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Travel bug

Life on the road is a ball, or at least it can and should be. The thing is, disasters do happen but it’s all about how you deal with them. Remember the old saying ‘every cloud has a silver lining?’ This is so true if your mindset is good, and you’ve done enough of the right prep to allow you to cope with the unexpected.

As author Samuel Johnson said: “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see how they are.”

An a­mazing world awaits the overlander and, to my mind, the best adventures happen when something unforeseen kicks off. I’ve learnt not to fear the unexpected, but to relish the opportunity that each episode gives. A surprise event can instantly scoot you off in a direction that your dreams almost certainly won’t have included, and that to me is a big part of the fun. I’m still surprised at how fast we find ourselves able to learn, to adapt and how so many things work out for the best.

I’m sometimes accused of being too positive, and I probably sound that way already. But grief, to get out of some of the things that have happened to me out there on the roads of the world, I guess I need to be. If a disaster is going to happen to a traveller, it’s probably going to happen to me.

Over the years I was lucky enough to ride around the world, I was shot at twice, arrested four times, and thrown in jail twice. I had a 17 bone fracture accident, caught all sorts of lurgies and nearly killed myself by falling asleep on the bike while riding across the Australian Outback. It’s a heat thing, but fortunately I’ve a great guardian angel and she jerked me awake before I headed out into the scrub to play games with the kangaroos and the wallabies.

But it’s dangerous to let the risk factor put you off. You as a biker already know an important reality. If you ride enough miles, chances are edgy moments are going to happen to you. They will happen whether you are riding at home or on a desert track in Namibia. And actually, I think that the risk factor and the tingle that this fear of the unknown gives you are positive ingredients. They fine-tune your mind. They leave all your senses wide awake, leaving you open to all the possibilities.

One of my biggest pre-trip fears was the thought of being on my own, falling off the bike and ending up under it, unable to get out.

With only three months’ riding experience when I set off on the trip, I fell off a lot to begin with. But the only time I trapped myself under the bike was on a dual carriageway in Australia, and three Hells Angels rescued me – honest! Thankfully none of them were smoking. Petrol was pouring out of the carbs and hey, smoking kills as the saying goes. The point, though, is that everywhere is someone’s backyard and even in fairly remote places, sooner or later somebody comes along.

It’s actually quite bizarre how this happens.

Expect to make friends

The fact that most people in this world are genuinely good and very welcoming to strangers is another of those vital ingredients.

When my partner Birgit and I were riding the beautiful roads of north Colombia, we were conscious of all the stories of kidnapping and the like. But local people always steered us in the right direction. One time they sent us off along one of the most stunning mountain roads I’ve ever ridden, and it’s highly unlikely we’d have ever ridden it without their guidance. The trouble? Bandits blew up a bridge that we’d have been very close to, if not actually on, when they did so.

Judging people by the way they look, or at first glance, is a danger. I nearly died from dengue fever in Thailand but was brought back to life by a prostitute. I’d met her just a couple of days before, and she told me that she was a new girl to the job; she was saving up to go to university. Kulap’s innocence shocked me though. She didn’t know what STDs were and she’d heard of AIDS but didn’t know what was involved.

We had a sex education lesson on the end of her bed. I said the end! She realised that she hadn’t seen me for a couple of days, even though my bike was still parked outside my bamboo cabin. Thinking something might be wrong, she came into my room and found me in a right old state. Lovely lass.

How many times in a lifetime are you likely to stay in a brothel with your girlfriend? No, it’s not another prostitute rescue story but this is exactly what happened to Birgit and me in South America.

Her trusty 1971 BMW R60/5 road bike suddenly developed problems. The bike started to backfire so badly that a huge explosion literally blew the ends off both aging exhaust pipes. It made no sense to try to ride on, and the only hotel with off road parking wasn’t a hotel at all. We only realised what was going on in the rooms surrounding the shady courtyard after we’d been there for more than a few hours. No wonder Madam looked at me strangely when we booked the room for three days!

I have to say that at first she didn’t like the look of us at all. We were dust and oil covered, and wearing both leathers and worried expressions, so she had a right to be. But after a couple of days she warmed to us, and then did all she could to help. Coffees on tap and her contact at the local police soon had Birgit and me being escorted from one welder or mechanic to the next. We did attract a few stares as we were transported around town in the metal cage on the back of the police pick up truck…

Breakdowns happen

Pre trip, another thing I worried about was the thought of breaking down and not being able to fix the problem. Of course, being a complete mechanical numpty doesn’t help.

Set off on a bike that’s in really good mechanical order and unless you are on a very long, or extremely rugged trip, it’s highly unlikely to let you down. Another tip is to thoroughly check your bike over at the end of each rough road day. It’s amazing how ruts and corrugations will rattle nuts and bolts loose. If you can wash it pre check, then do so. You are more likely to find any stress cracks that might be appearing. Of course you can really help yourself here by using Loctite and Nyloc nuts, but still check it over. A stitch in time…

If something goes wrong by the roadside, don’t panic, a new adventure is on the roll. If you can’t fix it, well, there will be a truck along at some time. Flag a lift for you and your bike to the nearest town. Like as not with older bikes, a local mechanic will have a part from something that’ll fit. If not, he or a mate will probably be able to make a replacement part or even repair your bust bit. If those options fail then get in touch with your dealer at home and ask them to DHL or Fedex spares out to you. Next, relax. Explore the area on foot or hire some wheels. You’ll learn far more about that corner of the world that you would have done if your bike had allowed you to ride on past.

I used to laugh at myself about this sort of thing. I set off with so many spare parts that they made the bike far harder to pick up when I dropped it, again. I still have spare parts that I never used. Of course I’m not saying you shouldn’t carry spares, but the key is that if you don’t know you’ll need a part then don’t carry it. I’m laughing at myself as I’m writing this. As we were riding across the Atacama Desert in Chile, oil suddenly started spewing out of the final drive on my R80GS. What was one of the few seals I wasn’t carrying? Yup, you guessed it. Who is that feller Murphy? No worries though, Birgit and I limped to the nearest town – a lovely old colonial place with cobbled streets and terracotta roofs. We settled in to wait for the seal to arrive…

But there’s twist to this tale. After a few days, the oil leak miraculously stopped and it’s never leaked since. I certainly didn’t expect that.

Whatever happens to you out there, you’ll return home a very different person and in fact your adventure will have been a success if you get home sounding odd, even to yourself. When I got home, I took a look at everything though my fresh and widely opened eyes. I soon realised what an amazing place I am lucky enough to live in.

I’d like to end this piece by writing about a couple of travelling realities.

You’ll find out things about yourself you never knew existed, and it’s a fact that your adventure is going to be completely unique. No one is going to have done your trip before. The people you meet, the weather, political situation, your budget and your own dreams are going to make it that way.

A last word, though I don’t remember who wrote or said this, but it fits. “The tourist sees what he went to see. The traveller sees what he sees.”

Words and Pics: Sam Manicom