Four years on a motorbike

How long does it take to conquer the world on two wheels?

Chennai: 07/08/2017, For City: Royal Enfiled at Besant Avenue, Adyar. Photo: M. Karunakaran

He pulls his hair into a firm ponytail, puts on his helmet, mounts his bike and beams as brightly as the headlight of his Royal Enfield Himalayan. And with that, Kedarnath GM sets off on a four-year expedition, during which he plans to cover around 300,000 km, traversing the world.

His backpack is relatively light, with just a few clothes, essential toiletries and a water filter. He has also packed some travel-friendly food, like potatoes and eggs, which he plans to cook while camping at the end of each day. As for gadgets and GPS? “I don’t carry a phone or GPS, people are my navigators,” he smiles, with an air of nonchalance.

The 34-year-old from Hampi, who was living in Mysuru till now, resigned from his job, as he required the money from his provident fund for this journey. “I also hope some funds come in from the sale of my coffee table book titled

Dream to ride around the world — A voyage on my motorbike ,”

says the biker, discussing how he intends to fund himself over the next four years.

Kedarnath started biking in 2012. Till then, a sturdy bicycle was his choice of transport. “The thought of going to places not accessible by train, flight and buses made me realise that a bike is the best alternative to explore these regions. I bought my first two-wheeler, a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc, and set off on my first big road trip from Hampi to Leh and back,” says Kedarnath.

He says the experiences he had during his journey served as a turning point. People were warm and hospitable everywhere he went. “In the north, I slept in the gurudwaras and dhabas. They offered me chaarpai (bed) and food for free when they realised the long distance I was riding. My bike was parked on the roadside and nothing went missing. In Jammu and Kashmir, when the locals saw the Karnataka registration on my bike, they asked me if I had accommodation and voluntarily put me on to the Director of Tourism, who wrote a letter to government-owned tourist bungalows to provide me with accommodation, free of cost. And yet when I returned, people back home asked me: ‘Were you safe? Did you get mugged?’,” he says.

Kedarnath says it bothers him that people tend to assume the worst about their own countrymen. He says that, maybe, the hospitable treatment he has received so far within the country is because he knows the language of most locals and is able to communicate relatively easily. Maybe things will be different if he were to visit foreign lands where dialects are diverse. “To find an answer to that question, I embarked on a six-month journey in 2013 from Hampi to Mumbai, then Tehran in Iran and cities in Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and back.”

In Prague, a Czech couple opened out their home for him to stay. In Spain and Germany, Pakistani restaurant owners didn’t charge him when they realised he was from India. In Iran, locals taught him Persian poems... “These pleasant incidents inspired me to ride across continents, spreading the message of love and peace. That is the focus of this voyage I have now embarked on,” he adds.

After flagging off from Chennai yesterday afternoon, he will now ride to Kolkata, fly to Bangkok and resume his journey from there, riding through Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, South America, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal and Africa — nearly 113 countries in all.

He has estimated his total budget for this trip at ₹50 lakh. “Since I am on a budget, I am not staying in hotels. The fuel alone will cost me ₹15-16 lakh,” he says. There will be additional challenges: the temperatures across the different countries he will be crossing will vary from 45 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius. However, he says, “My only worry is driving home my message — the fact that we can all co-exist happily but are only separated by borders — to places where language is the only barrier.” He adds, “This is also the subject of my upcoming book titled No Countryman, because I don’t associate myself with one large country, or just one nation, but the whole wide world instead.”