Margao:Adventure is spice of life and  Adventure of traveling through different countries and exploring them makes the aderlian pumping for says Micheal Fernandes. An adventurous traveling  which has taken him to 58 countries and added a new zest  to his life.

Michael is  holidaying in Goa after driving through  fifteen mountain ranges and seven deserts  driving from London to Goa in his 1992 Citreden Bx Diesel vehicle. A travel which requires nerves of steel and good manvouring skill both of the intellectual and mental toughness.

“People whom you meet on your travel make the trip  interesting “ says London-based Micheal Fernandes of Goan Origin having his roots in Bardez, village of  Siolim. Mike to his friends the 34 year old is a  great adventure sport freak driving vehicles through the most challenging of terrains.

Cooperative and helpful people aid and  guide in your traveling an unknown country. The helps comes in the form of information, places to visit, the pitfalls of traveling in the night, the human dangers in the form of bandits and extremists to the animal hindrances in the form of different animals criss-crossing the roads.

Luck for one is an important factor he adds. “I for one has been lucky that I did not have a flat tyre even once on the trip”.

Mike family migrated to England in 1966 and he has been carrying forward a wish his doctor  father could not fulfill in his life time. “my father wanted to take his make a world cruise along with my mother but then he died at the age of 49 and the world cruise never came about” he recollects.

Then barely twelve the London based car and property dealer has saved enough money to make the trip from London to Goa.

Language has not been a problem for this travel freak. He for one has had done the Mexico to Artic circle road trip in 2002 covering 40,000 kilometres. The first big time traveling bug got to him in 2001 when he changed many trains to travel from England to Shanghai, China. Besides English I know basic French, Arabic, Thai, Italian, German needed for basic conservation and traveling. As for Konkani the Goan  origin boy who wants to settle down in Goa five years down the line is trying to have a grip of the language and adds that he has mastered a few  words in Hindi.

“Even in Russia and China where they do not speak English there was not much of a problem” he adds.

Mike along with his friend  Vince Veelan did it  traveling 33 days on the trot from London to Goa. The travel which took him through France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia Monte Negro, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and finally India. Except for crossing over to France on the English-France ferry crossing it has been an all road terrain for the duo.

The rubber burning feat found him covering 15,000 kilometres and exhausting 981 litres of diesel. Diesel prices which varied from country to country, while the Diesel and petrol was dirt cheap in Iran coming as it was for Rs.1 for diesel and Rs. 5 Petrol.
On the most difficult terrain he terms the route from Baluchistan to Queta.

Elaborating on that he adds he recollected that  even young boys were wielding guns and that they were stopped on their route many times which resulted in delay of eight hours. “Finally we where relived passing through the ordeal”, he adds.

On the equipment he carried in his vehicle were basic tent equipment, cooking utensils and entire set of spare parts of the car in the case of break down.  They had to cook their food thrice while  rest of it the stay was in some inn, hotel or a willing guest who threw opens the doors to them.
 “Iran and Pakistan were unknown countries and we were worried but  the people were fantatisic and the welcome we got cannot be match in any country we traveled through. We were taken to the second test involving England and Pakistan in Multan thanks to Ten sports staff and the Pakistani police we were given free entry for the match, he recollects.

He for one wants to pen his experiences on the challenging London Goa tour and bring out a book which would serve as a reference book for travelers making the tour. On the current tour all the paper work and the formalities to complete while entering different countries had to be researched by Mike on his own.
He for one want the adventure sports going in India and suggested that Liquor baron Dr Vijay Mallaya - a car collector himself - should take the initiative in rolling the adventure spirit in having a India-London car rally. Mike is willing to land his expertise,
and adds “Let the good times roll half way round the world!” In tune with the King fisher slogan of “the king of good times”. Hopefully the king of good times will roll from India to England .

Some Incidents which made their  trip interesting:
·     Bandits in Baluchistan gave them full cooperation after being informed that they were not traders but on a adventure trip. They then offered them biscuits, jam, coffee and tea.
·     Iranian police were the most cooperative.
·     Regret that they were asked to shell out Rs.100 at each of the check post in India and that includes entering Goa. The cops backing out when asked for receipt by them.
·     Iranian People were the most friendly and the best hospitality came from the Iranians.
·     Pakistan police provided them escort in the areas of  Eastern Pakistan.
·     Iran and Pakistan were the two countries were liquor is prohibited
·     They fully loaded two tanks of their car with Diesel on the Iranian Border with the cheap price offered.

By Armstrong Vaz

(The article is also published in THE GOMANTAK TIMES this week).

(Thanks to Gasper Crasto).