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EVER felt like the world is passing you by? When Pablo Garcia started to feel life had become a bit staid he decided to get on his bike in search of adventure ... and cycle round the world.
Now, 57 countries and 70,050 kms later, Argentinian Pablo, 35, has reached Bahrain and is enjoying a brief rest at the Mariott Executive Apartments, Manama, before setting out on the next leg (or wheel) of his journey.
Pablo first got the travel bug at the age of 19 and left his home in Buenos Aires for Brazil. However, before long, he had settled down into life there as a tour guide running his own business and staying for five years before deciding to return home, by bike.
He said: "I knew I wanted to travel so I set out to ride from Brazil to Argentina to see if I could do it."
The 10,000-km trip took 12 months and convinced Pablo he belonged in the saddle so then came almost two years of planning and seeking sponsorship.
He said: "I flew to South Africa in 2001 and then it really hit me what I had set out to do. I had done no real training during the planning and then I arrived in Cape Town and found that the people were sometimes fighting amongst themselves so it was a bit scary and I looked at the map from Cape Town to Cairo and said to myself 'you must be mad'.
"But there was no going back."
Instead he set off to cycle north through Africa travelling 17,000 kms in two years and three months, losing his sponsor but gaining lots of adventures along the way.
In Malawi he was beset by tsetse flies, causing him once again to doubt his own sanity, and in Mozambique he cycled on almost non-existent roads, and took to canoes, with his bike, when he needed to cross unbridged rivers.
He encountered robbers in Kenya, where he woke one night to find two men armed with machetes in his bedroom and got lost in the desert in Djibouti where he cycled for hours not knowing if he was heading in the right direction before he spotted two trucks in the distance.
Making his way to them he discovered they were driven by French military personnel who were astonished to find a white man on a bicycle in the middle of an African desert.
In Zambia he turned a corner and met a large elephant but the pachyderm didn't cause any problems as each was afraid of the other.
Pablo said: "I looked at the elephant and he looked at me and then we both went in the opposite direction, so I think he must have been a bit scared of me too.
"Within a few hundred metres I realised I had a puncture but fortunately there was a campsite nearby and, mindful that there was an elephant just behind me, I decided the roadside was not the best place to fix my tube so I picked up the bike and carried it to the campsite."
After many such adventures, including a two month period during which he was accompanied by a cameraman and the pair lived with various tribes, Pablo arrived in Cairo in January 2004. He then flew to stay with his sister in Spain while seeking a sponsor for the next stage of his trip.
But European companies were not so keen to help as their African counterparts and eventually, after trying 120 different organisations, the intrepid cyclist decided to improvise cycling up through Europe and visiting the capital cities where he would set up a stall with his bicycle telling people about his journey, collecting much-needed cash and selling Argentinian souvenirs and handicrafts.
It was while travelling through Italy that Pablo met and fell in love with his future wife Clara Vicari, an archaeologist, who took to the road alongside him to cycle through Turkey and Syria returning to Italy when Pablo decided it was time to set off for Iran.
He said: "That was a hard place to travel. The people in the cities were very open and welcoming but outside they were very curious about me. They all wanted to come and chat but sometimes it was difficult as I was still trying to cycle.
"But the worse bit was the bureaucracy with the police, the army and government officials wanting to check what I was doing every step of the way."
Eventually he passed through Iran and went to Kuwait where he secured a new sponsor in the shape of Inspection and Control Services and hoped to get a visa for Saudi Arabia. When this was refused he decided to come to Bahrain.
He said: "I had heard of Bahrain and I was intrigued to see the Gulf so this is a good introduction to it. My friend spoke to the Marriott about me and when I turned up here with my bike - which bears the flag of all 57 countries he has so far visited - they were very welcoming and offered me the chance to stay here in luxury which is brilliant.
"For someone who has been cycling hard it's great to have the chance to just rest and relax a little bit before I go on and I can't thank them enough. When I set out my family thought I was mad but when they see me staying somewhere like this they know that I am going to be OK."
Marwan Haddad, director of sales at the Marriott Executive Apartments, said: "The Marriott is about the spirit of serving the community and what Pablo is doing is spreading a spirit of adventure and goodwill so we were pleased to make him welcome and give him an introduction to Bahrain and of course to wish him well on the rest of his journey."
Next Pablo plans to travel to Saudi Arabia, visa permitting, the UAE and on down through Pakistan before Clara joins him to cycle on through India - with a wedding stop somewhere exotic along the way.
They will continue through Asia down to Australia and from New Zealand back to North America and another long trek back down to Argentina.
To find out more about Pablo's travels log onto www.theworldbybike.com
