The story so far

View the journey so far.... in a larger map

 I have reached the end of this road which takes me to Ahmedabad, India after exactly 200 days of cycling finishing in at around 19,000km in total.
After every mountain climbed, there is always another one that can be seen from the top tempting us to go further, but not every mountain has to be climbed to know how high it is.
 I am currently  involved with putting on an art exhibition here in Ahmedabad. The paintings are to be sold, and all proceeds going to charity `Hamro Chahana Nepal` which is an organisation working to help underprivilaged remote villages of Nepal, building schools, distributing supplies and creating health awareness.
Please help me to support this organisation. The paintings will be up for sale on an auction basis going to the highest bidder. Paintings can be viewed on this site by selecting the relevant blog post from the 'Blog Archieve' located on the right side bar under 'March' and selecting 'Exhibition paintings' also by selecting the 'artwork' heading at the top where there is a slide show of the paintings.

 Hamro Chahana Nepal 

Any inquiries or donations, please post a message to me along with your E-Mail ID and I will reply. Thank you for your support.

Gavin

So far just encountered a few punctures, worn out chain and rear sprockets, a bent seat bracket, a broken headlight bulb that no one here has ever seen before, but the mind body and spirit is intact, not just intact but expanding perfectly with the rhythm of the soul and spirit of traveling.

Met some great people, and so many local people, thank you to all of them who have tooted theirs horns, waved, shouted and given so much of their genuine blessings....thank you.

Fastest speed........94.8 kmh 
Wales, with a small Welsh hurricane blowing behind me, downhill towards a hairpin bend so I bottled out at 94.8kmh....phew!
Hottest day........48.8
Turkey

Scariest moment

Bulgaria on a long, straight, wide road, daydreaming away whilst pumping the pedals around, I hear nothing...then...... Screeeeeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhhhh........AAAAAACHSHALAAAM!

At close to warp speed a van had appeared from the other side of the galaxy, on a direct collision course with me, just as it came sliding alongside with all 4 wheels locked, suddenly over my left shoulder a disembodied voice at about 100 decibels, screamed what sounded like, AAAAAACHSHALAAAM! There was a silent nano second where I swear there were a few particles of white paint between me and oblivion, instead there was a Wooooosh and just a few brown particles as the white van screamed past, leaving a trail of thick rubber behind, just managing to lose enough speed to not hit a car ahead....I was then very much in the present moment.
Being hunted at night by angry tribal people for sleeping in a dried up water hole....? no idea what was the problem but they returned with back up, dogs barking so I decided it was better to get the hell out of there.

Best Moments

After riding a 120km day through new places, cloudless blue skies, wind behind me, smiling faces, finding a perfect place to camp, running water, soft grass beneath the feet, 29 degrees, full stomach and plenty of tea. Sun setting behind a mountain panorama, reflected in a liquid mirror, completely silent except the chirping of insects and the rhythm of your heart.
Camping out in the dessert in Iran, complete silence, full moon, under a canopy of stars.
Finally tasting Indian food in Dubai, paratha, saag, chana, aloo, gallons of chai masala.
Being handed a 500gram box of Iranian sweets from a passing car just when I was having a serious craving for something rich and sugary...Allah provided......thank you, these things were like pure sugar double deep fried in butter....wow.
Hmmmm best moments seem to be mostly around food!

Worst moments

Running out of tea, being hounded like movie star through 'Daran' town center in Iran. Trying to cycle in a sand storm....sand in your pants.

 

the end of the road, but not the horizon

Siliguri to Ahmedabad, 2146km

Finally I was re united with my bike where it had been transported to Siliguri, West Bengal after staying in Nepal for nearly 3 months.

I eagerly removed all the careful packaging that the transportation company had taken time to protect my bike with, but I think in the end it was only provided to keep all the broken bits in once they started throwing heavy boxes on top of it.

My poor bike looked like it had a much harder journey than my 12hour bus ride from Nepal, feeling more guilty than ever for leaving it to survive India alone.

Finally after a few hours with tools and bits of rope it looked like we were back on the road again. I set off from Siliguri, and felt amazing to be riding again, complete, restored....Stone free to ride the breeze again!

Quite a large stowaway..!

One week later I arrived at Varanassi, my one day of luxury, well a shower and a bed. I arrived late in the evening with no idea where to go, hot and tired as the buildings got bigger and denser, the traffic and congestion of all kinds of walking, crawling, mooing, bleeting, honking was just intense, one of the dirtiest, noisiest, mess of a place I was fortunate to discover, fortunate only in the sense that it made the peace and quiet of my room and the refreshing shower so much more appreciated. I sat under that shower that evening abusing all water restrictions, watching the dust and grime and stress flowing away, soaking up this valuable sensation, such a simple pleasure that you do not appreciate unless you have had these contrasting experiences, the pleasure and the pain go hand in hand.

Hmmmm !

Varanassi, the most spiritual mess of a place I have come across, really is a must see place of birth, death and life, its all going on here, and if fate catches up with you here where Mr death taps you on the shoulder, well why not lets go, its 'the' place to die and get the best spiritual passage out of here.

Body being carried to Ghat

300 bodies a day to be burnt thats a lot of wood!

 I just reached Ahmedabad yesterday, finishing at just over 2000km. The last week was very hot at around 44 degrees, but some places where the sun was reflecting off the black tarmac must have been more like 50 degrees and got hotter the closer I got to here, impossible to cycle much after 1.00pm, so I was waking up at 4.00am and riding in the dark for about an hour, resting from 1-00pm and then continuing after 4.00pm. I never drunk so much water in my life, maybe 12liters a day and not needing to wee at all, really amazing how the body adapts to different environments and what it is able to do. I was hardly eating much food either, half a cup of porridge in the morning with some nuts and dried fruit, no lunch and just one bowl of rice with vegetables for the evening, just did not feel like it, too tired and just wanting to drink liquids.

....Well that is it, we have reached the end of the road. I thought at one point though the bike had given up, 700km back the back wheel developed a problem, started getting play in what I thought was the bearing on the sprocket side, and I did not have the spanner to fit the tool to remove the sprocket to investigate, so had to ride carefully avoiding as much of the terrible holes in the road as possible, not wanting the bearing to collapse totally. Eventually I found a place that had a spanner but carried on riding not wanting to disturb any bits of metal that might be somehow holding everything together, but finally I lost drive, the gears started slipping. I thought the freewheel mechanism had collapsed, so that was the time to take it apart and investigate.

I coasted to a halt at the side of the road and started removing the gears. I was right, bits of metal fell out of the hub, it has a sort of cush drive affair, where the gear shaft meshes with the wheel hub, made of aluminum, which had all broken so the gear shaft  had nothing to engage with the wheel hub. I started to look around for bits of metal that I could jam in, then slowly but surely the Indians started gathering, it takes about 30 seconds actually, anytime you stop to do anything, they start appearing from no where, heads wobbling, jabbering away in Hindi and slowly blot out the sun forming a cocoon around you, you know how frustrating that is when you are trying to think and fix things, then suddenly there are hands everywhere and small arguments going on between them of who has the best idea or biggest hammer to hit it with, so rather than getting frustrated you have to go with the flow.

Tired, hot and bewildered I let one of them take my wheel, and he sped off on his motorbike. Meanwhile the press arrived, then a TV crew and suddenly I am in the middle of an interview going through all the story again in this swealtering heat, incredible India........!

Fair enough though my wheel returned half an hour later and they managed to hammer bits of metal into it with a really big hammer. Looking at it I doubted the technique and I thought it would last about 1 km, but it got me here all the way with no problems, this is how India works, many hands working as one. I am very grateful to these Indians who helped me and wished for nothing in return, I hope good karma returns for them.

Nature Fury

I have just been reading some letters and publications in the newspapers here in India, which are subjects close to my heart and which I have been ranting on about for so long, much to the dismay of some people that are unable to see past the material bubble that surrounds them, but happy to see that other people are sharing my concerns as well. I am sure something will happen soon to restore the damage and imbalance that is happening politically and environmentally in our world. It seems only when a disaster actually effects us, our country, our community, our friends or our family, only then do people seem to want to think about these issues, let alone do anything. We do not know hunger unless we have actually been starving, we do not know loss until we lose something close to us, we do not appreciate health until we have suffered an illness, life is like that we only learn and want to make changes through experience. What a shame the world has to learn this way.

We are experiencing natures warnings already as resources are getting low, food shortages, crops failing because of severe weather changes, population increasing and the constant pursuit of profit that overwhelms all moral and environmental issues.

It makes me crazy when I imagine what could be achieved if our scientists, great minds and resources were focused on resolving these issues, rather than spending huge amounts of money and time developing weapons, funding wars, politics and armies to fight each other over what resources we have left, rather than developing intelligent, innovative and new ways to live together in harmony with our environment and working together for a common cause.

Unfortunately it means we need to change, the way we live and the way we think about life, many people do not like change, do not want to give up any of their comforts or wasteful ways, but everything is and does change, our new car becomes old, our bigger houses need more and more maintenance, our bank balances creak under the strain of an increasing economic disaster, this economy relies on consumption for it to exist, so how can we be economical and resourceful, there's no money/profit in being reasonable and economical, so credit and debt was created to support the constant need for consumption. It cannot last the way it is, as resources are finite and nature will have her day to restore this imbalance.

There are solutions for any problem, and nature has all the answers if we are prepared to look, observe and work with her instead of trying to tame her, rape her and force her to submit to our egotistical, greedy, aggressive nature. Short-sightedness, greed and material distraction is a battle we all have to fight for us to see the reality of where we are going if we continue to keep taking and not think to give anything back.

What do we need to do to make people experience something and demand change, hopefully we will not have to set ourselves alight for this to happen!

We do know what pain is until something burns us

FREE TIBET

I miss my bike...

I arrived in Katmandu, by flight from Mysore, south India on the 23rd January, exactly the day my Indian visa ran out...."phew, made it I thought"

I promised myself right at the start of the bike journey that I would never part with my faithful companion, never take flights and traverse the continents under my own power, a romantic idea that at some point had to end by making compromises due to unforseen obstacles, and/or lack of planning more like.

I had been running a race against visa expiry dates again, I had just a few days spare in either direction to either reach Nepal, or Sri Lanka via ferry.

Because of  events, such as trains being fully booked, ferry services discontinued, plan A and B was compromised leaving me pretty much stranded in the south of India, many weeks riding away to any accessible borders. Luckily friends helped me out by putting me in contact with friends of theirs where I could leave my bike and booking a flight for me.....thank you my friends. Well there seemed to be no other option than to break this golden rule and leave my faithful partner to rest from travelling for a couple of months.

Now after 1 month, plenty of rest, plenty of calories, the pain, discomfort, sweat, dust and thousands of kilometres, seem to be a blurry memory now that you almost want to repeat again just to remind yourself what it was all about.....it took just a couple of  bus/jeep rides being pinned into your seat by other squirming bodies, elbows, coughing, hacking and being sick out of the window, sometimes at the window, very quickly I drifted back to the open road, wind in my hair and total freedom to go where you want, stop where you want, eat when you want.......I really miss my bike.....still missing my bike, and currently trying to get it transported to either here in Nepal, or to Siliguri, north India, where I will be going next to visit friends. Seems not to be so easy either, so in between the painting I am phoning and e mailing trying to find a way to get my bike back.......the team needs to be re united before I over calorie myself to death.

Hampi

A great place, many things here for everyone, temples, strange rock features, climbing, parties, culture, a great place to meet other travellers.

I heard about a place called La Tipi, cheap and chearfull accomodation, huts, huge communal Tipi, camping or just hammocks in the trees, very cool relaxed atmosphere.