Retired Navy officer on a 20K km ride across India

For former navy petty officer, Amit Kumar Mallick, a dream trip was in the making for many years. He planned to ride international after he retired last year. However, due to COVID curbs, he had to stick to another trip across India, and decided to make it different by visiting all the four corners on the Indian map (Ladakh in the North, Kanyakumari in the South, Koteshwar in the West and

Kibithoo

in the East), along with visiting all 28 states and 7 union territories on mainland India. After being stationed at the Goa Naval base for three years, he retired on August 31, 2021 and decide to commence the roadtrip from his home town in Odisha from September 17, after spending a week at home.
He spent five months on the road, solo tripping on his bike, across the country. “I started from Odisha and went to the North via West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh,

Uttarakhand

, Punjab, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and then continued the trip to Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. For the final leg of the trip, I headed to West Bengal via Jharkhand and Bihar, and then went to Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, before heading back.”
The trip was self funded and he spent a lot of time camping, to avoid hotel stays. “A few friends hosted me at some places. some nights I spent at the gurdwara, and once, an ATM booth. But I mostly camped. Camping in Ladakh in -16 degrees was the most challenging part. My bike also started giving issues when I was returning to the South, and I could get it fixed only in Goa. I also witnessed several landslides in Arunachal and even had a few falls,” says Amit.
Over the last few years he has done various cross country rides, like the Kashmir to Kanyakumari trip, twice – once in 2014 and once in February 2021, and several trips to the Himalayas, solo, on a motorbike. And every one was different. On this trip, he spent some days riding 17-18 hours for 1000 kms, whereas some days were spent riding less and exploring the place instead. “I never had concrete plans, but relied on locals to guide me, and ended up exploring lot of offbeat places. I would visit unique places recommended to me by locals, and experience local culture and food.”