Rousing welcome for biker who traversed country on wheels

Sachin S Shetty, an avid biker, returned to Mangaluru on Monday afternoon, after covering 11,200 km on road, in 37 days.

He was warmly welcomed at Forum Fiza Mall at Pandeshwar.

Speaking to DH, he said he started the journey on his Royal Enfield Himalayan motorbike from Kaup, his hometown on May 28. Later, he passed through Pune, Mumbai, Udaipur, Bikaner, Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil, Leh-Ladakh, Khardungla, Chandigarh, Agra, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kanyakumari and Mysuru. He has covered an average of 700 km per day on bike.

He said he started early in the morning at around 4 am and took rest at night.

He was joined by Yezdi boys from the Mangalore Jawa Yezdi Motorcycle Club (MJYMC) and the Mangalore Off-roaders in Jammu. 

On June 10, they left to Ladakh and scaled the Khardungla Pass which is 17,582 ft above sea level and the fifth highest motorable road in the world. After reaching Chandigarh, MJYMC club  returned to Mangaluru and Sachin continued his journey to Kanyakumari.

A cinematographer in film industry by profession, Sachin, has produced several documentaries and short films under his own production firm ‘Shutterbox’.

He is a member of the Mangalore Jawa Yezdi Motorcycle Club MJYMC and the Mangalore Bulls Motorcycling Club (MBMC). He has taken part in many group and solo rides.  He said he has shot several scenes during his voyage for documentaries.

Shetty said he will produce a documentary film on food and culture of the various parts of the country. He has recorded about eight terra bytes of data, using high-end video cameras.