It’s never too late to travel and embark on a tour! 61 year-old Dilip Chauhan and his 58 year-old wife Pooja are a retired couple and took off in last September on a multi-thousand mile, 150-day tour around India and several neighbouring nations on their Royal Enfield bikes.
“Age may have an effect on the body, but not on the mind, and it is the mind that challenges the body to keep moving on,” said the couple.
“It was my wife who took the lead and said that we had to finish the journey of our dreams,” says Dilip.
The two managed to cross the hilly roads of Nepal and Bhutan alongside Nathula and Khardungla Passes that rendered the journey much more exciting.
“Rain, snow, sub-zero temperatures with bone-jarring wind chill, hairpin bend roads – you name it, and the Himalayas threw it at us with a vengeance. The ride along the Himalayan belts was an adventure itself. But in the entire journey while we moved along, we also travelled inwards and understood our inner strength,” says Dilip.
“We celebrated Dasera with a wonderful hospitality of a Muslim family in Srinagar and Diwali with friendly a Nepali family in Dharamshala. These experiences reinforce our faith in humanity and are so contrasting to the pre-conceived ideas we share about regions and communities. Travelling through the roads gives you this unique liberty of experience that nothing else does!” Pooja explains.
The Chauhans also managed to make friends en route their destination. “We are keeping a travel log book of our journey to inspire other bikers and tell them that age should be no constraint in hitting the road.”
“The realization that you live only once, being unafraid of uncertainties, and a desire to explore the diversity of the universe,” said the Chauhans.