It's pretty hard to discover a bit of undiscovered territory these days, places that were untouched
and unseen 20 years ago now are inundated with tourists throughout the world, clutching
travel guides and digital cameras, loading photos onto Facebook with their laptops, you
know the scene.
Gone are the exciting Kiwi OEs of yesteryear, or are they?
Are they?
Tomorrow, three Kiwi lads are embarking on an overseas adventure, a race of sorts on
what's been described as a glorified lawn mower.
They're going into the unknown.
Nobody's died but there's been a few broken bones.
There's been some pretty serious injuries.
Three Kiwi mates with a taste for adventure and no plan.
I think if you go overseas, you plan so much and it actually just takes a fun way.
Yeah.
You know when you're going to be here in this?
Just this spontaneity of it will make it more exciting I guess.
Yeah.
It's nice to sort of have no idea what to expect, I mean, you know, I might get a multiplier
target.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
Here we are in Cochin, we've just arrived, and already we've just noticed how overpowering
everything is.
In particular, the traffic is just crazy, absolutely crazy, and now we're going to
get off and learn how to drive these things.
Have a nice day, good luck to you all.
The truck is doing that, and then easing off and accelerating off, and you play too.
It's over the road, it's over the road, it's over the road.
I'm Matthew Dickens, and I'm the Director for Operations for South Asia, and I'm the
event manager for the rickshaw run.
The adventurers so far have raised over £2 million, each of these events raises enough
money to give 40,000 people plus clean water in Andrapodesh, and each team has to raise
a minimum of £1,000, which means we raise a fair minimum of £70,000 per rickshaw run.
Some teams go way over this.
We have one team once raised £30,000 plus, so it's massive, and we do a lot of good
for a lot of people, and everyone's very happy.
Over the years there's been any incidents, there's been no deaths, but there's been
any serious incidents?
Haven't had any deaths, no, so that's good.
We've had a few fairly major crashes, but nothing too bad.
We were still walking after, maybe after a few months of traction, but walking nonetheless.
We've already had our first semi head-on, near miss, rather, this morning, which is my
fault, obviously.
Nearly took out two people on a scooter, it's not too well on that, but it didn't hit
them though, so that's good on both counts, really, good for them and good for us.
We've had a lovely instructor this morning, Saki, he's been showing us around, showing
us the sights and teaching us how to drive, he's been very helpful, he's very patient.
We're almost ready to go, make sure we don't lose any of this stuff.
We got over excited.
I think it was the heat.
It was really nice and white, and then we got a spray paint and decided to do a painty
it white again.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, I have to say, that I think we're the sweetest team here,
we're the sweetest team, which is, yeah, I mean, if you looked around, there's no one
else, no one else is sweating about the night, and no one is sweating more than me.
Are you guys nervous?
We've been in training for quite a while, so probably about six hours.
We can be more unprepared, we haven't had one trick or two thing, we didn't have a
map that we got here, we had no idea about the route.
The thing's going to win, yeah.
Oh, we're going to piss people off.
Is it two Swedish teams?
Yeah, actually, we'll have one of those.
Which is the teacher's world expedition.
So we're going to cover a competitive level of striving.
Yeah.
Are you trying to win?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We've got our mustaches, so we probably will.
And I've got gloves.
And we've got a handkerchief.
And a handkerchief.
Yeah.
We are inspired teachers.
We are inspired teachers.
It's very hot.
Actually, it's meant for Africa, but I think it's probably the same.
We've got money for the charities and having fun, so we don't care if we're lost.
We're looking forward to it.
I think once it's over, happy time.
Thank you, guys.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
So, we're just heading off.
We've been standing out in the heat for a couple of hours.
We're still sweating.
a few problems. We have a new tuk-tuk, one of the new ones, and it doesn't like to idle,
so it's tough when we've got to keep the revs up or restore, so it's a bit of a pain. And
then you've got to pull a massive lever to start it up again, which is great when you're
in the middle of an intersection with like 60 rickshaws.
It's a truck that's fucking crazy. It's a main 47 highway, and if we can get on that,
it's going to be a left turn, then we've pretty much got that to a banger off, so it's awesome.
Highway, they'll be lovely. They're just driving past every five minutes, and they're
beeping their horn and waving. They're so into it, they're awesome, it's great.
Logan, how was your first city driving experience?
Frightening.
Frightening?
Yeah, absolutely frightening.
What's the key to driving through a city like that?
Don't hesitate, add all, and beep your horn a lot.
You think it might be hard for people to appreciate seeing this, appreciate how scary it actually
is?
It's, you're weaving between cars and stuff on one side, and there'll be like a truck,
the other way, like damage, sort of ruin. It's insane.
Woo! Oh my god, there's two buses.
There's the 150Ks we've done. Here it looks here.
I think he's going the right way.
He's going the right way.
He has only got balls of steel, that's fine.
We're going to put the fly from the tent over, and that'll hopefully give the bags nice and
dry.
What are we going at?
Well, there's trucks and buses screaming past us.
They won't even rain now.
Hey there boys.
Hey there boys, you alright?
You doing alright?
Yeah, I'm good.
You got it very.
You got it very.
It's not a lie, man.
You didn't.
You came out.
Did you go on the convoy?
We kind of let the convoy.
Before we knew it, there was a minute to keep behind us.
How are you doing, boys?
Good, man.
Good.
So what are you doing?
Stopping?
Giving it a bit.
Oh, it's raining, so we'll just check it out.
Try your windscreen.
Doesn't do anything.
It kind of caresses the windscreen.
What gear are they in?
Is that gear they did?
We're just driving along and this wind has died.
You might have blown it down.
Which is awesome.
It's nearly getting dark.
It's a horrible feeling, actually.
It's a really, it's actually quite a horrible feeling.
Yeah, it's a slightly nervous feeling.
Yeah, it's...
Oh, God.
It's chicken out on a campground.
Yeah, it's not looking.
When I'm broken down on the highway, I just enjoy a nice hot glass of water.
Hot glass, a lot of coffee.
You can smell it from there.
If it gets ready, fine.
If not, we have to find some other mechanic.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's the number one.
It's looking for a bit of a mechanic.
I don't know if there's a mechanic in there.
Yeah, that's the ferris wheel.
I think we're going to have a good day, so we're going to have a good day, so let's go.
I think we're going to have a good day today. I hope we're going to have a good day today, because yesterday was horrible.
Up until the point that the rickshaw got fixed. Once it was fixed, I don't think I've ever felt joy like that.
So Jeremy, how was my driving this morning?
Well, it wasn't good, but it's tough. That was my first real city drive as well. Jumping in after you jumped out was pretty tough.
I got through it, so it's like nothing. I guess most New Zealanders will ever face.
It's going to take some use to it. I'm going to have to do it, but I'm just going to have to get the confidence up.
It's like anything I've ever experienced. It's insane. I kind of feel like crying back there. It's horrible.
What do you think of the road? It's pretty good. First road you've had, actually. Very nice road.
And that bougie mix. How's the bougie mix? Which we're having for breakfast and lunch.
It's a tremendous idea. Eventually we're going to have to try some of the local cuisine.
Eventually we're going to have to eat some actual food.
We ate local food in Kerala, but since then it's been quite scarce.
Our first foray into the local cuisine was one of the most disappointing moments of my life.
But when they're burning a dead cow next to food, you kind of feel like maybe...
Yeah.
Yours is good too. Good bite.
We just got stopped by the police. How did you feel about that?
Yeah, stopped by the police. I thought they were going to ask us for some rupees.
But they seem pretty nice. Oh, monkey in the road. Monkey in the road. Monkey in the road.
There's a monkey. Holy shit. That's awesome.
That was a monkey. We have a monkey.
I'm really enjoying the driving. It's a lot of fun when you have your confidence and you have the encouragement.
Do you have to cover it?
But I might have speculated something.
I'm just going to kill us.
You guys haven't broken down yet? No, we don't say the B word.
You don't say the B word? We'll be done.
We've got a suspect petrol tank. We keep having to change it between normal tank and reserve tank.
It gives a little chug occasion. You just switch it from one to the other.
Try and switch it back ten minutes later and it's alright.
She's working out the king. She's alright. Just looking after the girl.
She's looking after us. She's beautiful.
We love her dearly. We'll keep super fresh.
Another bus.
I wonder if the Bates fastest in India is making a killing.
Stereo is broken. Stereo is broken.
So you can just see the chaos here driving through the city.
This is definitely the craziest traffic we've ever had.
So we're just going to try and find a way out of here and try and get to Noor.
Try it possibly further which is on the east coast.
And then continue on our way to Sikkim.
So hopefully we have another really good day and we don't break down and we have good luck.
That was probably some of the finest rickshaw driving I think I've ever seen.
Yeah it was pretty fucking good.
I think he's found his calling.
City driving. Jeremy should move to the law and drive rickshaws for a living.
Brilliant.
What's your name?
Epi, Epi.
Epi please.
We just got stopped by the police again. Second time.
Do we have licenses?
Yes. We do have licenses. They didn't want to see them, they just asked.
We certainly do.
So that was all. They just wanted to stop and take photos.
Yeah, take some photos and tell us how far we have to go, where to turn, all that kind of stuff.
Nice cars.
We've broken down a couple of times already.
One was made in the Petzel and then Spock, Buggo, Loose Connections, Aboy.
So we had to like, go to the Divergent yesterday.
That was a good experience with that bloke who came to help.
Oh yeah, he just stopped outside the road and then wanted us to buy his insurance.
Insurance and he wanted to sell a life insurance in London. His life insurance.
On a motorway in India, which was an interesting time.
And then we break down a second time and apparently we let the engine cool down a bit
and then sorted out the Spock bug and it started working on for about 40 minutes.
Woo!
It's so much faster than them. We're going to win this. We got it.
This is cool, isn't it, boss?
Just going to send you on, keep it going as fast as we can.
It's been a big driving day so far. We've started at 7.30 this morning.
It's about 4 o'clock. So, big day, but it's good.
We're going to win.
Highlight so far. Seeing me improve my driving.
Yeah, Fraser driving through a town. That was a highlight for me.
And not stalling and not freaking out.
Just actually weaving in and out and going through and being fine with it all.
That's a highlight for me. And getting those locals who helped us get a virtual clutch.
That's definitely a highlight for me. Those guys were pretty mean.
So, let's go now. We've just got to pull it out again.
Ladies' sense. Laving, ladies' sense.
What's up, sir? What do you think, Fraser?
I've got a license. Some reason he's pointing and telling me to come over here.
So, what for?
What's that? What does that mean?
I don't know what that means.
Come on, come on.
What for?
Police.
Hello.
Thank you very much.
I have no idea what that was about.
Just checking people's licenses and stuff.
I really don't know what for.
Maybe it's just a normal license check like we do in New Zealand, but it just seemed really strange.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is that what you want?
I don't want to say our papes and stuff, but I have to do my life to explore them now.
I'm a little worried.
Really hot.
He's saying that we don't have the correct paperwork to be driving the vehicle.
We don't have a permit for it.
So, I'm not too sure what that means.
So, he sent us to some offices down the road, but we don't really know what we want.
They want us to get or what, because we have all the paperwork and that,
other than the fact that we don't have the A stamp on our international drivers permit, which it might be about that.
So, we're probably just going to shoot down here and go around the cops and just head on our merry way.
I missed the red light and just drove out.
Alright, so after navigating our way around some chaos, we're back on the five heading north again.
So, fingers crossed.
So, I just put the tea cover over the bag, everything else, but it's raining really, really heavily.
I'm putting this rain cover on the tuk-tuk, because it's getting recurrent.
It's completely soaked up.
We stopped with these comedians here.
It's the 20th petrol pump we've come across.
Everyone's a comedian.
Where are you going?
Sikkim.
Sikkim.
Sikkim, Sikkim.
What?
My heart, very rich.
Money, not rich.
You don't need money?
Not very poor.
Because heart, very rich.
Any people's help?
I do.
100,000 K's to Calcutta.
That one in front of all these other numbers was, you know, mocked us for so long, but now we've smashed it.
So, 970 something to go.
And where are we now?
We're just going to head into, what's it called again?
Every fucking home.
Visakapatnam.
Visakapatnam.
Patnam.
Yeah.
We're just heading into Visakapatnam to find us some accommodation.
It's quite a big setting, so that would be interesting.
And you know, as soon as it gets dark, it's the time when we usually break down or nearly break down.
So, yeah, that's who it happens.
Let's see.
You're from Visakapatnam?
Visilan.
Very good, thank you.
Yeah.
It's eerily quiet, too quiet, weird.
Like no cars around at all.
Going short.
Going short.
Sorry, going short.
Don't see anyone in shorts.
Apart from us.
It's bound to happen at some point.
This thing just shakes back and forth the whole time, so it's just split right across there.
Yeah, it's not fair.
We're in Arissa now, just up the top of the woods before we get into West Bengal.
And I haven't seen anywhere to get water or food, but ages.
We're all pretty hot, and we really use the direct road about now.
Also, haven't seen any people for a while, so I don't know what's going on there.
It's pretty intense.
It's probably the hottest I've been.
It feels like about 45 degrees.
Most trucks and the heat of the trucks, everything else is pretty gross.
It is, man.
But hopefully we're out of it.
But yeah, it's pretty cool.
We're going to get some water soon.
We've got goodies for the week.
No, we're open to snacks.
We're outside the none.
We're a team from Edgewich.
Dad and two sons.
And we're not aiming to win, but we're getting close now.
I had to come, because mum was worried about these two.
I'm only here to keep the thing running.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So far, basically, I'm the first person to have a run, which is great.
I'm a nice driver.
So yeah, we did wait and succumbed.
Now, 2,000 kilometers.
You're the cows.
You're the cows.
How's the feel, Logan?
Feels good.
You're the cows.
Over here, we have the new look.
Tuck, tuck, boom.
As you know, we broke the roof rack yesterday.
This is holding us up.
This is holding our luggage together.
Got a nice little wooden feather in our cap.
All the day on the road.
Hey, got a little lift up.
A bit of a hug.
Got a hug.
It's my first hug in India.
It's quite nice.
We've just stopped to get our service, and we've stopped at a place down the road
and set the auto shop.
There's just a desk in there.
One of the guys in that grab, jumped in the rickshaw with us.
We've stopped about eight other times.
Probably about three other shops and just a few random places to ask for directions.
We've finally, through the back streets, found what appears to be a mechanic.
Interesting.
Has he done this before?
He didn't expect that.
He's young.
So apparently our rickshaw is being serviced by a 12 year old boy with a little stash.
I'm glad we grew some facial hair for this.
Can we sit?
There's a diesel engine.
So we're going to find a picture of that.
The war has just failed.
We'll get him out of here.
So it was saying that rickshaw is a pretty flash.
So we're just giving up on that.
We're going to just keep going to the next town and we'll just go further.
Hopefully we'll find someone that can service it for us.
Really?
Yeah.
And this?
Yeah, it's no problem I think.
It might take 12 to 15 hours maximum.
If you go non-stop, it's a little bit tricky guys.
Apparently, we'll be able to make that jeering in one day.
So next morning, there's the link direct by evening.
The train is just right in the middle.
The jeering is just right in the middle.
We've been swapped.
A 12 year old with a mustache for 13 year old with no mustache.
I don't think he'll be here for the job.
I'll see what I can do.
We're about 40km from Calcutta.
Logan's in the helm.
A bit of night driving.
It's been pretty scary.
Logan's doing a really good job.
We've just discovered that our other lights work.
So that's good that helps.
But yeah, 10km is just actually a long time
and there's kind of traffic and everything else.
So I think we're still probably 45 an hour away.
Yeah, crazy.
It's even worse at night when you drive.
We're going to ride into the heart of Calcutta.
It's already chaotic out here.
I can't even imagine what it's going to be like
once we actually get into the city.
I haven't seen one took took.
No, no, no.
We're just making it up.
Don't worry, it's okay.
Just go straight back.
Now you're going to hit it.
You're going to hit it.
That was good though.
We're coming across the Calcutta bridge now.
Two main things we're looking for is a hotel and a pizza hut.
We're pretty sure that they'll have a pizza hut here.
We saw one there.
But we didn't stop and get anything.
We were all very disappointed about that.
So we really want some pizza there.
We're going to try and a hotel would be quite good as well.
I can't believe what we just drove through in this most insane thing I've ever seen in my life.
Completely jacked.
It's like I've just got a plane.
I've never come so close to heading so many things.
It's such a short space of time.
And people and by far the craziest thing I've ever done.
I want to do it again.
So we got up this morning at about the grand old time at 4am.
Just to get a head start on the traffic because it was so crazy last night.
It's paid off well.
It was very dark when we got up.
But we managed to find a gas station.
And we got out of the main central city with bugger all traffic.
We're just on the outskirts now.
We've just come across the dark side of the gnar.
And we've got a team that we're racing against.
This bus is a close.
We're just heading up to Alcola on the 34th highway.
Probably the worst highway traffic we've ever experienced.
There's pretty much all the trucks.
And there's just no give.
That's why we had one that for no reason just started veering off into our lane.
So we're just going to pull off onto the side and let it go past.
We're about 80km from Socombe now.
We're heading to the border where I have to pick up a permit to get in.
We know that there's one team around us.
But we don't know whether they're in front or behind.
So we're quite lucky in one sense that the border is only open 8am to 8pm.
So either way it's going to be a two team race I think after the mountain.
We'll get to the finish line so you'll get there first.
At least that broke it down. That'd be awesome.
Woo!
Music playing
Hey!
They let you in there.
Roof rack is fine.
This part of the drive is so steep.
Going up the first gear.
It's just cruciating me slow.
We nearly had a little sick of me as a kid.
But you guys are running up hill.
That's a good feeling after all that time spent.
All that time wondering every second of the day when we're going to break down.
This place is beautiful too.
I think we're going to love it here.
We've just arrived.
Just a mere 7 and a half days after launch.
It's a little bit...
We didn't really expect it.
We're not quite ready.
We haven't even put up the finish line banners yet.
These guys have just absolutely smacked it.
New Richelorone record.
Seven days for such a long distance.
Almost.
It's raining.
A lot.
Just helping the organisers put up the finishing line banners.
Lucky we're here.
A bit of extra labour.
Having arrived so freakishly early.
It's nice though.
We wouldn't have to expect anyone to up tomorrow.
Beards.
How are they going? Beards?
Beards.
I got a severe case of...
It's a severe case of gingivitis.
Our logo is going to be a hell of a piece here.
It's just patchy.
It's not hell of a piece here. It's patchy.
This is not diarrhea.
First of all we obviously have problems with the carburetor.
Fuel leak going through.
The first couple of times it's what the first two mechanics did.
Second time it was major because it went pop
and then literally getting nothing.
The piston rings un-seized.
The cylinder bored out.
Exhaust fell off.
The battery fell onto the engine and got cooked.
We've had to take screws out of the chassis to actually hold the exhaust.
We got kicked out of the town. It looked exactly like Resident Evil.
We bowled up at this town at two o'clock in the morning after I'm being fixed.
This guy bought out a cylinder, un-seized the piston rings by the side of the road.
Fired it all back up.
Going through this town with no exhaust.
Everybody came out and said you've got to leave here because you're too loud.
You're disturbing the peace.
So we just got on the took at two o'clock in the morning.
We drove all the way through Calcutta.
We drove 30 hours and then we went through Calcutta.
Then drove till three o'clock in the afternoon trying to find our hotel.
And here we are.
And then our battery fell off.
It's been beautiful. It's been fun.
We've made it.
Just throw it on the scrap heap. We're done.
Someone got a lighter and he set fire to it right now.
It's been awesome.
These teams raised over a thousand pounds for charity.
Most of them anyway.
So we've raised so far 90,000 English pounds for charities within India which is fucking awesome.
Can you believe that?
Thank you.
