Middle-aged man aims to cycle 2,300km in 40C heat through Northern and North Eastern Thailand to raise enough money to feed a small family of elephants for 3 months!

MaeVang Elephant Home, nestled in the beautiful district of Mae Wang in Northern Thailand, is a fantastic small organisation that has been looking after its family of 8 elephants for many years. They allow small private groups of visitors to learn about and experience first hand the real beauty of these wonderful animals and, at the same time care for their animals and the mahouts (the people who spend all their lives with elephants looking after them) and their families who live with the elephants.

However, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Thailand has in effect shut its borders and the Elephant Home has had no visitors and therefore no income to feed their elephants. And boy do elephants eat a lot (around 15-20% of their body weight each day) and the home of course needs to ensure that the elephants continue to receive a healthy and rich variety of food every day. They've dug deep to ensure they can continue to look after their elephants (and the mahouts) but as the pandemic has gone on and on this has become more and more difficult, verging towards the impossible

So, Bruce Haxton (me!), the founder of The Tuk Tuk Club, who have been lucky enough to have our travellers visit the elephants on our adventures in Northern Thailand, has decided that it's time to get off his backside and do something to help.

Bruce is going to cycle solo over 2,300km's starting in May 2021 in 20 days (from Chiang Mai to Ubon Ratchathani in the far East of Thailand and back - a mere 121km per day factoring in one rest day to ease the saddle sores) during the height of Thailand's summer (think 40C - no fun at all) with the goal of raising at least enough money to feed the group of 8 elephants and their mahouts for 3 months, easing some of the pressure on the organisation and making sure that they know people not only in Thailand but around the world really care!

It costs around £22 a day to feed and look after each elephant. So with 8 elephants at the home they need over £5,000 a month just to make sure the elephants are well fed, safe and cared for and that the mahouts can also live! My goal is therefore to raise enough money to cover 3 months of food and care for the elephants If I can raise more than three months worth of food, fantastic but raising less is simply not an option!

Many thanks for your support for this cause - if you've been lucky enough to visit MaeVang Elephant Home you'll know why I'm so passionate about this. If you haven't then please know that these are wonderful elephants looked after by fantastic people. They've not complained once during the pandemic and have stoically coped with all the challenges thrown at them. And of course, once Thailand is open again I hope you'll be able to travel to Chiang Mai to see this small family of elephants yourself.

And finally, as an added bonus!, there's something for you too. We'd love you to see these elephants for yourself on one of our Tuk Tuk Adventures and to make that easier we'll take off the amount you donate (up to a maximum of £150 per person) from any future booking for an 11 Day Tuk Tuk Adventure. You can see more about the adventures here