ANISH DHOPESHWARKAR
Road trips with buddies are a fascinating phenomenon, especially for youngsters. Young people make it a point to take at least one such trip during their college days. We at TG Life just happened to come across some of such backpacking riders-who have come to Goa all the way from Europe, criss-crossing 12 countries with their scooters!
Wolfgang, Claudie, and Christine, have travelled around 16,000 kilometers on their Vespas, from Berlin to Arambol. “Winter in Europe is very harsh and scathing. We wanted to escape that. So, we decided to spend it in Goa, which is way better having a warm,sunny climate,” chuckles Wolfgang leader of the trio, who has worked as a tourist guide.
“We started in July 2018 from Berlin, and went on to Vienna, then to Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan then took a ferry over Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and into China, Nepal, and finally to India”, informed Wolfgang. He further added, “Best part of our journey was all the friendly and enthusiastic people we met along the way, who were curious about us and eager to help us. I remember in Mumbai we met one guy and he let us sleep at his house for a night. Along with the people other best part about this trip was the scenic landscape through which we passed mighty Himalayas,steppes of Kazakhstan, beautiful cities like Istanbul, Varanasi Delhi.”
They did encounter issues such as flat tires and broken trailers. Travelling through China was an especially daunting task, narrates Wolfgang “We faced total 83 police checkpoints during our journey, and out of that 79 were in China alone.” Another key issue was finance. “Raising finance for this project was a very critical issue for us. We were looking for sponsors from companies as well as crowdfunding. Italian scooter company Vespa agreed to lend us scooters, and about half of the expense of this trip we paid from our own pockets,” says Wolfgang.
One of the intriguing part of their journey was a blue elephant they were carrying. Commenting on that he said, “We want make a film about our road trip to Goa. We have filmed all of our trip and we plan to release it on March 1. This blue elephant which we were carrying made people curious about us, so they used to come up to us themselves and also lend us any support they could.”
Being a fan of Indian food, especially curry, the trio is delighted to finally be in the land of curries. “When we were crossing from Nepal into India, we saw a huge gate ‘Welcome to India’ these words made us realise that we have finally reached our dream destination after 5 long months. I love Goan food and climate. The way people of Goa have preserved their beautiful heritage and history really impresses me. Now we are staying at Arambol. Informed Wolfgang. The three buddies plan to spend three weeks in Goa. “We will focus on writing down our memories and relax a bit taking in Goa’s ‘sushegaad’ lifestyle,” chuckles Wolfgang.
(Details of the journey can be found of http://elephant-to-india.com/
The website is in German)
