Engineer's dream ride: Around the world on a bike in 1,461 days

BENGALURU: Little did Kedarnath G M imagine that riding a bike would change his life and turn him into a world traveller, an author and a documentary filmmaker.
The 34-year-old mechanical engineer bought his first bike a Royal Enfield Thunderbird in 2011 for going around his office campus in Hampi. Today, not only is he a successful author of the travelogue Dream to Travel around the World, A Voyage On My Motorbike but he has also embarked on a journey to trot the globe over the next four years.
On August 8, Kedarnath began his dream trip from Chennai. He will ride to Kolkata first and then plans to circumnavigate the globe mainly on his Royal Enfield. It will cost him Rs 50 lakh. “First, I will ride from Chennai to Kolkata, after which I will fly to Bangkok.Then I will ride through southeast Asia, Australia, the two Americas, Antarctica, Europe, Africa, Central Asia and then back to India,“ said Kedarnath.
It all began in 2012; a year after Kedarnath got his first bike, when he decided to take a break from his job as a project manager in JSW Steel Limited.He set on a bike trip from Pune to Ladakh covering 8,300km in 39 days. “My first trip was a lifechanging experience and taught me all about adventure,“ he recalled.
It was the experiences he gathered during the trip that prompted him to leave his job and go for a world tour on his bike. In 2013, he travelled across 13 countries, covering a distance of 18,000km in six months. From sleeping on cots at roadside dhabas in Iran to spending nights in a park in Bulgaria, cooking Indian cuisine for a Frenchman to living in a missionary hostel for nuns in Rome during Christmas, he spoke about the unconditional love and warmth he received from other countries.
“I came back with bags full of memories, photos and videos, adequate enough to turn them into my first travelogue and documentary film.“ Though it was his first attempt as a videographer, the documentary film fetched him an award at the Rajasthan International Film Festival under the category of spreading world peace.