I spent 899 days on the road across the globe (THE HARD WAY HOME) When i got back now 6 years a go I struggled, i did not get a normal 9 to 5 job, i ended up getting into roster work, which then enabled me to move to another country. I came home to Australia, it had changed, 'NORMAL life i could not handle, it was boring, so i moved to Thailand, something different, smells, sites, language, culture, people, food, i just needed my normal. I stayed there for 2 and a half years before coming back to Oz, and kinda feel now im just a part of boring normal life, for me that is, of course im not saying my friends live s are boring but for me it is.
I wrote a book, a lot of hard work and money, rewarding in the end and its on Amazon, in the shops etc but it'll be a few years yet before it pays for itself, so in the end was it worth it I'm not sure, it has great reviews and i never did it to make money but for what i spent it could have been a year on the road! I continue to dream but I've found once i had done the world trip my dreams got bigger. I fulfilled a childhood dream this year by competing at the 2014 Dakar rally in south america, i finished and came 39th in the world, it was 14 days of intense racing which saw me train work and save for nearly 2 years to make it happen. But thatsthe problem once we have done what we have done our dreams get bigger, we need more to stimulate us, well for me anyway!

So that's what happened to me, I still daydream, i still have dreams but sometimes im envious of the 'normal' untraveled people, why because they are more easily pleased and are not aware of the amazing world that is out there

Hi Allan

I will buy your book!, a very modest account about riding and finishing 39th in the hardest enduro rally on earth!

i understand about being envious of the 'normal' untraveled people. i myself have been living out of bags and traveling in one way or another since i was 16. I guess home is just where you leave your bag

What's Next?
 

In a small way, a very small way coming home from an RTW or continental ride might be like soldiers or war correspondents coming home from war.
The experiences... those that do not become nightmares or fodder for social situations or less and less humorous situations that eventually extinguish themselves are generally supported by videos and photos and the mandates of daily diaries, and these tend to live on, and those too emotionally expensive to relate, just die.

Acquiescenceships, friendships and enemyships are what is next and, until death never finished, and, sometimes not even finished by death.

In 1967, while traveling, I met a young woman in Trinidad, our affair was brief, but we promised to meed again in five years, no matter what. In exactly five years, she was in Halifax and I was in Tampa, so I quit my job and drove to Halifax and she quit her job and together we drove to Acapulco. It is not the journey but the people you meet and love along the way. She is gone now, yet not gone from my thoughts and yes I confess my dreams.

And, while traveling, an inconsiderate word or action might offend or hurt someone, and that lives on.

I have always believed it is not what has been done to me, but what I have done to others that is what really counts. I am still working out amends for careless, inconsiderate words and actions that unthinkingly undercut the natural affinity we all have for others.

Friends are forever, on the road or at home.

So, what is next is what is now. Make and keep friends while traveling or not, and make damn sure you offend only those you truly wish to offend. Be careful in your words and actions and be confident that you can always do the right thing. Know you can survive and that you can help others survive.

Of course, shit happens, that is a good reason to buy insurance and learn how to make amends. Like in war, the friends and enemies you made while traveling are more than what's next, they are what is.

xfiltrate

UK to Thailand 2014
 

We have traveled by car extensively crossing Canada and the USA stopping in hotels on the way on many many occasions. We did a great driving trip in South Africa and Swaziland but nothing on the scale of our Europe/Asia trip

Well in 2014 our plan was to drive our 17 year old converted Ex prisoner transport vehicle 814D Merc from our home in the UK to our holiday home in Thailand it turned out to be a trip that crossed 29 countries and covered 25,500 Km, so we set off on March 9th 2014, stop for as long or as short a time as we wanted where we wanted the trip was the most amazing thing we have ever done and the people we met on our travels made the trip for both of us, since then we have wondered what to do next with Plodd, so for the last 2 years we talked about the Americas, never spoke about Australia and did short trips in to Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, these are great places to travel in round with fantastic things to see and do but far to hot most of the year traveling in an overlander truck, so we are now planning our trip back to Europe, we will probably take a similar route back as we enjoyed most of the counties we visited. We think that we will spend less time in Russia, but generally speaking the same route, at lease until we reach Turkey then we will decide where to head from then.
Our tentative plan is to leave Thailand April/May next year (2017) so watch this space.

Dave & Lesley
Plodd - A Trip of a Lifetime
Overlanders - Stellplatz stop over and tour Pattaya, Thailand

Wow. All you lucky folks that had the where-with-all to take months long/years long trips. I was able to take enough time off work to spend 5 weeks in Thailand (including week in Cambodia) this past December/January.

I fell in love with the Thai people and their beautiful country. Came back to winter in the NW corner of the USA and two feet of compacted, hard as a rock snow on my driveway. :freezing: I missed the sunshine. I missed long motorcycle rides on winding roads (with a foot of snow on the ground at home, the bikes were tucked away in the garage). I missed the food. haha

After a week back at work, I was ready to leave again. It was depressing. Every day, I look at the finances and plan for the future. When can I retire? (not for a few more years) Can I afford to take time off without pay? (probably not....)

But. The bright side is, I have a good job where I can take 6 weeks of paid vacation every year.

So, I plan. I live through other peoples ride reports. :-) I count the days until I can pack a bag and head to the airport. Mid January looks to be a good time. Although the New Years fireworks in Bangkok was amazing.

So, you all keep traveling, keep writing up these fabulous reports. I will read them and be jealous until its time for me and the husband to go away once more.

I started independent travelling with seven months around the US and Mexico on a bike with a girlfriend.
Coming back to ‘normality’ was very hard so I took a summer job taking people to and around Morocco and went to college when I came back.

Nothing really fit, not so much because I couldn’t settle down as I had no wish to. I loved travelling and had terribly itchy feet so I travelled overland solo to the Orient, stopping and teaching English in various places.
I found a country which I came to love. It was so different from my own that every day was an adventure.
I settled there for almost a generation but still travelled for months at a time. Kids came along after I married a local girl and months’ long trips became shorter holidays.
Teaching English paid well at that time and place and we did well.

I came back to England to school the kids and we were OK. Solvent.
Now, after fifteen years, the kids have gone off and we again take the bike away for many months, to far flung continents.
Our last trip was 27,000 miles over seven months and the only reason we stopped was to come back and see the kids.

So you can certainly spend your life travelling on motorbikes.
I don’t personally want to spend ten years on the road. I’ve seen people who have and it seems like just another rut to me.
Personally, I disagree with the ‘everything here is shit’ way of looking at life. Having lived in quite a few countries and travelled in many, many more I’ve seen horrific corruption and disregard for the people. Eye watering cruelty and indifference and also incredible generosity.
But the question was, how do you settle. For me, it was find a country you love, a partner who’ll make you better, and then start a business of your own, however small, so that you can feel a measure of control over what you do and, if you get it right, can make enough to travel and live your own way.
I’m 61 now and am planning to ride to Oz next.

Good luck.

How does one get back into the rut of work and home after a big trip?
In my case, one doesn't!

My first trip was USA and Canada in 1980, up the west coast, along the Alaska Highway when it was all gravel, on a BMW R90S.
Utterly unsuitable bike for gravel, but I didn't know any better, thus everything worked out fine.

When I returned home to (then) the UK and I was getting interviews for jobs, I was inevitably asked about the gap in my employment history, which I explained away by saying the trip was just something I needed to get out of my system, blah blah blah, knowing full well that I just wanted to earn enough tin to get on the road again.

40 years later, I'm still up to the same old silliness, last year was a 35,000km lap around Australia, this year is Norway into the arctic circle and then south through Russia and Ukraine, looping pack through southern Europe, ending up on the Isle of Man for the Manx GP.

Work is for horses.

Feb 2022 Edit..... well, we all know what happened to the trip through Russia in early 2019, don't we children?
Covid happened.
Latest update, bike is en route to UK for a ride through Europe, Iran, Pakistan and India, and then.....? who knows?

Keep dreaming, keep planning, keep saving then start riding.

Coming back is mostly heavy, if you did go "to leave" your current situation in any way (live, work, friends, family, relationship).

If your purpose was exploring and adventures and did love your setting - your re-entry of the normal live will get pretty relaxed. And you are happy to start again.

If you had problems bevore the trip, they usually dont vanish - and it is harder to fight them after the trip. And they do not help to enjoy your trip. Somewhere in your head you know - what is waiting at home......

Surfy

So, you got me thinking...

Our last three trips:

1) 11 months around South America, 2010-2011, once back home - continued consulting, did lots of short trips, mainly tagged onto work travel (Canada, USA, Mexico, UK/France, USA/Mexico, France/Spain/Andorra, Canada x 2, Croatia/Bosnia & Herzegovina/Algeria/Slovenia/UK, Canada, USA/Mexico, USA, France/Singapore/Malaysia/UK, Argentina, France, South Korea, Germany, USA, Singapore/Indonesia/Austria/Czech Republic/Hungary/Slovakia/UK, Mexico, Canada, UK/France/Spain, Brazil, Cuba, Canada/USA, Mexico, Canada/China/Vietnam/UK, Brazil, Panamá, Republic of China, USA/Costa Rica/UK/Algeria/Germany/Canada/Malaysia/Myanmar, Argentina/UK, USA, Panamá/USA, Argentina x 2, USA, Portugal/Argentina, Canada/Mexico, USA/UK, Argentina). Saved up for the next "big trip".

2) 10 months around Africa in 2017, plus stops in USA and UK on the way there, and UK and Portugal on the way home. Back home - continued consulting, did lots of short trips, mainly tagged onto work travel (Canada, USA, Canada, Argentina, UK/Belgium/Luxembourg/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway, Argentina, Perú, Indonesia). Saved for the next "big trip".

3) 9 months around Australia in 2019, plus stops in UK, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos. Back in January, back to consulting, local trips until March, then into "lockdown".

So the answer is - get home, visit family, continue working and saving money, start planning the next "big trip"...