Tony Hobden's 1,000km Nepal ride on a pink 125cc scooter has raised £42,500 of £80,000 for school water systems. His route, stage by stage, in his words.
Tony Hobden’s pink scooter ride across Nepal has raised £42,500 towards its £80,000 target, the Weston-super-Mare charity behind it told us on 5 October. That is a little over half of the money for water purification systems in 50 Nepali schools.
Hobden, chief executive of Shiva Charity, sets off in November on what the campaign bills as a 1,000km ride. He answered our questions in writing, through the campaign’s Richard Bowman, and sent the photograph above of himself on the scooter, L plate and all.
When we first reported on the charity in September, it had just put four tonnes of flood aid on an airlift to Kathmandu, and we asked six questions about the ride and the relief work. These are the answers.
The route
Asked for the exact route, where it starts and finishes and how long it will take, the charity gave it stage by stage:
- Banepa to Pokhara (12 November)
- Calapani
- Muktinah
- Tatopani
- Bandipur
- Banepa
- In Banepa, Sanga School
- Jyamdi and Barabhise schools, finishing at the “last resort” (Kathmandu)
“The 1,000km is expected to take 10 days,” the charity said.
The campaign’s earlier release and its website give the challenge dates as 9 to 19 November 2026, with the latest campaign update saying Hobden “will set off in Nepal” on 9 November. The first riding stage, from Banepa to Pokhara, is dated 12 November in the answers.
The scooter
The bike is a “125cc Yamaha RAYZR. No mods,” the charity said. Nothing has been changed for the distance or the mountain roads.
Hobden is 52 and calls himself a scooter novice. The campaign site says he had “no prior riding experience until this year”.
Where the money goes
“Raised so far: £42,500,” the charity said. “The target is £80,000 which will pay for 50 schools to have a water purification system + 10 years’ servicing.”
The campaign prices each school at £1,500, which is how 50 schools reaches £80,000. When we checked scoot4nepal.org on 5 October, its counter still read £39,261 and 26 of 50 schools funded, a figure the site dates to 21 September. Its update of 5 October says the total has “now passed £40,000”. The £42,500 is the charity’s own latest figure.
Part of the latest jump came from Weston’s own streets. The campaign says a team of runners in Scoot 4 Nepal T-shirts, printed with “SCAN ME” and a QR code, raised £2,420 at the Weston-super-Mare Half Marathon and 10K on Sunday 4 October.
“The Weston run has been a brilliant way to get people talking about Scoot 4 Nepal and, hopefully, thinking about what clean water means to children and families in Nepal,” Hobden said in the campaign’s update. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who ran, donated, scanned our T-shirts or simply stopped to ask what we were doing.”
What the flood relief has delivered
Our September story could only report what the charity said was on its way. This time we asked for numbers, and it gave them for its work with REACT, the disaster-response organisation it partners with:
- 9,625 people supported with emergency power, light and sanitation supplies since 30 August
- 200 households in Kispang given a month of food and a family hygiene pack on 16 September
- 7 generators and 18 solar lighting kits flown or carried into villages with no road access
- 3 response teams rotated through
- 1,393 responder hours, “all unpaid”
These are the charity’s figures, and we have not been able to check them independently.
The emergency appeal is separate from the scooter ride. Its JustGiving page showed £23,675.67 from 392 donations when we checked on 5 October, up from £17,570 on 7 September.
Weston roots and the route to Nepal
Asked how long Hobden has lived in or worked from Weston-super-Mare, the charity said: “All his life. 12 generations apparently.”
On how money gets from a small Weston charity to the ground, the answer was short: “Via Shiva Nepal (the Shiva charity team based there) and REACT.”
The Charity Commission register lists Shiva Charity UK as charity number 1045197, based in Weston-super-Mare. (Charity Commission register)
What it means for you
- School water systems: donate through scoot4nepal.org. £1,500 covers one school’s purifier and its servicing.
- Flood relief: the emergency appeal is at justgiving.com/page/nepalfloods.
- Businesses: the campaign is looking for corporate partners and lists partners@scoot4nepal.org as the contact.
- Following the ride: the campaign site has an email sign-up for updates from the road between 9 and 19 November.
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