That's the problem with this part of the HUBB, you have to be really bored to visit it! So a reply in a month is probably pretty good going.

I've certainly got a lot of enjoyment out of the 'overland' trips I've done - not just bikes, but cars, vans, trains, backpacking and even, I suppose, long distance running. They've had a significant role in opening up my view of the world and shaping my personality. I've become become more self reliant, more open, more flexible and more aware of what's important and what's not. To some extent I'm always kicking around ideas for what I want to do next, even if some of them are so impractical as to be non starters. But ...

There's more to life than travel. Back when I first started I wanted to go because it was all new. I'd never been to these places, experienced different cultures, even (and anyone from the UK will probably identify with this) known 'decent' weather. So it was all wide eyed and first time. That, to be honest, doesn't last long. So if you keep travelling there has to be something deeper. Travel has to become self justifying. It has to take its place in the other things you (I) find important - work, lifestyle, relationships, family, self fulfilment, self development, health etc (those are not in any particular order). What it isn't is a substitute for any of them.

Any of those can throw up times of stress and dissatisfaction, and frequently do in my experience. Often the root causes may not be in your control - redundancy, relationship breakdown, illness (I've had all three of those + a few others), and I've felt the desire to use travel to recover some sort of mastery of my circumstances - 'gonna ride my bike around the world, taking jobs and women as I need them ... no ties ... no responsibilities' (from a 70's Ogri cartoon dealing with the issue).

The few times I've actually used travel as an escape have been a disaster. One, in the mid 70's, where I 'ran away' from a relationship breakdown was one of the most miserable times I can remember. You think you're leaving the issue behind but it just sits on the handlebars staring you in the face, and, as you end up thousands of miles away, there's no way of dealing with it. You end up stressed from the problems the journey itself throws up but the part of you that should be concentrating on that is preoccupied with whatever it was that drove you away in the first place. I came very close to dying - twice - on that trip as I just didn't care. It was only the intervention of strangers that rescued me.

For years now I've noticed a philosophical element creeping in to whatever travel plans I hatch. I find myself more interested in why I'm doing something rather than just what I'm doing. So if I go off somewhere and don't enjoy it there's a part of me that finds that interesting as well. At the moment I'm reading Paul Theroux's book Last Train to Zona Verde, in which he travels through southern Africa and wonders whether he's up to it any more. The enjoyment factor, the 'it's a challenge and I'll find out about me' element seems to be missing. It's all become hard work, with excitement soon morphing into stress and dissatisfaction. Under those circumstances depression is just round the corner. Depressed and thousands of miles from home is not a good place to be. I certainly learnt that from my 70's trip.