6-Day Cycling Expedition - Bangalore to Goa from 23rd Jan to 28th Jan 2016

Long distance cycling carrying Rotary mission & fund raising has been flagship program of Rotary Bangalore Whitefield Central for the past 4 yrs. A 15-member team (list given below) comprising members of RBWC and other Rotary clubs in Bangalore went on Cycling Expedition from Bangalore to Goa from 23-28^th Jan 2016 via Tumkur, Arsikere, Bhadravathi, Sagar, Gokarna & Karwar.

Participants for Cycling from Bangalore to Goa - 23rd Jan - 28th Jan '16
S.No.	Name	Rotary Club name
1	RG Bhat	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
2	Srinivas Kumar C	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
3	Ajay Bansal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
4	Prasanna	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
5	Sandeep Mittal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
6	Mrs Bindu Mittal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
7	Bharath Poovaiah	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
8	Vincent Raj	Rotary Club of B'lore
9	Dr.Ganapathy	Rotary Club of B'lore
10	Ravi Gowda	Rotary Club of B'lore
11	Shripad Annigeri	Rotary B'lore North West
12	Rtn.M R Lokanath	Rotary B'lore South
13	Ramprasad Reddy	Rotary B'lore South
14	Pradeep Rao	Rotary Yelahanka
15	Roshan Naveen	Rotaractor-Rotary B'lore South

The team was flaggd off symbolically from Bull Temple by noted yester year Kannada film personality Mrs.Bharathi Vishnuvardhan. 

They started pedalling form the morning of 23^rd Jan from Tumkur and covering around an average of 90-100 kms per day reached Goa on 28^th Jan. The team had Joint Meetings with Rotary clubs (4 clubs) at Tumkur, Tiptur, Arsikere, Bhadravathi, Shimoga, Sagar & Karwar. RCs at Tumkur, Arsikere, Bhadravati & Sagar hosted dinner. Tiptur hosted lunch while Shimoga RC hosted breakfast on our way to Gokarna. Flags were exchanged with these clubs.

En route the journey we visited 8 Govt Schools and distributed dictionaries, atlas & notebooks to nearly 400 poor students. The smiles on the faces of children were most satisfying for the members. Children’s smiles helped the participants in a big way in rejuvenating with renewed energy and they could continue pedalling enjoying every bit of moment.

 At Karwar the Prajavani, a Kannada daily & Deccan Herald journalist met us and our cycling expedition was published next day with a well written article with photographs in both the news papers thereby giving fillip to Public Image for RBWC in particular.

We terminated our expedition after reaching Goa at Madgaon. At Goa the members were received by our Dist International Director Rtn Srinath Babu and Dist Secretary Rtn Biligere Shivkumar. After loading our bicycles we boarded the vehicle and reached Kala Academy at Panjim i.e. venue for the Dist Conference where we were received by Dist Governor Fl Lt.KP Nagesh along with other district officials.

On 29^th Jan 2016 - 39^th Rotary International Dist 3190 conference got opened up at Kala Academy, Goa. What was heartening to note that in the welcome address by Dist Conference Committee chairman Rtn Nagendra Prasad opening remarks he said “Our Rotarians have come to attend this Dist conference either by train, bus or flight. But I am happy to say that we have 15 Rotarian Cyclists who chose unique way of pedalling all the way from Bangalore to Goa to attend this conference. They started their journey on 23^rd Jan and reached here in Goa yesterday. Throughout their journey they have also visited Govt Schools distributing notebooks, dictionaries & atlas to students and they are here today attending conference. I salute them”.

Later during 2^nd half of the day, International Director Rtn Srinath Babu invited every participant cyclist on the stage and they were felicitated with a memento by DG Fl Lt KP Nagesh in the presence of RI President’s Representative Rtn Mario Cesar (Trustee of TRF).

On the whole, for the participants, the entire Cycling Expedition was refreshing, joyful, memorable, challenging and meaningful with service to community. 

The smiles that they saw on the faces of children are still fresh in memory. What was most notable in this expedition was that not a single participant sat in support vehicle at any point in time. Apart from this it brought great friendship and fellowship amongst participants of different rotary clubs. 

This cycling expedition has touched on some key avenues of rotary service viz., Club Service, Community Service, Youth Service, International Service, Public Image & TEACH mission.

My sincere thanks to Rtn Prasanna who coordinated the whole expedition with perfect arrangements, Rtn Srinivas Kumar for arranging TEACH materials for distribution amongst Govt Schools children, Rtn Ajay for providing Tee shirts and banners on time, Rtn Bharath thru’ his Company TripOn in arranging comfortable accommodation for the participants in hotels at every location, Rtn Sandeep Mittal in providing back up vehicle. Needless to mention support from all the Rotarians of our club for supporting us in this memorable expedition in one way or other.

Joyful time in Goa post cycling expedition: