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Lois Pryce, Solo Adventure Motorcyclist · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and today we will be featuring our
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: notes from the field. We're either my co host Matt Scott,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: or I interview a fellow adventurer while we're out around
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the globe. And for today's guest, I spend time with
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  Speaker 1: Lois Price. She's one of the most exceptional travelers and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: human beings that I know. In fact, I would absolutely
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: say that she is my hero and has inspired so
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: many people to travel solo around the world by motorcycle
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: or by four whel drive for that matter. Lois is
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  Speaker 1: a British adventure motorcyclist and author and the founder curator
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of the Adventure Travel Film Festival. Her books are truly
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: an inspiration and include titles like Lois on the Loose,
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  Speaker 1: where she rides from Alaska all the way down to
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  Speaker 1: Tierra del Fuego. It also includes Red Tape and White Knuckles,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: where she takes another two hundred and fifty or three
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: hundred cc motorcycle and rides at the length of Africa
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: all by herself. And then one of her most recent
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  Speaker 1: titles is Revolutionary Ride, where she spends time and Iran
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  Speaker 1: again solo exploring around that incredible country. Lois is a
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  Speaker 1: regular contributor to The Overland Journal, and I was lucky
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  Speaker 1: to catch up with her in London, sitting next to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: her one hundred year old Dutch barge. This is a
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: little bit shorter interview than we normally feature in the podcast.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: That's because Lois needed to get out and practice her
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: banjo with her band that evening. But I think it'll
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: be a fun one for everyone to listen to. Hello,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I'm Scott Brady. I'm here with Lois Price, famed adventure traveler,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm standing next to their nineteen oh one barge
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: from the Netherlands. I'm gonna ask her a couple questions
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: about adventure travel, but I know that so many people
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: want to know, how do you go from leaving a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: desk job at the BBC to traveling around the world.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question because that really did transform
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  Speaker 2: my whole life. I was working at the BBC in
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: a regular nine to five. I'd been on a holiday
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  Speaker 2: on my most bike, just just for a few days.
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  Speaker 2: And I think everyone knows that feeling of coming home
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: from the holiday or from the bike trip and thinking,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: oh god, you know, back to work, and I think
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: that that was the moment that I just thought, I
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  Speaker 2: simply can't do this anymore. As in my late twenties.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's a classic time for some kind.
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  Speaker 3: Of a crisis.
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  Speaker 2: So I was just like, Okay, it's the old cliche.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: There must be more to life than this.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: What made you decide to do travel by motorcycle?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: For me, the motorcycle is a wonderful way to see
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the world because it engages you with your environment, so
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  Speaker 2: you literally the weather is all in your face, you
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: feel the hot, that cold, the butterflies that you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you smell everything. And it also it's a great icebreaker
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: because people always want to come up and talk to you,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: especially if you're a woman alone. So you make a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: lot of friends on a motorcycle. So I think it's
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  Speaker 2: kind of the best of both worlds. And it means
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  Speaker 2: you can cover distance and you've got that kind of
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: excitement of you know, going off road or the kind
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of speed swheels of being on a motorcycle, which maybe
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: you don't get so much from say walking or cycling.
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  Speaker 2: So for me, it was the motorcycle that actually inspired
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: my journeys almost. I'd learned to ride just for fun,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: riding around London, but I'd only really ridden in London.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: But it was that combination of sort of this boring
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: office job and then this motorcycle license that I just
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: acquired suddenly sent me off on this kind of light
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  Speaker 2: bulb moment of like, ahh, that's the way to see
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the world. I'd always had itchy feet, I kind of
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: wanted to travel, I didn't quite know how to do it,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: and I knew I didn't want to go backpacking. I
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: knew I wanted my own wheels in some way, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: so I learned to ride a bike and that was
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: like the answer, and then it all went from there.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, motorcycle can be such such a beautiful way to
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: travel because it really simplifies things.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose the main takeaway from all of those years
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: of travel that I've done is just take less and
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: less stuff every time.
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  Speaker 3: So if you see the.
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  Speaker 2: Picture that my bike from the first trip and then
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  Speaker 2: the next one, that you look at the last and
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it's so pared down. So I always wear open face helmet,
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  Speaker 2: which I know a lot of people think is maybe
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  Speaker 2: not particularly safe, but for me, a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the pleasure of motorcycle travelers engaging with
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  Speaker 2: people face to face. And I think you can really
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: make a big difference if you can smile at somebody instantly,
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  Speaker 2: and certainly in difficult situations like border crossings or police checkpoints,
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  Speaker 2: if you can just smile and shay hello in their language,
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  Speaker 2: that can diffuse so much rather than turning up with
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  Speaker 2: a kind of big black visor. So I'm a big
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: fan of kind of humanizing the experience. So I wear
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  Speaker 2: very low key clothing. I wear normal clothes. You might
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: say I don't wear motorcycle clothes really, So I just
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  Speaker 2: wear like regular old leather fry boots, jeans, bell staff,
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  Speaker 2: old wax jacket.
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  Speaker 3: From the empty helmet.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm pretty pretty low by really.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a lot of the fun of it is
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  Speaker 1: being able to engage so quickly with people. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 1: you come into a village and you can talk to
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  Speaker 1: the kids. It means you're interacting with the locals a
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  Speaker 1: lot more.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I find that it really helps with
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  Speaker 2: interacting with the locals. It also, I mean there's an incredible,
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  Speaker 2: as you know, camaraderie of motorcyclists around the world, and
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  Speaker 2: that was just an amazing experience for me to tap
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  Speaker 2: into that everywhere another motorcyclist will always stop, always talk
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  Speaker 2: to you, and then the local motorcyclist of course, they
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  Speaker 2: all want to know, so you instantly tap into this
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  Speaker 2: kind of secret world, which I've found really really exciting,
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  Speaker 2: and I've made so many friends all over the world
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  Speaker 2: through that. I always carry my camping gear so I
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: know that no matter where I get stuck, I can
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: always pitch my tent somewhere. And like you say, you
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: have to stop a lot for supplies, you can't carry
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: a lot and you know, disappear for weeks on end,
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  Speaker 2: so you do tend to be going into little villages cafes,
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  Speaker 2: and for me, the human interaction is the essence of
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: overland travel.
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  Speaker 1: For those of us that travel, we know that it
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: changes us, oftentimes in profound ways. For you, how has
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: travel changed you personally? Yeah?
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I agree that definitely how changed me. It wasn't a
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: sudden thing. I didn't come back from my first trip
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  Speaker 2: like wow, I'm a different person. It's more of a
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  Speaker 2: gradual thing. I think the main twoth ways that has
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  Speaker 2: changed me. One, It's certainly made me more tolerant of
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  Speaker 2: people that are different from me, more interested in people
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that are different from me, certainly less judgmental. I think
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: the other way that it has changed me is that
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  Speaker 2: I don't worry so much. I know that everything will
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: work out in the end. Well ither think before, certainly
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: before my first chip, I used to be lying away
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: worrying about this that, what would happen? What about this?
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  Speaker 2: What about that? Now I just think, yeah, I'll be fine,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: and it is actually maybe think it always is.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: So one of the things we're getting feedback for more
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and more of our readers is that they're actually traveling
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: as vegetarians or as vegans, which I think is really
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  Speaker 1: an interesting change that we've seen over the last decade.
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  Speaker 1: And it's consistent, and you can oftentimes find good ways
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  Speaker 1: to travel as a vegetarian or a vegan. How have
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: you found that you were able.
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  Speaker 3: To do that.
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  Speaker 2: I do depend a lot on bread, cheese, and tomatoes,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: which you can get anywhere in the world, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure that you know, but I have had difficult situations
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: where because a lot of cultures, they don't understand being
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: a vegetarian, and so they couldn't really make it out.
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  Speaker 2: So they would sort of make a big fuss about
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  Speaker 2: bringing me some camel or some endangered species in Nige.
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  Speaker 2: They said, oh, we killed the gazelle, you know, which
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: are like in dangerous regions and bring it to you,
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  Speaker 2: and so you can't have to eat it out of politeness,
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  Speaker 2: because it would be so rude not to. So I
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: have eaten some meat sort of really quickly, but most
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: of the time I managed because you can always find fruit,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: some kind of vegetable, bread, and some kind of cheese,
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  Speaker 2: even if it is laughing cow.
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  Speaker 1: So we're bringing this interview to a close. But I
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: know that there's more to you than just travel. So
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: tomorrow you've got what going on?
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Well tomorrow, yeah, I'm playing the banjo with my band,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the Jolines in central London. So shame you can't be there,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: but you go home.
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  Speaker 3: Tomorrow, right, And how long have you been playing the banjo?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's probably about seven or eight years now.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: And is that something you've been able to bring along
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: with you on any of your travels.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you should say that, because we did
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: a ural trip in a ural sidecart from Richmond, Virginia
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  Speaker 2: to Seattle, six thousand miles. It's absolutely brilliant and yeah,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: the banjo travels in the sidecart.
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  Speaker 3: Well, thank you for being such an inspiration.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, thanks for having me, and thanks for having me
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: as part of Overland.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.