THE Pretenders thought 2,000 miles was a long way to travel at Christmas time but Tom Bickford-Russell has more than doubled that.

The landscape carpenter is selling Christmas trees at a South Gloucestershire wildlife park after flying home more than 4,500 miles from Nepal.

In between serving customers at Wilf Place Project the 19-year-old is teaching himself Nepali ahead of his return.

Tom, who works for Frenchay Forestry, will be selling the trees right up to Christmas Eve on a site at the entrance to the wildlife park.

He said: “I’m expecting it to be really busy in the run-up to Christmas but I’m really enjoying meeting people and helping them pick their trees.”

There are four different types of trees on sale: Nordmann fir, the grey-green Fraser fir, the Noble fir and the traditional Norway spruce.

Thousands of these trees are transported just a few miles from the Mendips while others are brought from Scotland, Ireland and Norway.

Tom is working at Wild Place Project every day and expects to sell hundreds of trees before Christmas.

He added: “People have a great choice here and there is room for them to pull up next to our site so the trees can be easily loaded into their cars.

“And nothing beats a real tree does it?”

Tom, who had been in Nepal for several months, said: “I got off the plane after an 11 hour flight and within a short time I began selling trees.”

He is staying in Bristol until April with his family and then plans to return to Nepal where he has been learning Thanka painting – intricate Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton or silk.

His long term goal is to join the army, read and write fluently in Nepali and then, if possible, to become a member of the highly respected Gurkhas.

Tom, who also works for Bristol-based Green Play Project making children’s play equipment out of natural materials, said: “It will be really tough but that’s my aim.”

People will be able to buy Christmas trees from 10am-8pm most days. Prices are around £6 per foot.