My mother calls me Balu and my friends call me Bala. It is hard to describe ‘home’ since I have lived in four different continents and also have travelled to more than 69 countries.

Chronologically speaking I was born and raised in Chennai, India . I lived in South Africa for six years when I earned my doctoral degree and also two years of postdoctoral research. It is here in South Africa where I realised several of my interests; cycling, mountaineering, politics, philosophy to name a few.

The subsequent move changed a lot of things in my life although the groundwork happened in Cape Town I suppose. I moved to the UK to work a research scientist at UCL . As of this day (2024) my work experience range from scientific research to high school teaching. The details of my experience and my achievements can be seen on my LinkedIn profile (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/balabangaru/).

I had climbed several mountains and also had been to South America four times. The incidents that happened around 2010 and a year after that, had a big impact. I ended up seeking an adventure. Cycling was one of my passions and I also loved South America . My passion to cycle all of Andes and also the influence of the movie ‘Into the wild’ led to the idea of cycling from Alaska to Argentina. For about three years I was researching and making plans.

I started this blog mainly to record this adventure. However, over the years it is now a record of all my adventure activities and my life in general.

I believe my background, my life experience and my adventures in general will be of interest and motivate some people.