Two women bikers from the city, Vaishali Kulkarni More and Supriya Goel, are embarking on a 3,000-km cross-country road trip from Visakhapatnam to Goa on Republic Day.
The arduous road trip would be a test of the bikers’ resilience. However, both women are no strangers to adversity.
While Vaishali narrowly survived a serious motorcycle accident three years ago, Supriya is a cancer survivor. Vaishali is returning to the road for her first long-distance trip after the accident, while for Supriya it is her first brush with long-distance biking after battling stage-II cancer.
The women will head south on their motorcycles, cruising along the Coromandel coast all the way till Kanyakumari, from where they will ride along the Malabar and Konkan coast to reach Goa in 15 days.
The theme of the duo’s expedition is ‘Rise, Ride and Recover’, which intends to send a message that age is not a factor. Challenges might crop up, such as a bad accident or a life-threatening disease, but they should not be allowed to dampen one’s spirits, the duo said.
The road trip is being undertaken under the aegis of the Women’s International Motorcycle Association (WIMA- Vizag). On reaching Goa, Vaishali and Supriya will participate in the first national rally of WIMA, to be held from February 14 to 16.
“Supriya and I never realised that we would go biking again, but here we are today,” said Vaishali, who is excited to be hitting the road again after a long gap.
Riding for a cause
All along the route, the bikers will make frequent stops to spread awareness on education for girls, genital hygiene and cervical cancer.
“We will also talk about women empowerment, as the theme for this year’s Women’s Day is ‘Each for Equal’,” Vaishali said.
Earlier in 2016, Vaishali went on a solo motorcycle expedition from Visakhapatnam to Shirdi, and in 2017, rode from Pondicherry to Kolkata.
This time, after reaching Goa, she will embark on a solo trip to Gujarat and Maharashtra to create awareness on safe driving.
