Bhubaneswar: Three friends from Odisha’s Berhampur recently returned home after a successful K2K bike ride from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Software engineer Gourab Sahoo, along with businessmen Anit Sahu and Sandip Sahu, all passionate bikers, wanted to convey a social message through their journey — spread awareness on saving water, planting trees, donating blood and road safety.
“We faced rough roads and COVID restrictions, but enjoyed attractive views. It was a great experience and we are happy to have undertaken this journey,” said Gourab.
The trio travelled from Berhampur to Srinagar in the end of February, and began their journey from Dal Lake in the first week of March.
The three friends rode through states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu en route to Kanyakumari, the southernmost town of India.
“We covered 18 states and travelled 8,600 km to reach to reach our destination. We completed our journey in 20 days,” informed Gourab.
Before launching their adventure, they organised an awareness programme in Jammu.
“We all have been passionate about bike riding from our college days. We have a bike riders’ group, Burning Wheelers Riding Club, in Berhampur. Anit and I had gone to Leh and Ladakh rides in 2018. We also do bike rallies in weekends,” said Gourab.
“We did face some problems due to coronavirus restrictions. It was difficult to organise road show to spread social messages. However, we have some messages affixed to our bikes,” he added.
“It was a challenging experience for us in the pandemic period. We took all precautions,” said Anit.
“To stop global warming, we have to plant more trees and save water. We have to stop environment degradation. Likewise, to save human lives, we should donate blood. We also have to be very careful while riding on roads. We should wear helmet and follow traffic rules. As bike campaigners, we will spread all these messages on our next ride. The destination is yet to be decided,” said Sandip.
“From our daily routine and busy schedule, we try to take some time out for our passion. We love bike riding and have started planning for our next trip,” said Gourab.
