VISAKHAPATNAM: Passion for travel has driven him to join the travel and tourism degree course. Twenty-one-year-old B Sai Sampath continued his passion to explore India through bicycle expedition and also to spread the message of ‘Say no to drugs’. He undertook the cycle expedition to cover the three borders of the country - Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
Narrating his experiences to TNIE, Sampath said he started his bicycle expedition from his home at Parawada and it was formally flagged off at Lankapalli Bullayya College on May 8. He reached the final destination of Nepal border on June 2, covering 2,010 km in 25 days.
Though his journey was full of ecstasy and also agony, he thoroughly enjoyed it as he interacted with various sections of people in different parts of the country.
In the first eight days of his expedition, he could pedal only 60 km a day due to hot and humid weather. After Bhadrak in Odisha, he picked up pace and covered 90 to 100 km a day. In between, there was rain induced by the cyclone. He braved the weather and continued the onward journey with a grit to complete the expedition as per schedule.
Every kilometre of his expedition was recorded in an app tracker to spread his mission against drugs. He had experience of short duration rides, before embarking on a cycle expedition, to Kanyakumari in February last year. Later, he went on a 125 cc motorcycle expedition from Visakhapatnam to Pakistan border and went to Jammu and Kashmir before returning to Visakhapatnam in June last year, he informed. “I have faced language problem. I had to use sign language to convey to people in North Odisha and Northern States,” he said.
He carried a camping tent, laptop, a small camping stove and a cylinder along with him. Sampath said he received a great support from the management of his Lankapalli Bullayya College. The college management encouraged him when he proposed the expedition and gave him `20,000 each for two expeditions earlier.
His expedition was a true experience for his course curriculum. En route, people gave water bottles and at some places food. He stayed at petrol pumps during night on most of the days. There was a stream of trucks from AP going to North Bengal and Bangladesh border carrying frozen fish and the drivers who are mostly Telugus, received him warmly and enquired about his experience. He ran into trouble as the gears of his bicycle got stuck. However, a Telugu man Santosh came to his rescue at Kharagpur and hosted him for two days till his bicycle was repaired. Santosh took him to Dhoni’s house and stadium where he practised, Sampath recounted.
He reached Bangladesh border on the 16th day of his expedition, where he met the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. Sampath said their brotherly treatment of him was the most memorable part of the journey. He said he was surprised at the sight of most BSF personnel, who hail from Visakhapatnam and North Andhra at the border. They took them to the BSF camp on Bangladesh border and he enjoyed his stay with them, Sampath said.
He reached Ranaghat next, covering Debagram, Morgram, Malda, Raiganj, Islampur and Jalpaiguri. On the 24th day, he reached Bhutan border covering 141 km that day, the highest in a day he cycled on this expedition. The next and final day of the long awaited journey, June 2, Sampath finally visited his last stop, the Nepal border.
He said he previously completed a motorcycle trip from Visakhapatnam- Ladakh- Kanyakumari and back to Visakhapatnam with a motto ‘Soil Conservation’.