On pedals to raise funds for HIV/Aids
INDIAN zoologist Somen Debnath, 31, has cycled through East London heading to Port Alfred, clocking his 118 000th kilometre.
Interviewed on Wednesday, the animated anti-Aids campaigner spoke of pushing the pedals of his full-carbon framed Trek 7.2 mountain bike through his 97th country.
The vegetarian Hindu graduate of Calcutta University is 11 years into a 16-year quest to raise money to build a global village in the Himalayas.
Debnath, of Basanti in Sundarbans in West Bengal, India has so far raised R417 000, using 60% for the cause, and 40% to fund his travels.
He has set himself a target of meeting 20-million people by riding 200 000km around the world, and says he has already met 10-million people.
He started his African leg in Morocco.
He said he has been mugged six times and beaten up eight times. He is headed for Cape Town, with his favourite song in his head,
by the Beatles.
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