Originally Posted by AnTyx

What is this cult of struggle?

This is the thing that has made me almost unable to listen to ARR Raw any more. There is this persistent ideology that "it has to be difficult and lonely and undiscovered, otherwise you're not doing it right". Infrastructure - from paved roads to cheap local SIMs and accepting card payments - is seen as some kind of evil, that is ruining the purity of the endeavor.

That's gatekeeping bullshit.

Too many people seem to be in this not for the trip itself - not for the experience and pleasure that they get out of it for themselves - but for the ability to brag in the pub about how many problems they encountered and overcame.

When I think of my trips, be it on a motorcycle or not, the things I remember are not the times when I was miserable. The trips I most enjoyed were not the ones where I got stuck in the mud or had to deal with crooked border officials - it's the ones where everything went well and I really enjoyed myself throughout.

I don't understand this obsession with getting to places where nobody else has been. I understand the pleasure of being in solitude in nature - in a place where nobody else is at the same time as you - but that just means getting up early, or going slightly out of season, dealing with colder or wetter weather. (I really enjoyed renting a scooter in Lisbon and riding out to Cabo de la Roca in February - I'd brought much of my gear from home, and was probably the warmest, best-protected scooter rider in Portugal on that day!) But if there is a place worth seeing, the locals will know about it, and will build a road to it. If some place is properly difficult to reach, it's probably because nobody needs or wants to go there!

Why are we supposed to idolize struggle and misery? It's fun to read about someone else having a bad time while you're warm at home with a cup of tea, but that doesn't mean I want to go and be miserable myself!

So no, I don't think the world shutting down makes ovelanding better or more "genuine". There SHOULD be more people doing it. It SHOULD be more accessible. There SHOULD be options on roads to take, so that you can go around the world on a Gold Wing, and you know what? If it takes you a thousand days, there will be enough great experiences to fill every single one of those days. Even if you aren't riding a KTM with knobbly tires up into the Hindukush.

The golden age of overlanding was when you could take a scheduled car ferry from Korsakov to Wakkanai, or from Panama to Columbia; when any passport besides an American or British one let you get into Iran with only a bit of bureaucracy. The next golden age of overlanding will be when China allows foreign vehicles to transit unaccompanied.

Originally Posted by *Touring Ted*

If a motorway and a service station with your favourite flavour of coffee is your thing then that's fine too.

Originally Posted by *Touring Ted*

I am very much speaking for myself. It's just a throw-away thought I had.

When I started over-landing about twenty years ago, there were not many others around. Sure, people have been doing this for a millennia, but It felt a lot more unique, and I liked that. I loved that if I chose to ride the road less travelled, it would be a challenge because there wasn't another traveller ten minutes behind me that could help me out.

I loved it when I rolled into a fuel station and I would have people asking me questions and offering to buy me a drink etc. Egocentric ?? Probably... That rarely happens now.

I liked it when I wasn't just one of million doing the same journey. On the same kind of bike etc.

I want to feel like I'm exploring new places or being, dare I say it, "Adventurous" It doesn't feel much of an adventure to me if it's too easy. Or I'm surrounded by a safety net of people.

I suppose you can compare it to Climbing to Everest base camp. I bet it felt like much more of a special achievement when there wasn't 10,000 people in-front and behind you doing exactly the same thing.

With all this Covid disruption, It has kept people home. Too worried to travel. It's harder. Maybe I'm just saying I like less people

When there wasn't a million other overlanders on the same road, when you happened to see another one, you would both stop and say hello. "Where've you been and where are you going?" Make a new friend. It's a great feeling. Now there are so many of us around that you're lucky to get a nod.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the other side of it too. Sometimes I just like to book a hotel, turn on the sat nav and ride was somewhere for a relaxing break.

Originally Posted by *Touring Ted*

If a motorway and a service station with your favourite flavour of coffee is your thing then that's fine too. But it really isn't mine.