Spanish cyclist paddles across world to live his dream

Elias Escribano, a cyclist from Spain is on a world tour with the message - "Live Your Dream."

During his 22-month journey, he has already covered 25,000 km and after crossing 27 nations, including India. He entered Bangladesh from the north-eastern state of Tripura.

Travelling by cycle was a dream for Elias who wanted to ride from Spain to New Zealand, the opposite points of Earth.

Never even in his thought, he felt that would be able to cover such a long distance and while crossing the first border of France (European Union) after covering 1,000 km, he felt confident that it was possible to cross one country after another in a bicycle.

 

He started his journey on July 10, 2016, and after crossing 27 countries, it is halfway for Elias, who has a target to cover some 40 nations in total in another one-and-a-half years time.

During his long tour, Elias alone passed through some of the conflict zones and dangerous nations of the world including Croatia, Greece, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, but felt that at heart, people of all these countries are good, though there may be differences between one nation against another.

He said, "I wanted to meet the humanity and see with my own eyes the people of the world is good and it is a beautiful place with the diversity of religions, languages and countries, but at the end, we are humans and share the human values."

Most of the time, he was offered a stay and food in their house. But, where there is no habitation, he lives in a tent that he carries along with his pump stove, water and food, tools for repairing his cycle and other essential things.

Elias entered India some time back from Pakistan through Wagah Border and toured in eleven states including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and few north-eastern states.

According to him, his experience in India is the best till now during his long journey. He also praised the rich cultural heritage, diversity in language, religion and landscape, besides the friendly nature towards the visitors.

He entered Bangladesh and is on his way to the capital Dhaka, from where he would visit Myanmar, Thailand, China and other South-East Asian countries.

Elias will conclude his journey at New Zealand which is the farthest place on the Earth from his hometown in Spain. He plans to celebrate his upcoming Christmas in Singapore, before returning to his hometown Arentia by ship.