Cycling The Globe

Distance: 75.26 km
Ridetime: 3:02:52
Average: 22.5 km/h
Total distance: 4407 km

After another 3 hour flight from Dubai, I once again woke up in a new country. While almost all the other countries I visited on this trip have been “new ones”, arriving in India in a way felt like coming home. Two years ago I spent a couple of months in India cycling from Cochin to New Delhi.

I was tired when I passed through customs at 4 o’clock in the morning, but making it through the airport and out into the real India sure woke me up.

Luckily the bicycle had made it from Egypt to India in one piece. In front of the airport I met Aurelia from Belgium. We had a nice chat as she was also waiting for some daylight before heading to a beach in Goa for a yoga course.

At 6:30 the sun rose above the horizon and I ventured into the Indian roads.

Handling the Indian traffic, the first thing to remember is of course to cycle in the “wrong” side of the road. This was actually more difficult than I remembered. It probably takes a couple of days before everything feels right again.

However, riding through the palm tree forests and green fields of Goa was indeed great cycling. And certainly completely different to the deserts of the Middle East.

In Palolem I was greeted by a warm “Welcome back my friend!” as soon as I entered the beach. The staff at the beach huts where I used to stay had no idea I would be showing up, so I was very surprised they remembered me. I guess they don’t receive a lot of cyclists here.