By Chris Guy posted on 16 Dec 2018 in Rural

In October 2018 I travelled to Visakhapatnam in India, together with five other cyclists, to take part in the inaugural Frank Water Cycle for Safe Water event. The plan was to undertake a 400km cycle ride which would include visits to remote communities in the Eastern Ghats, where Frank has worked with local NGO, VJNNS to install gravity-fed freshwater systems.

The trip was incredible. India is an amazing country – chaotic, loud, bright, colourful and intense. It can in turn also be polluted, dirty, dusty, and overcrowded, but it’s a place that is busting with life and full of fantastic people. We met a few of these on our trip and were greeted with smiles, waves and requests for selfies by just about everyone we encountered!

Cycling in India is challenging, but a lot of fun. Riding through the cities was a test of nerves at times, but we had a great support crew around us who did a fantastic job of keeping us safe. Once we got out of the urban areas the traffic was much less of an issue and we were very quickly into rural India. Cycling through beautiful scenery of Andhra Pradesh, we made our way up into the Eastern Ghats.

The visits to the villages were very special. We received the warmest of welcomes – complete with music, dancing, gifts of flowers and garlands –  and had the chance to interact with the villagers and to understand the first-hand struggle that not having access to clean drinking water brings alongside the obvious – and indeed not so obvious – benefits that each new water system brings to these communities.

Below is a selection of the shots I took on the trip, which I hope go some way to capture the experience.

Colourful two-storey street-front building with external staircases and balcony, a parked motorbike and a small Coca-Cola branded shop.

Vizag Architecture

Evening street scene at a zebra crossing: scooters and auto‑rickshaws lined up while a traffic officer directs vehicles amid trees and colourful buildings.

Railway New Colony Road, Visakhapatnam

Bustling Visakhapatnam city street with auto rickshaws, motorbikes, shopfronts, colourful signs and a tangle of overhead wires under a clear sky.

Evening light in Visakhapatnam

Sunset over a hazy Visakhapatnam city viewed from a hillside with tilted solar panels and scrubby vegetation, distant hills silhouetted.

View of Visakhapatnam from Kailasagiri Park

Kailasagiri Ropeway sign with two cartoon characters and info panel; a blurred green gondola glides above the blue support structure at dusk.

Kailasagiri Ropeway – At a Glance

Cyclists ride in single file along a road in rural India past trees, huts and ox carts, with green hills rising in the background.

On the road in Rural India

A young man in a checked shirt holds a goat and a staff beside a bicycle on a rural roadside, with palm trees and hills beyond.

Goat Herder

A friendly outdoor scene: a seated woman and man in conversation, three children standing between them, others nearby under trees and plastic chairs.

Meeting with Mr Siva Kumar at VJNNS

A herd of cattle and goats walking along a dusty country lane, flanked by green vegetation and trees beneath a cloudy sky.

Livestock

Clear water flows from a concrete tap into a shiny metal pot while a barefoot person in a colourful patterned skirt stands nearby on sunlit, mossy ground.

Clean water supply in the village

A group of women and children in colourful saris stand by a concrete spiral staircase in a rural, green landscape.

Villagers at K Bennavaram

Gondimelaka Village: a smiling family of five — parents and three children — sit on a mat in a brightly painted room.

A Family in Gondimelaka Village

Three young girls in colourful dresses stand together outside a rural home with a tiled roof, smiling in a dusty courtyard.

Schoolgirls in K Bennavaram

Gondimelaka Village. A motorcyclist rides along a country road beside a stand of tall, slender eucalyptus trees, with golden fields visible through the trunks.

The Road to Gondimelaka Village

Six boys walking down a dirt country lane, smiling and chatting, surrounded by green trees and fields.

Leaving SK Banda Village

Colourful, decorated lorry parked on a rural dirt road, with people walking nearby and trees and hills in the background.

Jameela Lorry Transport

A crowd of women and children in colourful saris and dresses standing in a long line outdoors amid a grove of tall, slender trees.

Gondimelaka Village

A woman in a dark shawl and colourful dress stands outdoors in a rural village, hands clasped, with simple houses and trees in the background.

Kumari from VJNNS

A man in a cap and work shirt trowelling a concrete ledge outdoors, with terraced green hills and trees in the background.

Building a water filtration tank in Polambandalu

Colourful sheets and clothes spread out to dry on a green riverbank, people tending them beside a winding river and distant tree‑clad hills.

On the route back into Visag

Sunbeams pierce brooding clouds over layered blue hills, overlooking rolling green and yellow fields and a lone tree beside a strip of yellow blooms.

View over the Eastern Ghats

Thank you!

Hige thanks to everybody that sponsored me on this ride and everyone involved at FRANK Water, Authentica and VJNNS for making this such an amazing and memorable adventure.

Frank Water is a safe water and sanitation charity based in Bristol. Since 2005, they have provided safe water and sanitation to 386,500 people in 442 communities across India and Nepal. There are still 663 million people who still lack access to this basic human right. Read more about their work at frankwater.com.

I have been on the Board of Trustees at FRANK Water since July 2017.

Cycle for Safe Water 2018

Here's a gallery with even more images from our Indian adventure...

Five casually dressed adults smiling and posing by a fenced garden and a red vintage train (number 694), under a palm tree on a tiled pavement.
Six adults in matching 'Cycle for Safe Water' T-shirts pose smiling at a sunny temple site, with large white statues of Hindu deities behind them.
Three boys with bicycles laugh together beside a grassy field, enjoying a sunny day outdoors.
A man stands beside a village water project plaque, pointing to donor details - Frank Water UK - on a white building, smiling under a clear sky.
Friends sitting on colourful mats under a rustic shelter, sharing food and drinks and chatting, with countryside visible beyond.
Four people wearing marigold garlands at a colourful outdoor celebration under a striped canopy, smiling and exchanging flowers.
Visitors from Frank Water sit under a colourful patterned canopy, holding a community meeting with local villagers—women, men and children gathered on mats.
Smiling cyclist in an orange jersey and white helmet pauses on a country track beside their bike, surrounded by green fields under a bright blue sky.
Visitors wearing marigold garlands take a group selfie with local villagers and children in colourful clothes in a rural setting under a partly cloudy sky.
Handheld photo of a Telugu newspaper page (Andhra Jyothy) dated 1 Nov 2018 showing articles, headlines and group photographs.
Three men outdoors repair an upside-down bicycle on a lawn, with a multi-storey house and palm trees in the background.
A cyclist opens his phone while chatting with a man and three boys seated on a motorbike by a rural roadside, with scooters and onlookers nearby.
A man in a dark cycling top drinks from a fresh coconut at the roadside on a sunny day, with people, posters and power lines in the background.
Night market stall selling colourful bangles and bracelets laid out in trays; shoppers crouch and pick items under a bright light.
Colourful laundry or textiles laid out to dry across a green river floodplain, with a winding stream, scattered people and distant hills under a bright cloudy sky.
Brightly painted Indian lorry decorated with colourful motifs drives along a rural road bridge, followed by motorcyclists, with palm trees and blue sky in the background.
Two men in navy shirts smile beside steaming cooking pots under a colourful patterned canopy at an outdoor food stall.
Visitors wearing marigold garlands listen to local guides on a white stone platform amid lush greenery; some hold cameras and water bottles.
Two blue bicycles parked on a country track, one adorned with a yellow marigold garland and a water bottle, helmets on the handlebars with green hills in the background.
Smiling group of friends pose outdoors on a dirt track, most in navy polos, one in a bright green cycling top, with green fields and hills under a cloudy sky.
Two smiling women wearing marigold garlands and holding bouquets stand outdoors at a festive community event, with children and decorations in the background.
Two smiling women in colourful saris stand outdoors beneath trees, with green hills with a crowd gathered in the background.
Women and girls in colourful saris stand on a dirt path in a rural village; a visitor with a garland and bouquet smiles among them.
Six cyclists in matching T-shirts and helmets stand with their bicycles outside urban shops and signage, smiling for a group photo.
Wide sandy beach with lampposts and a lifeguard chair, gentle waves and people strolling along the shoreline, with buildings visible in the distance.
Two men chat by a buffet counter with large stainless pots and green plates in a decorated hall with ceiling fans and red drapes.
Two smiling men wearing marigold garlands sample small food offerings outdoors surrounded by people and trees.
Cyclists gather as a man gently applies a forehead mark to a helmeted woman while others watch and smile outdoors.
Smiling bearded man wearing a marigold garland links arms with women in pink saris, surrounded by a cheering outdoor crowd.
Six cyclists in colourful kits and helmets stand with their road bikes under a shaded archway, holding trophies amid lush plants and a sunlit building in the background.
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