A govt. servant’s ambitious cross-continent biking expedition ‘flagged off’ in Kochi

Arun Thadhaagath, a senior clerk, begins a two-year Europe-to-Kochi bike expedition, flagged off by dignitaries at Paris Olympics venue.

Arun Thadhaagath, a 45-year-old senior clerk at the district collectorate, will embark on his ambitious two-year-long Europe-to-Kochi bike expedition from the venue of the Paris Olympics this Friday.

Nevertheless, in recognition of his adventure, a flag-off ceremony, albeit a symbolic one, was held under the aegis of the National Service Scheme of Sacred Heart College, Thevara, on Monday evening. District Collector N.S.K. Umesh and film director and avid traveller Lal Jose were among those who flagged off the expedition.

Mr. Thadhaagath will leave for Paris on Wednesday night. During the two-year-trip, mostly through Europe, he will have to exit the continent every three months and re-enter only after another 90 days, which is the norm.

“In the first three months, I plan to cover Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria before exiting to Dubai. Initially, the idea was to spend the next three months pedalling through GCC countries. But now, I plan to delay the re-entry till next March to avoid the harsh European winter,” he said.

He will re-enter Europe at Prague and then cover Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Scandinavian countries as much as possible. From there, he will exit to Kazakhstan before re-entering the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Mr. Thadhaagath’s first cross-country biking was in 2019-2020 through South East Asian countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos up to the border of Vietnam. He had also covered India as a backpacker.