After more than a month on the road, Gintautas returned to Klaipėda. Using his electric trike, the man, paralysed down one side, covered over 3,000 kilometres across the Baltic States. A welcome event was held in Klaipėda on July 15.
The traveller did not hide his joy after completing the journey.
“I feel like an actor who has just performed his premiere show, which went very well. There was pain, effort and everything else, but in the end, the premiere happened, and there was applause. That’s exactly how I feel,” Gintautas told LRT RADIO.
He revealed that many challenges arose during the trip, ranging from technical problems when the trike broke down to enduring harsh weather conditions.
“The first difficulties were on the trip from Ventspils to Kolka. I was supposed to ride on to my overnight stop from Kolka. It was only 12 degrees, and it rained the whole time. I was told there wouldn’t be any stops on that 60-kilometre stretch. (...) The wind came from the sea, the climate was cold, and there was water everywhere. I was freezing. I had all my clothes on, but I was shaking the whole time. Still, I didn’t get ill,” he recounted.
“The second time was when I rode from Trakai to Kaunas. I checked the apps – they said it would take up to five hours. It rained all day and my clothes got soaked. (...) Luckily, I wasn’t in a hotel that time, but staying with Rimantas, where I could wash all my clothes. If I had been in a hotel, where would I have washed everything?”
This journey around the Baltic States on an electric tricycle marks Gintautas’s third record in Lithuania.
“Yes, it’s a record, but we’d like to call it an ‘exceptional achievement’ rather than using the English word ‘record’,” said the traveller, who covered a total of 3,032 kilometres and has already set a new goal.
"I have a dream to cycle around the Baltic Sea, but making it happen involves many challenges, such as funding, support, and breakdowns. The fewer the breakdowns, the better," he emphasised.
Last May, he set a Lithuanian record by cycling from Klaipėda to Vilnius on his trike in less than 50 hours, achieving the record for the longest distance covered on an electric tricycle by a disabled person – 365 kilometres.
Later, the Klaipėda resident decided to cycle more than 1,100 kilometres around Lithuania on an electric bike within 12 days.
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