CHINGFORD: Dave will go globetrotting

8:30am Saturday 10th May 2008

Comments (13)   Have your say »

DREAMS have come true for a Chingford teenager who will be travelling the world as part of an online reality show.

Dave Brett, 18, of Chingford Mount, beat thousands of other people to become a contestant on Gap Year, which will be shown on the social networking website Bebo.

Gap Year, produced by Big Brother creators Endemol, features six young people from the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US, who will each go on a separate five-month journey to surprise locations across the world.

Dave sent in a video explaining why he likes travelling and he impressed the judges so much that he made it through to the last two.

He and his opponent Georgie, from Oxford, were filmed in Oxford Circus when they were informed that Dave had won the all-expenses-paid adventure.

He said: "My immediate reaction was to jump up and down and to keep telling random people I was going around the world. They must have thought I was mad.

"After six months of waiting I can't believe I have finally got it."

Dave, who lives with his father Mark and younger brother Edward, joked: "My family are shocked and can't wait to get rid of me. They are over the moon."

Originally Dave thought the Gap Year contestants would be able to choose their destinations.

But now the programme's makers have decided to surprise the contestants by picking the route but not telling them about it.

Dave said: "It is more exciting this way, because you don't know what to expect and can't prepare yourself."

The journey will be filmed by a one-man camera crew.

Dave, a Harlow College leisure and tourism student, has travelled to countries including Ireland and Germany, regularly sleeping on the sofas of people he has met through website Couchsurfing.

In return visitors from the UK stay on his sofa.

The jet-setter developed a love of travelling and meeting people through scouting and he is a Network Scout at the Chingford and District Network Scout group.

Pasa Mustafa, head of digital studios at Endemol said: "Dave's passion for travelling was evident from his very first audition video.

"His research and knowledge of his dream travel routes were so intricate we could tell he really wanted this. We know that Dave will last the duration and make every viewer feel a part of his journey."