Three daring best friends embarked on a “most inconvenient” adventure after driving more than 11,800 miles from Scotland to Iran in a tiny car with no air conditioning. That was before travelling a 1,700-mile journey to India rickshaw described as a “lawnmower on wheels".
Daniel Patton, 22, and his best friends Joe Fisher and Callum Kitson, both 23, originally mapped out the epic journey to cross 20 countries, avoiding air travel to complete it entirely in a 1999 blue Mazda they bought for just £1,050. The expedition would see them heading form Duncansby Head lighthouse in north-east Scotland to Kanyakumari, in the very south of India.
The friends, who met aged 15 at secondary school and went to university together, bought the Mazda in June 2022 from a car dealership in Leeds, West Yorkshire. They decided it was “completely unsuitable and perfect”, and budgeted to spend roughly £18,000 over the duration of the trip for the car, fuel, food, accommodation, visas and repairs.
Incredibly, the vehicle survived sweltering temperatures in the desert in Iran as well as gruelling mountain roads up nearly 5,000m in Mount Kazbegi, a dormant volcano in Georgia.
He added: “We were very surprised by how well the car worked. From high altitudes to deserts in Iran. It’s a 1999 Mazda which was past its expiry date but it was just brilliant. Having no air-conditioning in Iran was definitely an experience, but it was better than we could have ever hoped for. We wanted to do a ridiculous challenge and it was, but it’s been amazing.”
Named, the Kiwis Don’t Fly rally team, they set out in the vehicle but had to alter their plans when devastating floods in Pakistan meant they could drive no further than neighbouring Iran.
Daniel said: “When we got to Iran, we realised that we wouldn’t be able to travel through Pakistan to India because of the devastating floods. When you travel the way we have, you become really immersed in the local communities, and seeing what was happening in Pakistan was truly heartbreaking.”
They doubled back to Turkey and parked their Mazda in the car park at Istanbul airport. For Daniel, the highlight of the trip was traversing the treacherous “death road” dubbed the world’s most dangerous road in north-east of the country, which spans roughly 111 miles from the Black Sea to Askale in eastern Turkey.
“It was just fantastic," Daniel said. " A road just made of gravel, it was extreme and not something you should be driving an old Mazda on. But that’s exactly why we took on this challenge. It was nothing like driving on the M5, and the views were just breath-taking.”
Joe, who quit his job as an English teacher to join the trip, loved seeing hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Turkey and said: “We woke up at around 4am to see it, but it was just spectacular. It’s really surreal to see hundreds and hundreds of hot air balloons floating through this beautiful backdrop. It’s something you almost need to see to believe.”
When the friends spent three weeks in Iran, Callum said it was the friendliest country they had been in adding: “Meeting people in Iran and Turkey was the highlight for me. Everyone was so hospitable, and we got invited to have tea from strangers. People wanted to show us their cities. It was really quite eye-opening.”
After Turkey, the adventurers flew to Kochi in southern India on September 8. The men, who were all born in England before moving to New Zealand as children, then spent two gruelling weeks trundling north through India on an epic second rally.
The friends were invited by The Adventurist, who call themselves the “planet’s greatest purveyor of chaos and adventure”, where they organised a 1,700-mile rally in a 12-year-old rickshaw powered by a lawnmower engine.
The friends added: “It’s an amazing way to see India and we’re so glad we did it. We were constantly bouncing around, it was like a rollercoaster, and somehow even more ridiculous than the Mazda.”
Altogether, the trio clocked up more than 11,800 miles on the road and travelled through 19 countries – the UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and finally India.
Daniel and his pals dug deep into their savings to fund the trip, which cost them around £18,000 – which includes roughly £2,500 for fuel, £2,600 on food, £800 on car servicing, £780 on visas, and £4,000 spending money to cover laundry, data and, most importantly, fun and beer. They saved most on accommodation, as they slept beneath the stars in sleeping bags on any soft patch of land they could find near their parked car.
Business graduate Daniel, who was born in Bristol, said: “This has been the experience of a lifetime, we have learned about cultures we would have never known about. It’s certainly been inconvenient. We had breakdowns, we had long waits at borders, and then the floods in Pakistan made us change our plans. But it’s been a massive adventure and we’ve seen a side of these countries you wouldn’t see on the tourist trail.”
The Kiwis Don’t Fly rally team have also been fundraising for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, and hope to continue to raise awareness for that cause as well as the victims of the Pakistan floods.
They said: “When you see the world this way, you can’t help but feel connected with everyone. We hope to continue to raise money and awareness, because what is happening in Ukraine and in Pakistan is just devastating.”
You can follow their adventures on Instagram and TikTok at @kiwisdontfly and support their fundraising Just Giving page.
Daniel added: “We just wanted to do something completely crazy and we wanted to do something beyond just backpacking around Europe. It’s slightly stupid but something we will always remember.”
