TWO Brits have completed a gruelling challenge to hitchhike from Asia to the UK across 15 days in an effort to raise money for charity – and with no budget.
Kieran Brown from Sidcup, Kent and Joe Martin, from Derby, Derbyshire only met four months ago during their separate travels around Nepal.
However the two instantly struck up a friendship thanks to their love of travelling – with both having visited over 40 countries each.
Kieran, 28, and Joe, 25, have since decided to put their newfound friendship and fondness for country-hopping to the test in an effort to raise money for homeless charities across Europe.
The two men returned home to London on Thursday evening after initially beginning their challenge in the Asian side of Istanbul on August 10th.
The zero-budget trip saw them rely solely on the kindness of strangers for transport, accommodation and even food.
The pair have since smashed their minimum fundraising target goal, with their GoFundMe page currently sitting at £2,478 at the time of writing.
Kieran has also been uploading each day’s journey to TikTok where he documents how they’ve progressed – with followers quick to lend their support and amazement at the duo’s efforts.
One user wrote: “People can be so kind.”
Another commented: “The further west you go, the harder the challenge become.”
Another wrote: “Imagine trying to do this as a woman.”
Another replied: “Loved every minute of your journey! Well done lads.”
Speaking today bartender Kieran said: “Joe Martin and I have travelled extensively and wanted something to challenge us and get us out of our comfort zone.
“Joe posted the challenge on his Instagram story asking if anyone was interested in doing this and I was the only stupid person to agree to it.
“We want to highlight human kindness and show that countries that are sometimes portrayed as ‘dangerous’ are filled with kind and genuine people who will go out of their way to help
“We didn’t plan anything for the trip or a specific route, we even didn’t buy sleeping bags until the day before the challenge started whilst in Istanbul.
“The only thing we had was the starting point which was on the Asian side of Istanbul – with hitchhiking you can never plan any route. As long as it’s in the direction of west, we have been taking it.
“It’s given us the opportunity to visit towns and cities off the beaten track in the countries that we have passed through that we would not have usually visited.”
Kieran continued: “We have been blown away by how nice people can be.
“People that had never met us and owed us nothing went out of their way to house and feed us although some days we had to spend the night rough and hungry.
“For sleeping we used the app Couch Surfing a few times, they can list a room in their house on the app and you can stay for free and just exchange convos about culture and various things.
“When we stayed, they were aware of the challenge and usually made us something to eat and gave us a bag of stuff such as cereal and protein bars which we have rationed.
“Some days we have gone extended periods of time without food and have relied on blackberry bushes and plum trees, a few of the nights we have slept rough.
“Sleeping rough always has its risks but we tried to find secluded areas away from cities.
Concluding their journey, Kieran explained that the last few days were the toughest of all.
He said: “The last few days was the most tough part of the challenge.
“We got stuck for multiple days in Germany without being picked up so changed things up and got into the Netherlands and north Belgium.
“We eventually made it to Dunkirk and everyone was warning us that it wasn’t safe to sleep rough but thankfully a guy called Djamel offered us to sleep in his car after giving us food and a shower.
“Once we made it to Calais we waited all day at the ticket counter for P&O Cruises and tried to convince people to let us board in their car but most people didn’t realise that you pay by the car and not the people inside it.
“Eventually we got a UK family who helped us, from Dover.
“We got chatting to them and they actually used to be homeless when they were younger and a charity called Porchlight helped them get back on their feet and said without them they would most likely be in prison or dead now.
“So, we have decided to allocate the UK portion of the final amount to that charity, we are keeping the donation link open for another week as we have an interview with the BBC at their studio later this week.”
Kieran finished by explaining how the pair plan on dividing up the money raised: “Our target at the start was £2,000 and we have raised just shy of £2,500 so far.
“Once we got back home it was such a relief but we are proud of our achievements and hopefully the short and long form content has shown that their is kindness everywhere in the world.
“We plan to split the final donation about between the countries we end up passing through, it will be the final amount split nine ways, one homeless charity per country, which ended up being across ten.
“We arrived into London Stratford at 22:50 on Friday, I was aiming to be back before my birthday so just made it in time.
“It’s so nice not having to rely on kindness anymore and being able to just go out and buy stuff, I lost 6kg during the 15 days.
“It’s more relief than anything and I have finally been able to sleep stress-free and for more than 5 hours each night.”
To donate to the pair’s cause, please visit the GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/1144cbc4
