Father-son duo pedals all the way from Amsterdam to Nashik

Ronald Dekker (55) and Maurice (23) were surprised to see the popularity of bicycles in Nashik. And happy were the cycling enthusiasts to welcome the father-son duo on Tuesday as they pedalled all the way from Amsterdam to Nashik."Nashik has the right approach to promote cycling. Back home, cycling is popular. But we don't have a big and organised group like you have here," said Maurice, who recently completed his hotel management degree.The duo took off for a big road trip first in 2012 in Scotland for about 1,800km in two weeks, when they thought of doing something new to look back upon."For that we needed a distance of 11,000-12,000km. It was then that we decided to come to India. My father used to come to Mumbai for 25 years for business and he had good experiences to share. We both love travelling and I had never been to India before. I really wanted to experience how India is. You get to hear a lot of stories about India, but for me experiencing it is more important. We chos e Mumbai as it is a coastal area and could fly back to Amsterdam from here," said Maurice.Ronald said they had two options — Mumbai or Delhi. "We were looking for a trek of 11,000km. The start and finish destinations were known. We decided to cycle through Europe, Turkey and then come to India. But for this, we had to be in Pakistan or Afghanistan for two days. We were advised against it," he said."So from the southern part of Iran we took a ship to Dubai, bicycled to Muscat and then took a flight to Ahmedabad. We skipped Pakistan and Afghanistan because the Dutch government said it was not safe enough," Ronald added.The Dekkers covered around 20 countries from August 3, when they started from Amsterdam and will fly back from Mumbai on December 2. In India, they cycled from Gandhinagar to Vadodara, Bharuch, Saputara and Nashik. They rode to Mumbai from Nashik on Tuesday morning and were welcomed by members of Nashik Cyclists and Guru Gobind Foundation."We wanted to experience some thing that we can talk to people in next 30-40 years. When you bike through a country, you realise that what you see in news is not exactly right. It is much better and positive than that. Bicycles attract people so we can converse with them. We rode 100-150 km everyday. The two weeks in India were incredible. People's enthusiasm, excitement, their helping nature and eagerness to talk to us touched us. Some of them also asked us to stay with them," Maurice and Ronald were unanimous.In many countries, they used sign and body language to communicate and the conversation was short. "But in India, many people speak good English and we had a lot of conversation here," said Ronald, director-owner of a cryogenic firm.The varied climate and terrains were a challenge for the Dekkers. But barring two punctures and a broken chain, the journey was smooth. Ronald fell sick for a day in Turkey "as he had the wrong kofta", said his son. Maurice fe...

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Source: Father-son duo pedals all the way from Amsterdam to Nashik