belgium we all had a nap.

“A lot of Germans seem to really like driving to blasting house and dance music. We totalled around five hours of Flo Rida, four hours of Rihanna and seven of generic dupstep. One woman drove us 70km further than she had expected because she said ‘we have to win this race’. The last guy who drove us got really into it and went at a full sprint from Salzburg to the Grand Palace in Vienna to ensure our epic win.”

Money raised from the Jailbreak challenge is being donated to Water Aid, Send a Cow, Bowel Cancer UK, Alzheimer's Society, Shine, Red Nose Day, Amnesty International, the Meningitis Trust, Alzheimer's Research and the Quartet Community Foundation.

The Jailbreak record for furthest distance travelled was set by Mary Spender and Emma Blott (Team Bieber) in March 2011 who made it all the way to Perth, Australia.

Full results from this year’s Jailbreak challenge are available on the UBU website.