Solo 2,000-mile trek along Ho Chi Minh trail by Norfolk-born woman adventurer

A north Norfolk-born woman is heading off on a solo trip along the Ho Chi Minh trail - on a moped.

Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent (right) and Jo Huxster who did a 12,500 mile trip in a tuk tuk from Bangkok to brighton. Picture: IAN BURTAntonia Bolingbroke-Kent (right) and Jo Huxster who did a 12,500 mile trip in a tuk tuk from Bangkok to brighton.

As well as being an adventure, which she will turn into a book, the 2,000-mile journey along the legendary jungle trail which was heavily bombed in the Vietnam war, will raise funds for a mines awareness charity.

Antonia “Ants” Bolingbroke-Kent has tackled treks before - including a moped journey around the Black Sea and taking a tuk tuk three-wheeled taxi from Bangkok to Brighton.

But both of those saw her travelling with a partner. This time the trip is alone - needing extra preparation, and adding some nerves to the excitement.

Miss Bolingbroke-Kent, who was born at Wickmere near Aylsham and whose parents live in the Holt area, said: “I have been taking lessons on how to mend my moped in the middle of the jungle.

“There are risk - with 32 types of dangerous snakes, spiders and lots of unexploded cluster bombs. You won’t want to be nipping into the jungle to go to the toilet.

Ants is a TV producer, who last year visited the area to make the BBC World’s Most Dangerous Roads documentary with Liza Tarbuck and Sue Perkins. And she has also helped organise other people’s adventures as a business in the past. But she admits this is her own biggest challenge so far - because it is solo.

“While I am a relative veteran of ridiculous adventures in unfeasible vehicles, this will be the first time I have gone solo. For someone who barely knows a spanner from a mole grip and is terrified of spiders, snakes and the dark, it could be quite a challenge. I’ll have to learn to survive on my wits, fix the bike when it grinds to a halt in the middle of a large river and sleep in a jungle inhabited by elephants,” added the 34-year-old, who currently lives in Bristol.

She sets off from Hanoi on her secondhand, 20-year-old pink-painted Honda C90 on Friday and should be home at the end of April, having passed through mountains and remote jungle of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos along the way.

The trip will raise money for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG). a UK-based charity which works to clear mines and ordnance all over the world.

To chart her progress follow a blog on her website www.theitinerant.co.uk, on Twitter at @AntsBK or facebook.com/AntsBK.