I recently visited my daugher in London and decided to shop around on my Kindle for an interesting book to read to pass the time on that dreadful flight over there.
I came across a book by Ted Simons called "Jupiters travels" where he decribes his journy back in the 1970s around the world on a Triumph 500 that took him 4 years to complete.
At the time he was in his forties , had very little motor cycle experience but a huge desire to step out of his comfort zone and do something extraodinary . What an adventure that most of us only dream about , from being thrown in jail , accidents , falling in love with a hippy in California , re buiding the Triumph many times throughout those 4 years. The bike itself is now in a museum in London, remember he had no GPS , no mobile phones just his courage and determination to see the journey through to the end.
As if this was not enough , 25 years later in his 70s he decided to do the trip again this time on a BMW bike. In 2001 he set off again to retrace his first trip and although Im only half way through this book (Dreamimg of Jupiter) he tells of being so disappointed that places and people had changed so much 25 years on.
Places that were exotic were now slums , people that were proud and friendly now angry , poor and beggers. In terms of the new technologys GPS , mobile phones etc, he stated they just ditracted from the adventurous spirit of the ride, this ride only took 2 years to complete.
Anyway I was so impressed by the mans courage and determination I decided to try and make contact with him , bearing in mind he would now be close to 80 and I was not sure if he was even still alive.
After tracking down an e mail address I wrote to him , telling him how much I admired him and asked several questions about his trips. Just two days later he responded to my email with some lovely comments. I asked him why it took him 4 years to do the first trip , and he gave me a wonderful quote , he said Rob : ITS THE INTERUPTIONS IN LIFE THAT MAKE THE JOURNEY.
If he was to ride around the world to just get through each country as fast as possible and not experience the people and cultures and live among them, the trip would have been pointless.
Even though he fell in love with a women half way around and lived with her for a while , he reluctantly had to move on and complete his journey.
If you are looking for a couple of books that will uplift you and show you what is possible I stongly recommend you get hold of these two books.
Rob
