Three Indian ladies turned their childhood dream into reality when they decided to make a journey from New Delhi to London during which they travelled 17 countries covering 21,477 km and it took 97 days to finish the journey. Three best friends Rashmi Koppar, Dr Soumya Goyal and Nidhi Tiwari, are the ladies who went on this amazing adventure.
Nidhi Tiwari was the one who thought of this idea and when she talked about this idea with her friends, they both immediately agreed. Nidhi was the only lady who knew to drive, she is an expert in outdoor education, and she also has a good experience of driving jeep off the road/at high altitude and she has ample experience of outdoor jeep driving, both in India and foreign countries.
Their journey commenced from the month of June and finished in October, and during this journey they travelled India, Myanmar, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany and the United Kingdom. They also claim that the car by which they were travelling is the first Indian vehicle to cross the Arctic Circle. On an average they have travelled 600 km/day.
This is what Rashmi Koppar told about the wonderful journey, “The first thing we did while entering every country was to buy a local SIM card. However, we couldn’t book accommodations in advance as our schedule kept changing.”
Dr. Soumya Goyal also shared her experience, “It was only in India and England that we spoke in English. In the other countries, we used sign language and Google translator. We wanted to tell the women of the world that such expeditions are possible and that there was nothing to be scared of. We avoided driving late at night, instead, spent evenings exploring the cities. In fact, we didn’t find a single woman driving on the highway till we reached Europe.”
Ladies got the adrenaline rush which they wanted all time while they were busy in their jobs and on this journey they were welcomed by areas which were isolated, muddy roads, rocky hills, forests and streams.
Rashmi also shared the incident from Manipur where bridges were gone due to landslide, “We took over five days to cover a distance of 200km from Imphal to Myanmar; usually, it takes not more than 2-3 hours. It also meant redoing our visas. When we were stuck due to a landslide in Manipur, the locals offered to help us. We trusted them and stayed with their families and also got to taste home-cooked Manipuri food. The trip reinforced my faith in human goodness.”