TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The around-the-world rider Jeffrey Polnaja touches down on Timor Leste on Saturday, July 25. The country is the last destination of the Indonesian’s second etape of riding around the world in Ride for Peace (RFP) mission.
The Bandung-born man arrived in Timor Leste after a four-month adventurous ride along Australian and New Zealand continents. Jeffrey admitted he had traveled long, extreme tracks and weathers in both continents.
“I’m grateful that I have been given strength to ride the Ride for Peace mission. The Australian continent, despite it is close to Indonesia, has shown me new value in my life,” Jeffrey said in his press release received by Antaranews on Wednesday, July 29.
In his RFP mission in Australia, Jeffrey a.k.a JJ rode a BMW R1150GS having B5010 JP police number. He collaborated with Indonesian Consulate General in Sydney, Yayan Mulyana, Consulate General in Melbourne, Dewi Savitri Wahab, Consulate General in Darwin, Andre Omer Siregar, and Indonesian Ambassador in Camberra, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema to promote Indonesia to Australian public.
The biggest challenges he encountered in Australia were, says JJ, the extreme riding track, wild life and unpredictable weather. In some moments, Australian soil had swallowed his wheels, and in other moments, he had to bear the pain of an ice rain falling on his body while riding.
Before arriving on Australian soil Jeffrey had traveled the earth’s southernmost city of Ushuaia, Argentine and went back north to Atamaca Santiiago desert, Chili earlier this year. He rode on a path called “Silver Line” along the American continent to Sydney, Australia.
JJ is now listed on Wikipedia.org’s Circumnavigation list as the longest-travel rider. The list has recorded people who traveled around the world since the Magellan Expedition accross Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean (1519-1522). JJ is second rider who ride the longest distance after Emilio Scotto from Argentine.
ANTARA
