Backpackers congregated in Oxford to embark on a fundraising attempt to hitchhike to the shores of north Africa.

The official send-off for the 46 students involved in the challenge took placein Oriel Square.

The hitchhikers, from Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities, will thumb lifts for 1,600 miles through France and Spain to Morocco.

Sponsorship money raised from the event will go to Link Africa, which works with local organisations to plan and support teacher and school development in South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. Last year, 279 people from across the country completed the Morocco hitch and raised £85,000. The event's patron, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, said: "Not only does this event raise much-needed funds for educational development in southern Africa, but it also serves to educate a new generation in the pleasures and difficulties of exploring the wider world in which we live."