Thoughts from a wanna be.

I first thought about doing a motorbike trip when i was in Chile and i met an american chap that was doing Alaska to TDF. I thought that the trip he was on was amazing.

It was always going to be a long term project because I didn't know anything about bikes and i had never even sat on one. The thought about taking a long trip on a bike was much more intimidating than pottering around with a rucksack.

A couple of years ago i bought my bike and i have been riding every day (bar snow) since then.

In the time between having the idea and getting the bike LWR happened and it did spur me on - i hadn't heard of mondo then. LWR looked like a huge amount of fun and i wanted some of it.

Last year i went to Ripley - I thought that it was inspiring - the trips that people had been on were fantastic.

Since then I have taken my bike on a 2 week jaunt though europe. It was a huge adventure for me - i had never ridden abroad, never riden on a long journey with a loaded bike, never ridden in mountains, never done customs, etc - from my point of view an adventure is doing something outside of your comfort zone - my 2 weeks in europe with my bike was more of an adventure than 2 weeks in bolivia with my back pack.

I am going back to Ripley this year (booked) and hopefully the year after i won't be able to go because i will be somewhere in Mexico - according to my theory this will be a Huge adventure.

The point about LWD is that when i say to people about wanting to do a moto trip they say "wow, that will be amazing" rather than "don't do it" (except for my mum) and i don't think that is a bad thing.

Ripley from my point of view is partly about taking to the guys and gals that have done it - that have done the things that i want to do - that i am going to do - and it would be a shame if people didn't go because of people with "limited adventures".

It does upset me though when people say it was so much better in the old days - for one things change, new people get involved in and technologies move on but two and more importantly - I wasn't there in the old days, I am doing my adventure and i am doing it in my time - and it will still be an adventure because i am going into the unknown.

Just a few thoughts