TWO friends who walked from Witney to Paris together smashed their target and raised nearly £3,000 for a Cambodian elephant sanctuary.

Tom Iverson and Jack Goodchild took on the 200-mile challenge last month and made it from West Oxfordshire to the French capital in just 10 days.

The pair, who became friends while working together at Burford Garden Company, were thrilled to make it to the Eiffel Tower and raise much-needed funds for the Elephant Valley Project.

Mr Iverson, 24, said: “When we finally made it to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower it was very overwhelming for us both. The support from everyone had without a doubt kept us going. I think just over 10,000 people watched our Facebook live videos on the way through the 10 days.

“The money will now help create a new on-site medical centre for the elephants and the remainder money will buy new vehicles to help patrol the sanctuary borders from illegal logging.”

The friends spent five days walking from Witney to Newhaven, where they boarded a ferry to Dieppe.

After that, it was another five-day journey to get to France’s capital and the Eiffel Tower, which the duo found a suitable landmark to conclude the trek.

Mr Iverson said the hardest part of the challenge was the first five days, with the pair walking 26 miles on each of the days leading up to the ferry trip.

He added: “I think we both struggled to wake up at 6.30am and get going each day.

“When making it over to Dieppe we were overwhelmed with amazing views through northern France.

“We met some great people whilst walking through local towns who were interested as to what we were doing. Some even threw in some free food which was awesome as a good will gesture.

“Coming into more built-up areas was a nice change of scenery though as we could finally fill up water bottles easier without walking for hours on main roads and cross country routes without seeing anyone or anything.”

The two men chose to raise funds for the Elephant Valley Project in Cambodia as Mr Iverson’s brother Chris recently took over as project manager.

The sanctuary looks after retired working elephants that the project purchases from villages in the area so that elephants can enjoy their days in peace and harmony, roaming the 300 hectares of open forest.

Staff currently look after 10 rescued elephants.

A large chunk of the money will go towards a medi-centre for the elephant sanctuary.

Currently, volunteers have to take the elephants on long journeys by road when they need medical attention, a problem that would be solved by the on-site facility.

The rest of the money would help local villages with schooling and fund vehicles to be used by the sanctuary.

To make a donation visit bit.ly/2gNyXtg.

To find out more about the elephant sanctuary visit elephantvalleyproject.org.