I am excited!
I am privileged to have a life partner who has always been with me – from social responsibilities to simple dinners out to super adventures like a trek around Mt. Kailash, a cruise to South Pole, a driving trip through Iceland and lots more. Together we established the record of being the first Indians to land at North Pole (i.e. 90° North) in 2009.
Of late, Pushpa’s knees have not been able to cope with the strain that trekking brings. But painful knees cannot keep thrill and excitement at bay. So I thought, till such time she is able to convince her knees to support her for treks, let us go for driving trips.
It is not unusual for me to take driving trips within the country, like the one I am about to set off for next week – 2,500 kms into South India and back. This is an endurance test drive for something coming up soon!
Our next adventure is a 60-day driving trip from Mumbai to London – 14 countries, 18,000 kms and 9 months of preparation.
It is a route that takes you to West by first going East. We will start with cutting across the Indian states of MP, UP, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. This will lead us to Myanmar. We would then drive through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia (right up to Moscow), Belarus, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and finally the UK.
As you can imagine, the journey will be through off-beat tracks, rugged mountains, deserts and sand dunes, dense forests and snow passes, high altitudes and heritage sites, and of course some highways and city drives. We will cross iron bridges in Myanmar as well as pass through the silk route in Central Asia. Believe it or not, we are looking forward to the various challenges we will face driving through such varied landscape.
This might just be a World Record – the senior most person (72 years) to make this journey (Waiting for confirmation from Limca Records®).
Just wanted to share my excitement with you!