-By Ajay Bhola

Cycling from Everest Base Camp to Kanniyakumari

My love of mountains & backcountry led me to treks and travels all over the country, especially in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Around two decades ago I was working with a company that was into experiential learning & also conducted summer camps for children. It was my passion to work in the mountains and forests exploring with youngsters and sharing experiences with them.  We used to get groups for 6 days and between two groups we would get a day off when we used to relax, clean our equipment and gear at the camp and soak in the sun. I used to run modules mainly on outdoor survival and marksmanship which was teaching how to survive in the wilderness and use rifles and archery for target practice. Besides other things taught at the camp, one thing that I found interesting was mountain biking. I never had a cycle of my own – forget a cycle with gears so obviously it held my fascination.

Never been on one?

We would often try our hands on other skills on our free days at the camp. I never shy-ed away from teaching my colleagues what I knew of my skills but when I expressed my desire to ride that wonder bike with gears I was in for a shocker. Not just they wouldn’t give a cycle on a free day for a mere joy ride, I was asked if I had ever peddled one in my life. No amount of cajoling let me close to the wonder ride. That evening I had my tea alone and my dinner in one corner away from others. I could not stomach the thought that I was not allowed to ride as I had never done that before and that it was a skill that needed years of practice to master the basics. The next weekend, I was talking about the episode to my dear friend who was working with me and was a mountaineer who dreamt of scaling Everest. `I want to climb Everest one day’, he said. Knowing that he didn’t have the finance of 25 lakh to climb Everest I said, `If you climb up Narinder, I will cycle down from the base camp of Everest till Lukla’ in Nepal.  We both had a laugh and called it a day. A year passed & he joined a private firm Sahara India, the sponsor of the Indian cricket team, in their adventure cell.

I am going up so be ready to cycle down

One fine morning I get a call from Nari. He was ecstatic and disclosed that Sahara was sponsoring his expedition to scale Everest. A surge of memories sprang up in my brain. It was a long shot but I asked if he still remembered the crazy idea of cycling. He did and in our next meeting we started building castles in the air of the expedition we never thought we would undertake. The plan was that if he would scale Everest in 2010 then the next year, we would ride down from EBC to some place in India. And all this was so that we could get a mountain terrain bike to ride.

Make a plan - get the bike

Nari managed to summit Everest in 2010 and we met for a celebratory dinner in Delhi. We worked out the cost of two MTB’s, riding gear, etc, and the cost of the expedition which was from EBC to Lucknow. We decided to approach Sahara to sponsor our expedition & choose this endpoint as Sahara had their office there. We worked out the route and put a plan in place to ask for funds. We met our sponsors and told them of our intention and that we would be riding to promote the idea of recycling and raise awareness of global warming. The event managers were not impressed as the riding distance was too short. It was not even 2000km and the sponsors would not get any mileage out of it. They asked if we could do maybe a longer ride till Delhi bringing up the mileage to at least 3000km. Nari and I were desperate to ride and decided, what the heck, yeah we’d do that. The whole idea was to get on the bike and ride as we both had never rode MTB ever before. So we went back to stretch the route a bit more. The idea so far was to start riding from Everest Base Camp to reach Lukla and then via Jubing reach Phaplu. Till Phaplu we would have to ride on dirt or mule track as there were no roads there. From Phaplu we would get a broader road which was still a dirt road but take us via Pattale, Mirchaiya, and Birtamode to enter India through Raniganj immigration check post at West Bengal. To extend the route we replanned to cycle through west Bengal into Assam and ride into Arunachal Pradesh entering at Hollongi, then riding through Itanagar till Dhemaji to enter Assam near Dibrugarh and then catch up on the route to Delhi.

We met the event manager at Sahara and shared our plans. He said he might have to tweak it a bit and then that could work. We were happy with the result and came back home and started looking at bikes for the expedition. So far, we had no idea how much would the bikes cost. We were happy with any bike, it just had to be an MTB.

We get a call

We get a call from Sahara Mumbai asking us to meet them. We reach their hotel, which was close to the airport, for the meeting. The event manager told us with a smile that his senior would put up the proposal for approval. We meet the senior manager. `How much distance are they going to ride’? was the first question. Before we could say anything, the event manager blared out, `Sir they are going to do around 6000km’. Our jaws fell. That was a long distance just to enjoy the ride on an MTB. But we too were hell-bent and agreed. He asked us to decide on a bike of our choice, the cost of which would be inconsequential. That brought a smile to our faces. Back to the drawing board, we went. We narrowed down on Trek 6000D, a fine MTB that cost upward of half a lakh each. Two months passed without any word from the sponsors. And then the call came for the final discussion. We go to Mumbai at their office and meet all team of senior people who have a say in the company. We were going to be their brand ambassadors in spreading awareness of global warming and the need to recycle and promote cycling. `How many days would you take to cover 9000km’? asked one gentleman. Nari and I look at each other puzzled. We had never said it was 9000km. Later we get to know that someone had already cycled from Cairo to Cape Town, some 9000 odd km in 70 days, so to get the sponsors excited the event team put up this crazy idea of breaking that record. My knees felt weak. I could see Nari swallowing his spit. We went to a corner to decide and thought what the heck, we would still be riding, isn’t it? That’s what we wanted. And not all records can be broken. So we came back to the table and said `sure, we would ride more than that distance, and that too in 70 days. Amidst cheers and jubilation, our proposal was passed. We came back to Delhi and got busy getting our bikes and gear together.

Looking towards Nepal

Nepal government turned down our proposal to ride from EBC for the fact that the region falls under Sagarmatha National Park and they did not want any activity of this sort. After negotiating for a few months, we finally approached `Asian Trekking’ in Kathmandu, a reputed company that was engaged in expeditions. Mr. Apa Sherpa heard us and agreed to get us the required permit. We told him of the extent of our expedition and he stared at us as if we had lost our mind. We had a just cause for which we were riding to spread awareness. A month later the permit came which entitled us to take our bikes to EBC and to start our expedition. We were thrilled. Finally, the plan was falling into place.

Getting ready for the ride

Our sponsors approved 2 MTB’s by `Trek’ which is one of the best in the sport of cycling. We were also to get a Mahindra Scorpio as a support vehicle with a driver and a person to handle logistics for us. My dear friend Arvind whom I knew from my days of camping readily consented to be the guy who would fix our stay, meals, etc on a daily basis. The vehicle would meet us at the border immigration point of Raniganj in Bengal. Nari and I reached Mumbai for the flag-off at Sahara Hotel, where Bollywood star Mr. Shreyas Talpade, was called to flag us off. I am not a movie buff so was not aware of who he was and what he did. All I wanted was to cycle, that’s it. Nothing else mattered at this time. We shook hands and exchanged names. Shreyas asked me why was I undertaking this expedition. I gave him three reasons which were, no one had done it before, to have fun on the bike, and to spread awareness of global warming and the need for cycling. Since I didn’t know him, I happened to ask him what he did for a living. With a big laugh, he told me he was an actor. I asked if he was a theater actor. He laughed harder and told me he was a Bollywood movie star. I felt a bit embarrassed. Later the next day, we collected some T-shirts that were made for the expedition and other riding gear and flew back to Delhi.

Nepal here we come

After cheers and hugs at home, Nari and I reached the airport in Delhi to fly down to Nepal. Finally, our dreams were turning into reality. We touch down at Tribhuwan international airport in Nepal and check into a hotel. The next day we met Apa Sherpa over tea to collect our permit. We get the customary scarf for our success from him and later do the last-minute shopping at Kathmandu. Our aim was to quickly reach EBC and start riding down from there. We get ourselves a pair of shoes and a windproof jacket that would double up as a rain jacket too. We both had our old jackets for cold weather and some thermal layering. We kept our weight really low as we had to carry everything ourselves and wanted to move fast. It was the third week of September 2011 and the weather looked just fine.

The next day we went to fly down to Lukla from where we were supposed to start our hike. The small mountain air flight that we were to take was packed and could not accommodate our cycles. We would have to come back the next day. I convince Nari to buy new tickets and take an earlier flight which could land us there with our luggage. We get the tickets and fly down to Lukla and start our trek to EBC.

We are presumed dead

We smile and start the trek on a cheerful note. Both of us had been working in the outdoors and were good climbers and trekkers. Our pace was good, more so because we were looking forward to this day for over a year now. On the first day we cross Phakding to reach Monjo where we planned to stay for the night at a tea house. The next day's stop would be Namche Bazar which came after a grueling uphill trek. We were energetic but understood the importance of acclimatization and hence didn’t rush ourselves. The third day we crossed Tengboche, and offering prayers at the monastery there, moved on to Dengboche. A snow blizzard holds us at Dengboche in the `Snow Lion Lodge’ situated at 4358 meters. A group of foreigners, probably Koreans, were at the same lodge. One of them by the name of `Park Young-seok’ came over to me staring at my expedition T-shirt and expressed his curiosity at what we were up to.  He was the legendary South Korean Mountaineer who had in 2005 become the first person in the world to complete a True Explorers Grand Slam. He climbed the world’s 14 eight-thousanders, the seven summits, and trekked to both poles.  He heard about our expedition, shook his head in disbelief, and told us that we were mad or crazy. We take pictures with him in front of his poster on the lodge’s wall. His friends were glued to the TV watching some news with great intent. To our disbelief, we found out that a mountain air flight had crashed into the cliff wall killing all passengers and crew. This was the same flight that we had skipped to catch an earlier flight two days ago. Suddenly a gear shift happened in my brain. No one knew we had preponed our flight and that could have caused some disturbance back at the Sahara office and also at our homes. Mr. Park lend us his satellite phone and we make two short calls - one to Sahara and the other home to tell the folks there that we were alive. People at both places were worried, shocked, and then relieved on hearing about our well-being. We didn’t have a satellite phone with us and our phones didn’t work there back in 2011. Early next morning on day five, we bid farewell to the Korean team just before sunrise and trekked up to Lobuche. As we started ascending from Dengboche I heard a strange cricking sound in my knees, first on the right one and a few steps later on the left one, followed by a sharp pain. I stopped to inspect the area but didn’t see anything, only that the area was painful on walking. That got me worried. The expedition was going to end before it even started. I talk to Nari and he encouraged me to walk albeit slowly. I reduce my pace and we reach Lobuche. Thinking it might just be a freak twist of my knees we carried on to start the expedition. It was too much to give up now. The pain kept increasing over the days and it became difficult for me to walk, especially till the time my legs were warmed up enough. Later I realized that I had injured my ACL in both knees.  

We had breakfast there and carried on to EBC. On reaching there we got busy setting up our cycles. In a hurry to start the expedition and partly also due to ignorance we fixed the handlebars on our bikes facing downwards which made us bend forward and lower more than required. We got to know of this mistake once we reached Kolkata where we got our cycles serviced.

Starting the ride

There's a strange sense of peace and tranquility in the mountains. It has always pulled me close like a moth to a flame. EBC was not stable at that time with loud sounds of ice cracking filling the empty valley. On 28th September 2011 at 11.50 am we unfurled the banner and flags, said our prayers, took photographs, and started the ride. It was very tricky cycling down on a small track and we had no experience of it. The bags on our backs added to the problem. Gradually we started pedaling, slipping, getting back on the saddle, grinning but happy all the while as a child getting his favorite toy to play with. This was not our forte and it was the first time that we actually sat on these bikes. Occasional trekkers who passed by were amused and surprised to see us riding in this place. We somehow managed to reach Lobuche and from there came down to Namche Bazar via Pheriche. The ride was rough and we both were learning to get a grip over the gears on the bike. The next day's stop was at Lukla. We were tired but happy. The mountains were not giving us a smooth ride and we were still not comfortable on the bikes. We reach Lukla, have a light dinner, and crash out for the night thinking about the downhill ride or at least on the plains.

From Lukla, we had planned on riding towards Jubing and then further to Phaphlu where we would get the roadhead. The ride on the narrow mule track was a challenge but what kept us going was that we would be hitting the roadhead soon and that might make our going easy. We slipped and fell countless times on the trail and managed to reach our rest point by evening. The next day’s destination was the road head and the approach to the place was through some of the most scenic views. We joked about dropping the idea of cycling and settling in one of the quaint villages for the rest of our lives but then better sense prevailed and gathering courage we rode on. Phaphlu turned out to be an overgrown village that had an airport that operated a small aircraft once a week. From here we cycled towards Pattale and reached Okhaldunga where we stopped for the night. The road that we were longing for for a long time turned out to be a wide mud track with a hundred potholes. But it was better than the mule track on the mountains and that did put a smile on our face. Further from this point, we found a road with tar and the ride became comfortable though slow. We ride towards Birtamode and finally exit Nepal at Ranigunj immigration post entering India in West Bengal. This is where things became easier for us as at this point our logistic support vehicle was to meet us. From now onwards we just had to ride and all the arrangements for our meals, stay and logbook entry would be looked after by them.

The North East

Crossing Bengal, we entered Assam. The plan was to cross over into Arunachal Pradesh so we could put some extra kilometers on our route. Riding through Bengal and Assam was pure bliss as we cycled past rolling tea gardens that were so tranquil. On the side of the road we see a sign proclaiming the passing of the Tropic of Cancer & we stop by to click a picture. Riding through the never-ending scenic sparsely populated remote regions of Assam we reached Hollongi, the border between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.  We ride on to the capital of Itanagar passing through beautiful forested mountains and see a wild `Mithun’ running past the road. The air was clean and crisp making the ride smooth but the hills were making our muscles ache. We rode towards Dhemaji, riding shortly in Nagaland & entered Assam near Dibrugarh. The river crossing was an interesting one as we had to load the support vehicle and our cycles on a ferry to get us across the river. The hustle and bustle of the towns made it difficult for us to ride fast and we decided to start early in the day to beat the traffic. In Nepal, we would be on our cycles by 7 in the morning, sometimes at 8. But in India, we decided to start by 4.30 in the morning to cover as much distance as possible avoiding traffic. The plan was to ride hard for 5 hours or so and then stop for breakfast which generally used to be on some wayside dhaba or small restaurant. Lunch was generally between 1 & 2 and we would stop for tea if we found a nice place. We would end the day anytime after 5 or 6 depending on where the logistics had found a place for us to sleep and have dinner by 8 at night. We would then catch at least 5 to 6 hours of sleep and start the next day’s ride.  Riding through Assam was blissful. The roads were almost empty and smooth. My sister had been staying in Arunachal Pradesh for a long time and her husband was from Nagaon in Assam. We were taking the highway that passed by her home at Phulaguri. We get a grand welcome at her place with garlands, tilak & puja. The night was spent at her home and we all had a gala dinner prepared by my brother-in-law. We took off early the next morning after farewell by the family. All through the northeastern states, the people were really friendly. Our stoppage at tea shacks and dhabas generated curiosity and people wanted to know where we came from and about our journey. This was the time when we would talk to them about environmental problems like global warming and the importance of recycling. Assam was also the state where we were cautioned not to ride through certain districts unsupervised because of insurgency activities. We waited on the road next to a police station for a convoy of army vehicles with a pilot car with a mobile jammer to escort us for the next 45 km of dangerous territory. At the end of the passage, we bid farewell to the convoy as they wished us luck and gave us fruits and biscuits as parting gifts to cheer us up. We cycled to the Bangladesh border which was like any other village and stopped for pictures for the record and log book. Crossing Kolkatta I met my old friends and classmates from Delhi School of Economics, Rashmi and Joydeep Bhowmick. Joy was with the Army at that time and we met them both at their home over lunch. I hadn’t met them for quite a few years so it was wonderful catching up over a meal.

The Plains

Riding through the plains was not difficult and there were no uphills to cycle on but the poor condition of roads and the unruly traffic made the going tough. At Bihar Sharif, we got a surprise with members of Sahara Parabanking riding us in the city up to their head office where we were given a hero’s welcome by garlanding us till our eyes. Another surprise lay in store for us when we were told by the media that we would be cycling to Amby Valley in Lonavala, Maharashtra. Undeterred, we cycled towards Delhi aiming to reach there in time for Deepawali. On the 26th of October, I surprised my parents by paying them a visit for Deepawali Pooja. We reached Delhi and stopped for the night at Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Dhaula Kuan. I took the opportunity of catching an auto and dropping home which was in Janakpuri, just 10 km away. Meeting my parents gave me tremendous strength and the will to carry on. My father was a sportsman & a veteran of Indian Air Force. Ten minutes with him pumped me up so much that I felt I could ride till the end of the earth. The next morning, we pedaled towards Chandigarh and on the way stopped at Nari’s home which was at village Bibipur near Kurukshetra. Nari picked up a kg of homemade ghee for us. The local MLA and his supporters came out in big numbers to cheer us along the way. People had started knowing about our expedition from the small news that the local papers had been running. The media coverage had turned us into some sort of celebrity. The police station and the office of the collector where we had to stop for our log book entry knew us and gladly posed for pictures with us for the media. My second sister was on her way to Delhi from Chandigarh for the festival of Bhai Dooj. I called her up to know her location and we met briefly on the highway near Karnal. My brother-in-law along with my nephew and niece came to see us in Chandigarh and took us all out for dinner at Tehal Singh’s Dhaba in sector 22. The next day we were in Punjab riding towards Amritsar. The aim was to touch the border with Pakistan at Wagah. Punjab was a state where people welcomed us with open arms and wanted to support us in whatever manner they could. A roadside sugarcane juice vendor refused to take money from us and we had to literally push the money in his hands.

Western States

Cycling in Rajasthan was a unique experience. There were long stretches of empty land between cities. It was still surprisingly warm in the day and we once had to pedal almost 80 km with just one liter of water on us as the support vehicle had gone ahead of us. Riding through Udaipur, Jaipur, Aligarh & Agra, we reached Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. The badlands of Chambal were a totally different territory and we wondered how the dacoits and baghi’s of yesteryears would have traveled over this terrain. Crossing Kota in Rajasthan, we entered Gujarat and then into Maharashtra. A sense of relief dawned upon us as we felt we had finished almost half of the journey. In Mumbai, we got a grand welcome at Sahara’s hotel near the airport. We spent the night in their five-star hotel but for just a couple of hours as we had to get up early the next morning to start our ride on the Western Ghat section. The ghats tested our strength, guts, and will. It was uphill and the wind was blowing at full force against us. This was a section where we almost felt defeated for the second time, the first being in the Himalayas. Our pace dropped but we managed to pedal on to enter Goa riding along the Arabian Sea. From here we crossed into Karnataka where I met Shankari Murali, my other classmate, and a dear friend from the Delhi School of Economics. She is a super-intelligent girl who cracked Civil Services and despite a packed day with a tight schedule came to meet me outside Forum Mall in Bangalore. We had coffee and shared stories of old times and my expedition.

Eastern states & the finish

From Bangalore, we cycled across to Andhra Pradesh going through Hyderabad, Secundrabad & Vijayawada. I am fond of South Indian food as it's mostly healthy. The roadside shacks sold fresh Idlie’s & Dosha and it turned out to be the best meal of the day. At one such stall, Nari and I ate close to 25 plain dosha and the man ran out of dosha batter. Crossing Pondicherry, we entered our last state – Tamil Nadu. There was fresh filter coffee everywhere with wonderful South Indian food to start the day. What else could I ask for? To a hardcore Punjabi, the route to his heart is through his stomach. The weather by now was pretty warm as against the biting cold in the northern states.  Nearing Kanyakumari it started raining and we rode through a heavy downpour that stopped as quickly as it had started. We were nearing the finish point of our expedition, the place we both were so desperate to reach. But suddenly I felt sad deep inside, the feeling that you get when a dear friend departs or leaves town for good. The event management team had already arrived at the Collectors office to receive us and for the flag-in ceremony. This was day 63 of our expedition and the collector was out of office as no one had bothered to take the appointment for our arrival. We were scheduled to arrive here on day 70. The idea was to take one day off as a rest day after a week’s cycling, but Nari & I gave it a skip thinking we could take a few days off together at some nice place to recuperate, but that never happened. We cycle around the town of Kanyakumari for almost one and a half hours taking in the views and then got the news that the collector was finally in her office. We ride on and get a big welcome amidst cheer from the crowd. We hand her the national flag that we had carried since the flag off from Mumbai. The media came to cover us and later had a session on our experience over tea. We drive back to Amby Valley near Lonavala and again receive a hero’s welcome. Our cycles and riding gear were displayed at the Adventure Sports Center of Amby Valley. We meet numerous people and sat at press conferences to share our stories. But What we shared was nothing compared to what we went through and experienced. It was a transforming journey of indomitable human will to accomplish something that we so strongly wanted to do. We had experienced joy, pain, anger, solitude, camaraderie along the length and breadth of our country, and the wonderful hospitality of the innumerable local people which will be embedded in my heart forever. And I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Thus, was born the idea of starting an adventure company that would work towards connecting people back with nature, taking them to their roots and showing them the ways to survive without modern amenities and technology, taking them out to amazing destinations that they never knew existed. It took almost a year for the log book to be cross-checked at every point and finally, Limca Book of Records certified us for a new record of cycling the longest distance in the shortest time touching two international borders, from EBC to Kanyakumari, a total distance of 11906 km in 63 days.

Adventureism is a result of this expedition and ever since its inception, we have been taking people back to nature in the mountains, on treks, camping, or river rafting trips.