Getting Ready to Cycle the Pamirs & When Things Go Wrong in India: Rebecca Gross & Ben Clark

Rebecca Gross is about to leave her home in Austria for a journey that will take her to the Pamirs in Central Asia. She shares her latest update now, less than a week before setting off on that huge adventure.  You can follow Rebecca via her instagram @rebecca_grb 

I also share a day on the road from Ben Clark who tells us all about a very eventful day during his world bike tour. This day occurred in India involving, Tuk Tuks, crashes, and an unexpected hospital visit. 

You can follow Ben's adventures on instagram via @worldbybike_UK

Support hte brands who support the podcast Check out gear from Old Man Mountain and get your bike kitted out for adventure - head to our custom link which lets them know you heard all about them from the podcast - www.oldmanmountain.com/seektravelride

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SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hello everyone, it's Bella Malloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, and welcome back to another midweek mini episode. I'm actually sharing two stories this week. The first is actually an update from Rebecca Gross. Fans of the show will know that we are tracking Rebecca's journey as a complete novice beginner bikepacker who is in less than a week's time now going to be setting off from her home in Austria all the way across on an adventure to the Pamers. Rebecca is kindly going to be giving us updates all along the way of that journey, and I have her latest update to share with you. And later on, we're also going to be hearing from listener Ben Clark. He's on a monumental adventure himself. Ben is on a journey that will take him all the way around the world, and he's going to be sharing what it was like for him during one day of his trip on what turned out to be a very eventful ride in India. Quickly before we get into today's episode, are you enjoying Sleek Travel Ride? Well, the best way to support me and the show is actually just by sharing it. Whether you send your favourite episode to a friend or post about it on your social media channels, every share helps more adventure-loving people discover the podcast. I can't overstate how huge word of mouth is for independent podcasters like me, and your support makes all the difference in helping me to grow this community. So if you love the podcast, please tell a friend, tag me on your social media channels, and let's inspire more people to tune in to these awesome adventure stories. Thank you, and now let's listen to how Rebecca's going with less than one week to go for her to leave her home in Austria destination Pamies. Take it away, Rebecca.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

It is exactly one week to go, and today I woke up and got myself a coffee, set in my garden since the temperatures are really high now, which is not so common in February. And then I saw the most beautiful sunrise, and I just thought, why is the universe making it so hard for me to leave? But then I realized I should rather think this is what awaits me. Beautiful sunrises, having coffee in front of my tent, being outdoors, and I felt the excitement rising again. But this moment somehow summarizes the last week and the last days because I had days where it was pretty hard to find excitement rather than fear of leaving. But I think I can call myself pretty lucky to not want to leave because I think it would be easier to leave if life wouldn't be so wonderful here. And also I think it is literally just taking the first step out of my comfort zone, also known as my front door, to make things happen. And hopefully the next steps will be easier. The last week I kept myself pretty busy storing all the things away in the apartment, and probably I got a bit overexcited because I stored the skis and all the sports stuff away like weeks ago, which also made the last weeks harder because I kind of stored the little things away that bring me joy throughout the year. And then I was just overthinking my decision again isn't it enough? These mini adventures which bring me joy all the weekends. But no, I won't regret turning my mini adventures into one big adventure, and then I was fine with not going ski touring or road cycling. And yeah, this was a summary of the last week. Today was the big packing day. We light everything in front of us, and it seemed like a lot of stuff. And I was worried it wouldn't fit in the pennies because we have four pennies to eat. But then after some hours, everything was fine, everything was packed, and we are actually ready to go. So nowadays just one last week which will be filled with the last route planning and the last goodbyes to friends, also the last countdowns for work. I just have two days left, which does bring me excitement. And Javi is still working the whole week. So we are pretty busy and really, really excited for the first day. On our first day, we planned to take a train. It was always my wish to leave from home from the doorstep. But since we're starting in February, we just wanted to escape winter, although now it's more like spring, but the snow will come back. So we decided we will take a train to Trieste in Italy, leaving the mountains behind and hopefully the cold weather, and then going south. Although I'm realistic and I do think there lays some colder temperatures ahead, but we are hopefully well prepared for that. And yeah, we are checking now the weather forecast a lot, and we are hoping that the rain will not be true. But let's see how the beginning will be, and that's the plan for our first day. Enjoying the last pizza, the last cellato and wine, and then we are off to the palm.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Rebecca, thank you so much for your update. Oh listeners, there's so much in this that I absolutely loved. I can totally feel the emotions that Rebecca must be on at the moment. Just that adventure roller coaster of excitement about what's ahead and also that unease of, oh my gosh, am I making the right decision? It's not that I hate my life now, I've got all these amazing opportunities, but why am I leaving home this comfort to ride into uncertainty? And I guess the crux of that is adventure. Rebecca, you mentioned how packing away all those things that gave you joy on your mini adventure, how it was sort of a bit of a sadness there, but also how you're flipping it to excitement thinking you're going on a massive adventure, so you have lots of excitement to look forward to. Lots of cups of tea in front of the tent, looking at sunrises and sunsets. And I love that you've also already had to be flexible on what that first day of the adventure looks like for you. Tell you what, enjoy some gelato and pizza for me when you get there in Italy. And Rebecca, just know that the entire Seek Travel Ride community here is wishing you and Harvey really well on your huge journey as you start to take those first pedal turns. Destination, dreamy mountain landscapes in the Pamirs. Look forward to your next update, and listeners, I will keep you posted on Rebecca's Progress. Okay, listeners, now it's time to listen to Ben Clark share what it's been like during one day of his trip. Ben is currently on a ride which will take him all across the world. He left the UK and he's currently in Southeast Asia. And he's going to be sharing a day from his travels while he was riding in India. This was quite an eventful day for Ben, and one that I feel he'll reflect back on in many, many years to come. No one tells his story better than the person it happened to themselves, so let's listen to Ben Clark share one day of his journey from India. Take it away, Ben.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Hello, my name's Ben Clark. I am cycling 35,000 kilometers around the world. My journey is called World by Bike underscore UK. I'm on Instagram, Strava, and others. And this is my journey across the world, um, talking about one particular day on my trip so far. And the day I wanted to talk about was the 17th of November 2024. On this day I'd cycled with Malakai Francis, who you've had on the podcast, Sam Bikepacking the World, Elliot Simcox, and Josh, who had joined us to do the triangle from New Delhi to Agra to Jaipur. We'd planned to basically ride from Agra to see the Taj Mahal all the way to Jaipur. On this particular day we were all riding to Jaipur, and although it's mainly flat in India, at least where we were, they do have a lot of tuktuks on the roads, on the motorways which we were riding on. And it is also possible to latch on to the back of the tuktuks and let them drag you along the roads. It's really fun. I kinda would recommend it as a short thing, but it's very easy to get carried away and weed all spent a lot of time on the back of the tuktuks being carried along. Which was fun. And then basically I'd started doing it more and more to the point that it started to get a bit dangerous. But of course, when you do these things, you become desensitized to it. My confidence with doing it became better and better every day, to the point that I was holding on to the back of a tuk-tuk and got up to quite some significant speed, about 45 kilometres an hour, 50 kilometres an hour. And I was getting good at it to be fair. I wasn't wearing a helmet and I was being pulled along by this tuk-tuk very, very quickly. It got a little bit dangerous, and I was like, okay, I need to let go here. So I let go, cycle a little bit more, and by this time I'm maybe about 20 kilometres ahead of the Peloton. The guys were all riding behind me, I was a lot faster, obviously being on the back of a tuk-tuk, to the point that I was so far ahead of them at that point that I was like, I'm just gonna try and get to this next town before they do and surprise them and you know all that sort of stuff. Anyway, I saw another tuk-tuk coming along and it had a rope on the back. You can probably see where this is going, but I held onto the rope. The tuk-tuk got up to speed, it was about 50 kilometres an hour. It turned slightly to avoid a pothole in the road, and the problem with the rope is it doesn't have any sort of give on the other side, so I basically by accident pulled myself into the road sideways, and I hit my head very, very hard on the ground on the tarmac on the motorway, really, really hurt myself, and probably for about ten seconds I was lying on the ground in a concussion, couldn't get myself up, couldn't use my arms or my legs to get me up, kinda like being a f a fish out of water. It was very, very weird. I think it's called cortical shock or convulsive concussion. I was still in a lot of pain, blood all over my face, my shoulders, super intense whiplash in my shoulders and my neck, and basically just lying on the ground. I basically waited around for like what felt an eternity, and I had about hundred Indians gathered around me, just watching me bleeding out on the road. I did have a helpful guy come up to me and offer some support and got me out of the road and looked after my bike and managed the traffic and then managed the scene. He also called an ambulance for me. An ambulance came, I was able to put my bike in the back, I was completely out of it at this point, like I couldn't make sense of what had just happened and it was pretty horrific. Ambulance takes me to hospital, bumpy roads in the in the ambulance all the way. Not a good experience, go to the hospital. They gave me some painkiller fire injection, which really helped for a little bit, and some medication. And then I got back on my bike, which was actually not bad, and there was no damage. Weirdly, I'd taken the majority of the damage in my head, and my shoulders and my knees and my legs and everything else. So it was no damage to the bike, but I rode then from the hospital to the hotel where I'd met up with the guys, so they'd got to the hotel before me, damned them. But I basically turned up looking like the Walking Dead. I was in a lot of pain. And I think realistically, there was a high chance I could have died that day. I really, really hurt myself. I clearly was being too cocky on the back of the tuk-tucks. It's very easy to build overconfidence sometimes when you're doing something dangerous, but through the desensitization of doing it, you become more and more confident. And realistically I should have just said to myself, listen, I'm I'm going too quick here on the back of this, I'm not wearing a helmet. I need to be a bit more mature in my decision making there and stop doing it. But I didn't because I I was being too cocky on the back of the tuk-tuk, and that's ultimately what led to me falling off. And so I also wasn't wearing a helmet, and this is a big issue, and I think for a lot of bike tourers as well, there's lots of benefits to kind of not wearing a help helmet sometimes. And that's obviously if you're climbing and you don't want the sweat dripping down your face, but when I look at it in reality, not wearing a helmet is so ridiculous, and not wearing one now actually kind of makes me feel sick to think that I would ride my bike ever again without a helmet is vomit-inducing for me. The worst case scenario that could have happened that day is that I died, that would be the trip over, or at least be significantly disabled for the rest of my life with spinal or head trauma, and I'm very, very fortunate not to have died that day, or be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I think wearing a helmet is one of the most important things. I know that now, I kind of knew it before the crash as well, but like I said, there's reasons for not doing it sometimes, but now I would never ride my bike without a helmet. The crash also taught me a really good lesson that if I'm ever doing something dangerous or that could be considered as dangerous, just to stop and think whether what I am actually doing is too much. If I've created a bias in my head that what I'm doing is safe, then I need to just stop and just sort of try and think about what I'm actually doing. And that could be coming down a mountain bike trail on my bike, going really quickly, or I don't know, riding in the snow. I need to stop and just think, you know, is this safe? Could this end the trip? Could this be really dangerous? And I guess I would like to say with this podcast that for anybody that is bike touring or bike packing currently, it's absolutely so important that you wear a helmet, because we don't plan for accidents, we don't know when they're gonna happen. But being the best prepared that you can be by protecting your head is obviously the best thing to do. And now I wear my helmet every day, even just riding to the shops, got it on, not worth taking the risk. And that was my day in the life cycling in India. Thanks for having me on the podcast, Bella, and also thank you for your continued work in giving bike tourers a voice.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Ben, whoa, what can I say? You had some luck on your side on this day, and I can't actually place myself in your shoes there knowing what that felt like. I've come off my bike before and actually been concussed, and I sort of know what that feeling's like, but in the moment I just couldn't put myself in your shoes. I'm really thankful that this didn't turn out worse for you, and I think you've raised some really, really good points, especially about complacency and the idea that as you get better about something or doing something, you sort of desensitize yourself to actually what it is that you're doing and what the consequences of doing that could be. Something else I've actually thought about there, even beyond the idea of wearing a helmet all the time in these countries, is also the notion of what happens when bad stuff occurs and especially in a case where you're in an accident and you need to go to a hospital. It sounded pretty chaotic there for you and probably mixed in with quite a lot of pain and being cancassed possibly s a lot of uncertainty and shock. It's also struck me about travel insurance. I know that it's something that long-term bike travellers sometimes struggle with to get themselves. And I do wonder about when these type of incidents occur on the road, you sort of think about these scenarios in your mind. But when you look back on it, all from wanting to go a little bit faster, get some free speed by tuk-tuk. As you say, there's an element where everything's all fun until it's not, and this was certainly the case for you. I'm really glad that you haven't sustained a serious injury and that that you seemingly have recovered from your concussion. And I wish you a very safe rest of your journey as you continue riding your way around the world. Okay, listeners, it's that part of the show where I get to say a huge, big, massive thank you to you, my super fans, for being absolute dead set legends and buying me a coffee. I have actually been bought a couple of coffees by someone. That's right, there's two people here who have bought me coffees anonymously. Of course, I am forever thankful for those of you who do this. Part of me feels a little bit sad because I can't name you individually, but just know that I am super thankful for the brews that you have been giving me. I'd also like to give a shout out to Kurt Werby. Kurt says, first off, cheers for two years. Thanks, Kurt. I have just recently celebrated two years of Seek Travel Ride, so thanks for that. And then he says, Now, thank you for creating and growing this community and allowing all of us to be a part of it. I think your podcast has something bigger than people sharing their stories and adventures across the globe. The episodes I enjoy the most are the guests who open up and allow themselves to show their vulnerability and talk about the challenges on the road. You and Seek Travel Ride have become a part of my daily life and I really enjoy learning from everyone you speak to. And you've also made a big difference in my life and have given me the inspiration, motivation, and kick in the arse to head out on my bike to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco this October to explore and learn a new culture and people. And for that I am truly grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Wow, Kurt, when I had this message come through, it gave me a bit of a moment and a pause and reflection to think about just what tuning in has done for you personally. And then I got to thinking, I wonder how many others have tuned in, listened to guest stories, and also started plotting out their own adventures as well. It's something that didn't necessarily occur to me when I first started the show over two years ago now. But this message was a reminder that I needed to read, especially the day that I saw it as well. Listeners, I'd also like to say, as I have done with Rebecca at the start of this show, I've since reached out to Kurt and he has also agreed to do something similar. And I will be sharing updates from Kurt before, during, and after for this huge trip he's going to be taking in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco this October. Now, if you too would like to be like Kurt and those magnanimous, awesome, generous someones out there, you can support the show and also buy me a coffee. I've got the link to my Buy Me a Coffee page in the show notes, or otherwise just head to buymeacoffee.com forward slash seek travel ride. Hit me up with some virtual coffees, and most importantly, let me know what it is that you absolutely love about the show. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening!