Hitting the road, four young boys from Mumbai hopped ontotheir bicycles and left for Goa. It took them almost five days to complete thistrip that was planned a good six months ahead. “We left Mumbai on October 2 andtouched Goa on October 7. Our idea of exploring the coastal route of Konkan(the stretch from Mumbai to Goa) as an adventure, later took a bigger shape,”shares Akshat Singhal. A sports guy Akshat along with other young professionalsVipul Jain, Pranay Goyal and Vaibhav Mathur made this bicycle tour a reality.
All of them love to travel. Their plan was to promote theidea of ‘sustainable tourism’ using social media. Apart from live tweetingabout this event, they shared experiences on blogs, cycling forums and a facebook page.
“Very few cyclists take up this route and not muchinformation is available on internet. Hence, we thought our endeavour will helpothers to follow and take this up. Apart from using cycling as a mode, weexplored local cuisine and enjoyed meeting new people en route,” Akshat shares.
It is important to see the rural India and that India is notmade up of only cities but of thousands of villages. “We have a rich naturalresource which should be preserved by promoting green tourism. There is enoughto see in our country itself. If we promote India as an adventure destinationin a green manner there is potential to generate enough employment and wealthfor our country,” Vipul sincerely feels.
For Vaibhav, the best experience was the realisation thatthe journey is more important than the end. “When I look back at the trip itwas not the instance when we entered Goa that stands out but the whole six daysand the complete journey is as refreshing as the end,” he says. Vaibhav plansto travel more across India and South Asia.
“The trip was adventurous, a very self-learning one,teaching us endurance, spirit, attitude and understanding thrills of life.Punctures, tough ghats, steep slopes, heavy rains and the scorching sun werevery thrilling,” says Pranay.
Beautiful sunrises, random good mornings, lovely smiles bythe school kids and the astonished faces of the locals, along with the morningchants of the temples of the villages kept them company. “The connection withpeople was beyond words. We achieved a lot in terms of our personal growth,have outdone our boundaries and fears. All of this will help us deal withbigger challenges in our life,” admits Akshat who wished this journey never hadto end.
