Francis as BSA Tour Of Nilgiris 2011 Tour Director
People who you wouldn’t otherwise meet.
You’d meet the serious types; who come here only because they want to photograph nature and you’d meet the fun type; who’d make sure even the serious folks have fun.
So when we started looking for a fun Tour Director, we had a pretty hard thing choosing. But, we’ve finally made our minds.
And so without any further ado, allow us to present to you, the Tour Director for the BSA TfN Eleven **drum rolls**
Francis lobo, overall fun guy and the wit behind all the ‘writing on the road’, he is an absolutely amazing guy to work with.
Both on the tour and off, he’ll make sure that you’ll never have a dull moment.
As BSA TfN 2011 editor(Navin), I got the opportunity to sit down with Francis over a cup of coffee and put him through a few questions.
Yes, we do grill too!
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: So why did you really choose TfN?
Francis: TFN for me is a piligrimage. A rare chance to meet 100 (almost) strangers from different walks life and share some helluva good time with them.
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: But you’ll get to meet all these strangers even if you are a Rider, so why volunteer?
Francis: While the first edition in 2008, gave me the first taste of multi day bicycle touring, in 2009, I gatecrashed just before midnight of day 1 as a volunteer.
And lo! Behold! I was hooked to it. The sheer joy of being there when a huffing puffing cyclist needs you, waking up before daybreak to run inventory checks, painting road signs in dark, the recces, getting thrown all over in the support truck, meetings at 10:30pm, racing against time to set up support stations, campfires, song and dance, countless anecdotes, the fun, the frolic, Plan A, plan B, plan C, plan X… it’s infectious, it’s addictive. And not to forget.. a huge learning experience.
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: Why not Race Director?
Francis: Being a lazy bicycle tourer myself I feel I better fit in the tour segment.
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: Hmm, what else do you do?
Francis: A software tester by profession, I enjoy travelling and photography. Always looking for an opportunity to feed the wanderlust I indulge in one long lazy tour every year. And of course TFN has a permanent place on my calendar.
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: Have you done any other tours besides the TfN?
Francis: Oh yeah! Besides volunteering for the three previous TfN’s, I’ve rode my cycle from Kanyakumari to Bangalore (total distance of 1100KM), Bhutan – the tri peaks – Chele La, Dochu La, Yotong La.
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor: WOW! That is impressive! So do you have a wishlist of places you’d like to visit?
Francis: Definitely (grinning). Someday, I’d like to cycle the Silk Route, and travel from Singapore to Moscow on train.
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So the rest you can hear from him on the tour….
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BSA TfN 2011 Editor
The Link to his Photo on Facebook
