“When you are on a bicycle, you feel the wind, the rain, the heat, and the cold. You feel the slightest slope. You feel the smallest bump. You become one with nature,” Kamran Ali narrates in his video, “Why Bicycle Touring to Travel the World?” Currently in Saudi Arabia, Ali has cycled 50,000 kilometers in 46 countries, becoming the first Pakistani to have traveled the length of the Americas by bicycle.
Kamran began touring at age 13, joining two friends on a 52-kilometer trip to a nearby town in Pakistan. Over the next few years, he traveled solo to several cities in his home country, suffering through extreme summer heat with no training and borrowed gear. In 2015, Ali quit his job as a computer programmer to cycle from Germany to Pakistan and, eventually, from Argentina to Alaska. “When you are on a bicycle, every day is a new adventure,” he says. “Despite all the uncertainties, you find a place to sleep, food to eat, and a new family to welcome you.”
Ali’s latest endeavor involves cycling from Oman to South Africa, where he will share stories and capture the world through photography and video, embracing solitude, purpose, and curiosity. Although cycling is one of his greatest passions, he admits the journey isn’t about bicycle touring but “finding one’s place in the big jigsaw puzzle that we call [the] universe.”
Find Kamran On Bike on Instagram and Facebook.
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