A friend from 41 years ago tracked me down today

[Baldbloke]

 

He’s just this year published a book on his motorcycle trip from Northern Ireland down the east side of Africa via the Middle East in 1980. Some time prior to Boorman and McGregor’s assisted and backed travels a decade or so later. He also did it on the most unsuitable large road bike one could choose. This was a chap who’d never previously left his birth place and was a slightly immature 21 year old, and left his home with £1000. After succeeding in arriving in Cape Town he did North and South America. We both nearly got killed several times as twenty year old idiots in the Middle East, but it was great to meet him once again, especially as his book suggested we’d lost touch.

His aim of reaching Australia but hitting Southern Africa is maybe understandable considering he’s Irish.

I’m less than a third of the way through the book but can so far wholeheartedly recommend it for a laugh and inspiration for anyone interested in travel or motorbikes.

 

 

 

 

[IronMike]

Excellent. I’ll recommend this to my dad. When he was in his early teens he successfully rode his old Norton all the way from Keswick to Australia. The trip was memorable for many reasons, the most noteworthy was when he got stabbed in the back and robbed in South Africa!

[Baldbloke]

Excellent. I’ll recommend this to my dad. When he was in his early teens he successfully rode his old Norton all the way from Keswick to Australia. The trip was memorable for many reasons, the most noteworthy was when he got stabbed in the back and robbed in South Africa!

That would’ve been some trip, especially with having to backtrack to find the bits that had fallen off.