Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Elspeth Beard: One of the First British Women to Motorcycle Around the World

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Elspeth Beard: One of the First British Women to Motorcycle Around the World · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today's guest went on a two and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: a half year, three thirty five thousand mile motorcycle trip
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: around the world, and the kicker is it was in
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty four. Welcome Elsbeth Beard
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to the Overled Journal podcast. I'm so excited to have
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you here.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, lovely to be here.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: That's so great.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So you took a nineteen seventy four bmw R sixty
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: six flat twin bike on this trip. You're in your
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: early ties, and I'm wondering, like, what were the building
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: blocks that led to the trip.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: I kind of started riding bikes when I was sixteen seventeen.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: I think I got my first bike when I was seventeen,
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: and it was just cheap and easy transport around London.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Wasn't you know. I had no idea at the.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: Time that motorbikes were going to become such a sort
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: of important part of my life at all. But it
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: was a small, little one hundred cc Amahar And then
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: I got a little bit bored. I wanted to get
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: a bit faster, and so I brought myself at two
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: fifty and then I got a bit bored with that,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: so I want to got a little bit faster again.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: So then in nineteen seventy nine I bought my BMW
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: sixty stroke six, and that was quite an important moment
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: because I think that was the bike that I suddenly
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: realized the traveling potential of a motorbike. It was a
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: serious machine and I really felt for the first time
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: I could.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Go anywhere on it.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: But again there was a time there was no thought
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: about doing any long trips or whatever. The first trip
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I did was up to Scotland on my own. Then
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: I went around Ireland, and then in nineteen eighty the
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: summer of nineteen eighty I rode around Europe. So the
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: trips were getting, you know, slightly bigger and bigger each
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: each time. And then in nineteen eighty one I flew
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: out to Los Angeles and I bought an old seventy
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: five stroke five, again BINGMW, and I rode that from
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: the West coast to the well not quite the east coast,
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: to Detroit, where my aunt lived, and I left the
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: bike there and then she managed to sell it for
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: me a year or so later, and it was kind
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: of somewhere on that trip I thought, wouldn't it be
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: amazing if.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You could could ride around the world. And I didn't
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: even know whether it's possible to ride around I knew
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: nobody who had done it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: I didn't even know whether it had been done before.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, this is all in the age before social media,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: the internet or everything at your fingertips, where you just
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: find these things out. It was just and so I
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: don't know, just this crazy sort came in my head,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: wouldn't it be amazing if you could ride around the world.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Not I am going to try, but just if you
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: could ride around the world. And then it was a
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: whole series of events that happened to me the following year.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: So during all these small trips to Scotland, Ireland and
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Europe and America, I'd started studying architecture. So I was
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: doing my first BA Honors in architecture, which is a
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: three year course, and it was during that time that
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: I met this guy and fell madly in love with him,
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: and then our relationship sort of finished about three months
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: before my finals. So I kind of found it really
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: hard to study and work and I was feeling very
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: broken hearted, depressed, and sort of as.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: A result, I did very badly in my finals. I
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: got a very lousy degree.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: I was an architecture here is like a seven year course,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: so I had another four years to go if I
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: wanted to qualify as an architecture. So I think I
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: was thinking, do I do I want to continue on architecture?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Is it? Is it the right subject for me to
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: be doing? And I just.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Needed a break. I just wanted to get away from England.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: I just wanted a distraction. Putt it like that, and
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: so I thought, let's see if I can ride my
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: bike around the world. And I know that sounds a
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: slightly kind of extreme thing to do for a distraction, but.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It was brilliant. I mean it worked, it worked, it
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: worked very well.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: So and then I, you know, then I did whatever
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: I could do to prepare myself the best I could
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: in order to go. And again I had no idea
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: what I was doing, what I needed to do, what
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: I was what world I was going out into. I mean,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: apart from America that obviously i'd ridden across the summer before,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: but the rest of it was completely unknown, and I
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: just thought, well, I'll try I'll just see how far
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: I can get and.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: See how it goes.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: So I sort of I taught myself as much as
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: I could about my bike. I stripped it down and
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: we built bits of it, replacing all the gaskets and
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: the oil seals.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: And everything I could think of.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: That because by this stage my bike was already eighty
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: years old and had forty five thousand miles on her
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: when I started the journey, so she was a kind
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: of fairly well used bike right at the beginning.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So I thought, well, i'll.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Strip it down, I'll replace everything I can think of,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I'll learn about the bike, because I knew that I
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: was going to have to fix it. And then I
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: shipped it to New York and that's where I started.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: Thanks to Hauntcok Dinapro Tire for supporting this week's podcast,
• 5:48
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• 5:50
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• 5:54
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• 5:57
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• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Incredible, that's like sort of a perfect storm for the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: desire to travel is to get away sometimes and to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: try to figure things out a little bit heartbreak. It's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: like the perfect storm for the situation.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: But also it was because the world was there to
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: be discovered. It's not light now where you can see
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: it all at the click of a button or whatever.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: You know, the whole world was there and if you
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: wanted to see it, you had to get out and
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: see it. It's the only way and experience it. So
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: it was, yeah, it was, it was. It was the
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: perfect storm.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been riding for a certain number of years.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I was fairly confident, riding on my own everything, all
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: the events, and then that's it. I just started off
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: in you know, by flying off off to New York
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: where I picked up my bike, and that's where I
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: set off across the States.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So tell me walk us through your route. So you
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: went through the U, you know.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I went through the US. Well, I went up to
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Canada briefly, just just to Niagara Falls, and then I
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: went and then it was cold and wet, so I thought, right,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I'm heading south.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Sorry about that.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Actually the route a lot of the time was governed
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: by the weather.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm very much I don't like getting so
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I then decided to head straight down south to New
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Orleans and then I crossed the States through Texas, Arizona
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: and New Mexico, so through through to California, and then
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: from there I went to New Zealand then Australia. I
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: worked in Sydney for six or seven months because I
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: was completely broke when I arrived in Sydney. I had
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: no money left at all, so I got two jobs.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: I worked as an architect's assistant during the day and
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: a and I was I just got some bar work
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: every evening. So I had to save as much money
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: as I could to get me home. And then I
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: went around Australia and Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and then I
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: tried to get through Burma but I couldn't because all
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: the borders were closed and I had to ride back
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: down to Malaysia to Penang where I shipped the bike
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: from Panang to Madras and then rode up to Calcutta,
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: up to katman Do in the Pool, and then back
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: into India, around India, Kashmir, Lay and Ladakh and then
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Europe back to London.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a long way.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: It was a long way.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: It's a long way.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: What was going on in the world at that time,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: like politically, you were noticing some of those things were
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: affecting your travels along the way.
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: Well, I think the most significant one was that was
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: traveling through through through Iran because the war was the
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: country was at war with Iraq, so the shah had
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: been kicked out about two years beforehand, and it was
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: strict Islamic rule and.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You couldn't really find out anything about the country at all.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It was just literally closed.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: Tourists didn't go there, Westerners didn't go there, and yet
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: it was on my route. I had to go through
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: it in some way, so that was problematic. I mean,
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: Maggie Satcher was in power in England at the time.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Unemployment was very high, which is also one of the
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: reasons that I decided.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: To I don't know, that wasn't much yet. I wasn't
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: really much yet.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's always something going on somewhere in the well.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: People say to me, no, it's much more dangerous.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Now, and I'm kind of going, well, it kind of isn't.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: We're just more aware of it now because we get
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: twenty four to seven news now, which then you didn't
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: get twenty four seven years, so you didn't know about it, and.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: What you don't know about you don't worry.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: About, yes, And things are always shifting, So like, for example, Columbia,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: when I told my parents were going to Columbia, they're like,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, what's happening right now? And yeah, people tourists
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: didn't go to Columbia at the time that they were
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: still referencing, but it had been many years later that
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: we went. So some places are opening up, some places
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: are not as open.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: So it's like constantly shifting.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: But also when you get there, you know, the only
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: accurate information you're going to find is it on the
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: ground when you're there, just by talking to people.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly, you know, the West Coast, I wouldn't go anywhere
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: near there. Stick to the East coast and you'll be fine.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: And that's what you do, And so there's no point
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: listening to any news. You've got to get there on
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: the ground, speak to people who are there, speak to locals,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: and just find out and that's that's always the best
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: way to do it.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that rings true now and definitely obviously when
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you did this trip too, So great advice, but I
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: was wondering when you went back to the US and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: started the trip there and you were riding solo across
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the country, but you had been traveling with someone else
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: before on the previous trip to the US. Yes, I
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: noticed a difference in the experience. Can you tell us
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: more about it?
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Well, I did a bit, actually, I mean I found
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, America was a strange. It was obviously it's
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: such a huge country and the east coast of the
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: West coast north, so that that is so different. And
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: you know, it was, you know, on the on the
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: East coast when I arrived, it was did get the
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: sense that there was a slight anti motorcycle culture and
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: I think whether Easy Rider I think had come out
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: four or five years earlier, which didn't paint motorcyclists in
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: a very good light sometimes, and so we were all
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: tarnished with the same brush, you know, we were all
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: trouble and so you know, I did find it strange
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: when I would turn up at petro stations with my
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: helmet off before they could see I was a woman,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: and they almost just wouldn't serve me. And then the
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: minute I took my helmet off, they rushed over to
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: you know, to serve me. So then somehow being a
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: female motorcyclist was less threatening than if I'd been a
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: male motorcyclist. And then when I opened my mouth and
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: they heard I was English, and that was even better.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: So they were all incredibly klind and helpful of but
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: it was. And then as I moved more.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Westwards towards California, well, they're the whole motorcycle culture in
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: California as much. It's very different.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: You know, the climate's more, I mean, a lot more
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: people ride bikes out there then anyway, I don't as
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: to say now, And so I found it a lot
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: more accepting of motorcyclists, but get strange reactions from people
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: all over the world that you would never really imagine,
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: if you know what I mean. It's and I don't
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: think you can pigeonhole it to a particular nationality or
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: a particular it's just people are different and people react
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: to you in.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: A different way.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the culture at the time, like you were saying,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: there was kind of this association in the US that
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: when you were traveling through there with your motorcycle gangs
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: or groups or it's intimidating, and you know, all of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: those things, but then going there now or I don't know,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: if you've been back since then and had a different experience,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: or if you're traveling with a group or whatever, would
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: be a different different I.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Mean, I think definitely traveling in a group or certainly
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: with one other person, it.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Makes life a lot easier and a lot safer.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: And I think then because I had very long hair
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: and I had a plat, so I had a plant
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: so they could see I was a female. After that
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: I cust on my hair off because.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It just made life easier.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: So when I riding my bike wearing my helmet, everybody
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: assumed I was male, and that just made life a
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: lot easier.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And as you continued through on this around the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: world trip, well were sort of the reactions and did
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: they change from place to place like or was it
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a mix of excitement and curiosity or kind of shock
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and awe a.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Bit of everything, to be honest, I mean in the
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: Far East, I mean I really enjoyed traveling through through
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: the Far East because they they would always smile, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: they would always, i don't know, be really happy to
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: see me, and they just thought it was amazing. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I think the women really liked seeing a fellow female
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: doing something like that, you know what I mean, I
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: think they they and so they would always give me
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: big smiles and pat me on the back and thumbs
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: up and all this kind of stuff because they were
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: really and they loved it.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: India was completely different India.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, the curiosity in India was quite you know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: you get I was surrounded by people, and I'm not
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: talking about just a handful.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about fifty people. Every time I stopped, I'd
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: be surrounded.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: By forty fIF fifty people and they were all men. Yeah,
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: I didn't you hardly saw any women on the streets
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: at all.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: It was all men.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: And I didn't feel it endangered or anything. They just
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: never seen anything like it. They'd never seen a BMWM.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'd ever seen you know, you know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: a motifikeer that size before and then being ridden by
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a woman was just kind of you know.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: They just couldn't they couldn't understand what it was they
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: were looking at.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: You know, it was this kind of complete bewilderment of
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: what they were seeing. So that was and that was
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: quite you know, to start with, it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: Was quite well, I wouldn't say funny, but you know,
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: but then after a while it did get quite exhausted,
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: and just every time I stopped, I had this constant
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: attention and being followed and curiosity and being stared at.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: And you know, and I've been back to India since
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: and it's not like that anymore. It's you know, because obviously,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: well now with the Internet, I mean, you guess a
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: bit of it, you get a bit of it, but
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: now with the Internet, and you know, in fact, they
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: can see everything now on their phone from all over
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: the world. I mean, I'm, I'm you know, they've I wasn't.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: You know, they don't see me as a sort of unusual,
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: extraordinary thing anymore because they've seen.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: It all before on the internet. So it just changed
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: all around the world. Every country was different. Yeah, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: just people, you know, as I say, people are It's
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: interesting how different people are around the world.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's yeah, why we do it partially, for sure.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: It's so interesting and learning and seeing things you would
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: never see if you hadn't gone, so super interesting, rewarding,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and it's so fascinating to hear the differences between when
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you did this trip and now. And you've been traveling
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: since that time. You've gone many trips, so it must
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: have been interesting. Has been interesting, I'm sure for you
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to see the differences and how things have changed since
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the early eighties.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think now, I mean the main difference
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: now is that so many more women ride bikes, which
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: is just so many.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so inspiring.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Like I see more than more women like riding motorcycles
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: than driving vehicles. I would say, like the vehicle overland
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: or there are more women motorcycling.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: That's probably true.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: And I think actually the state has more women percentage
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: of riders, and more women than anywhere else in the world.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I think. So it's not such a surprise when you
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: take your helmet off and you're a woman and everybody
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: just stopped whatever and just turns around and stares at
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: you if you're some kind of strange creature from out
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: of space. So all of that has gone. I mean,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: that doesn't happen anymore. So things have changed.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: I mean it's forty five years is a long time.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: One would hope it has.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: But yeah, great, I'd like to do some rapid fire
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: questions with you. Okay, we're going to start, So first,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: most ingenious repair, Yeah.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: I'm proud of fixing my horn because I didn't have
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: a soldering iron, so I got a Malaysian two cent coin,
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: cut it in half, and then I held it in
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: the ply as heated it up. Managed to find it
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: a bit of solder, and then I melted the solder
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: and I fixed the and I fixed the horn. The
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: other quite ingenious one was I was replacing a seal
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: that stopped the oil from my rear bevel getting into
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: my brake shoes, and you needed some special BMW tool to,
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: you know, to slide the seal over the whatever.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I and I used string in a plastic bag and
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: some washing up liquid, so that that was a good one.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: I don't know all sorts of things, but I would
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: say the most most useful things that I carried was
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: why insulating tape and rubber band, and pretty much for
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: those three things, I could bodge and repair kind of
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: most things.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: On my bike.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's almost like a combination of the zip tie
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: like today's zip tie.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately they didn't have those then exactly. Yeah, okay, cool.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Best food, best food.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I loved the food in Thailand.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Thailand, and I actually when I got into Turkey because
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: I hadn't eaten things like bread and butter, and I
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: hadn't had a I hadn't had some nice bread, crusty
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: bread and butter for ten months.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: No more a year, oh my gosh, since I left Australia.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: And I remember when I got to Eastern Turkey, so
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: I just couldn't stop eating this bread and butter.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I just eat bagets and bagets all day because I
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: just hadn't eat any of that.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: So although it wasn't great, I mean it was, it
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: was lovely, but it just tasted extra special because I
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: hadn't had any for so long, so I can remember
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: that that was probably it Actually Thailand. I think the
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: food in Thailand that was fantastic because it all it's
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: all street food. I used to eat a lot of
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: street food and it was all instantly cooked hot.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: I didn't get ill or fresh, and you know, it
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: was great.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: It was really so good. Such good food in Thailand,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh. And you're right, it's like fast, fresh
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: street food, delicious.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: And it's cooked there. When you turn up, you say
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: on some of that and they just put it all
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: in a walk. It's like that, and then you eat it.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: And it's just perfect, absolutely perfect.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, no mystery things happen. It's not sitting out, you're
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: eating right away.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Perfect, exactly, exactly.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: A worst illness, worst illness.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Worst illness was definitely India.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: I mean I arrived on the shores of India and
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: I think I was ill for about a year. I
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: lost two and a half stone in weight. I got dysentery,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I got hepatitis. I was incredibly ill. I was incredibly
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: ill in it.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: I mean the worst one was hepatitis, which actually I
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: picked up in India, but it didn't manifest itself until
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I was riding through.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: Riding through Iran. So I got hepatitis halfway through Iran.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: But it takes like like three weeks from picking it
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: up to actually having the symptoms.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: And then you were in right and you were on your.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Way to do border crossing and got quite ill. And
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine the strength and determination that that required
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to pick yourself up and get in your bike to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: be able to cross a border when you feel like
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you're so sick.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was so ill.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: I mean just those last two or three because I
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: actually got it in Isfahan, which is about halfway through
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: through Iran, and we were only given seven day transit
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: visas because tourists didn't weren't really allowed to visit the
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: country then, and so we had to ride four or
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: five hundred miles every single day just to do the
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: miles and get.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Out of the country within the seven days.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: And bang in the middle of it, I've got hepatitis,
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: So Robert had to carry me down, put me on
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: my bike in the mornings, push me off, and I
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: just used to try and ride all day without hoping.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: I didn't have to stop because I didn't have the
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: strength in my legs to hold the bike up. And
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: then got to the border with Turkey and I felt dreadful,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: absolutely dreadful.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: So that was definitely the worst, definitely the worst.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: No, we will get back to Robert and who Robert
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: is in one moment. If listeners don't know who that is,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we'll get back to it after we finished our rapid
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: fire questions.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Next is highest high?
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: Highest high was definitely lay in Ladakh when Robert and
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: I fell in love.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Definitely ra and that was the highlight of the trip.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So you and Robert met on the road and he
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: was also riding his motorcycle.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we met.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: He was the only other Overlander I met in two
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: and a half years, which just shows her then to
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: what they are now. We met in Katmandu, but we
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: agreed to meet up two months later because we he
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: because I wanted to go and see a part of.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: India that he had already done, and he wanted to
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: get somewhere.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: Else, and so we agreed because in those days, no
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: mobile phones, no way of contacting each other. So we
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: agreed to meet in at the General post Office in
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Agra at two pm on the twenty ninth of June,
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: and we actually met and.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: That was like two months time. So we just agreed.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: We just agreed that the.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: Time, the place and the date and whatever that we
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: met and we actually met up. We were both there
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: at the post office in Agra two pm on the
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: twenty eighth or twenty ninth of June or something.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: And then from the specific time you're like two pm,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and all the things that had together to make sure
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that you arrived at two pm sharp on that day
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: is incredible, I know.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: And that was like in two months time. It was
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: literally it was two months time. And from when we
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: passed our ways in katman Do and amazingly we met.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Anything could have happened.
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: I could have had an accident, I could have held
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: up somewhere, his bike could have broken down. He might
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: not have been able to get there on time. So
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: many things could have happened. That meant one of us
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: didn't actually get there, but we both did, which was anyway.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: So then so from there we traveled up through Kashmir
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: and Lay and Ladak together and then through through Pakistan
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: and Iran and through back to Europe.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: And traveling with somebody else.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: It was just completely it was it almost turned into
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: a holiday from like a survival thing.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: It absolutely such.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: A difference, such a difference. So yeah, that was great,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Next is lowest low.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: The lowest low?
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I had several and I think the times I
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: found difficult were when I had accidents. I had a
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: sort of medical issue in New Zealand which I don't
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: really want to go into, but I think you have to.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Read my book exactly, but I.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Think accidents were tricky, and I think you know, when
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: you're injured and you're on your own and you have
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: to recuperate and fix your bike and get back on
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: it again and keep going.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: I think those were the.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Times I really had to push myself to you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: to continue, So they were probably the lowest. And I
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: am being ill, I mean it was. It's pretty grim
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: being ill when you're when you're on your own. Fortunately,
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: when I had the hepatitis, I was traveling with Robert,
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: so I had him to help me and look after me.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: But when you're.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: Really ill and you're and you've got nobody to help
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: you and nobody to look after you, it's pretty it's
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: you know, it's quite tough.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: That's a lot. Yeah, that's yeah, a lot and scary.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: I'm sure. Next up is best budget tip.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Budget tip. Oh oh my goodness. Hopefully leave with a
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: lot more money than I left with only I only
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: had two and a half thousand pounds. But saying that,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I say think, I think it.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Is important to leave and don't let things stop you
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: from leaving, and don't give yourself excuses why you can't
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: leave or I don't quite have the right bike, or
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: I haven't quite got enough money, or you.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Know, I didn't have the right bike. Really I had.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I had an eight.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: Year old bike that had forty five thousand miles on it.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I had two and a half thousand pounds.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: In my pocket and that was it, and I left,
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: and it kind of doesn't really matter. You'll work it out.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: You'll as you go along, you'll work it out. You'll
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: get a job, you'll, you know, you'll, you'll replenish your money.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: You know. The important thing.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: Is to leave, and that's one of the hardest things
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: to do. So definitely try and be a little bit
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: more prepared. But then it's much easier now because you can.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: I had to carry all my money with me in
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: a money bell I had strapped around my waist. I
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: mean I didn't have credit cards or I couldn't get
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: money from cash machines.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: That it just didn't wasn't you know. I had travelers checks.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: And I and I used to have to change money,
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: usually on the black market if I could, because you
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: got a much better rate.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: And everything I had I carried on my waist in
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: my money belt. Yeah, I don't know, I think. I
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: mean I was very frugal as well. I was very frue.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: I always liked to keep one thousand dollars in reserve
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: for an emergency, so I had my money. I actually
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: say before I left Sydney, I said I left with
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: six thousand, six thousand US dollars. But I had no
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: idea how much it was going to cost me to
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: get home. I mean, I had nothing, no reference point,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: no one to talk to. I hadn't got a clue
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: whether I was going to get home with two thousand
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: get home with four thousand and ten thousand, have faintest
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: idea all I had to do.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I knew I had six or seven months in Sydney.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: I had to work and save as much money as
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: I could, and then I would.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Just leave with what I got.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: But I always liked to think that I had a
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: thousand that like a thousand of that was was like
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: a reserve. So if I had an accident, had to
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: stay in hospital somewhere around the world for a month
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: or something, I had that as my sort of backup fund.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know just I don't know I was, but
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: I was very frugal.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I was very frugal for sure.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Good tips. Favorite piece of Moto gear.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Probably probably my leather jacket. Actually I wore that. That
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: was every day. I wore that.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: It was a Lewis leather jacket, which I still got
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: and I can still wear it.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Which is even more amazing.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Wow, and that was probably my Yeah, that was probably
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: the because trousers that I just had jeans. I just
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: wore jeans, and you didn't have any of the riding
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: gear you have now, and they didn't make gear for
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: women either, so that even my mind jacket was made
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: for a man. And then I had Lewis leather boots
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: which were also sized too big, and just my Bell helmet,
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: which was good.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: It was a good helmet, which I've still got as well.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I don't wear it anymore, but I've still got it.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Nice. What's your favorite piece of motive gear?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Now, I have lots. I'm very spoiled.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: I have to say, I get these I get I
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: get these companies who give me a lot of gear.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: I wear a lot of is it climb I think
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: you call it in America or clim k l I
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: M yep.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: It's really nice gear.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: And they make really nice gear for women as well,
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: So I like all of all of their gear is great.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I've got quite a lot of their gear.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: I've got Bell Staff gear, I've got well, I don't know,
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: I wear different different outfits totally.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I love that great. What was the most powerful lesson
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you learned from that trip.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: That I could do anything, And how has.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That set you up for your life going forward? From
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: that time?
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Everything? It completely set me off on set me down
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: the course I took for the rest of my life.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, I you know, I've done and I think
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: it taught me that there was that it was good
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: to take risks.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: And I think that's important. I think people sometimes an
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: hour always want to play it safe and don't want
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: to take any risks. And the best things that I've
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: done in my life are things that I took risks.
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: I stepped over the line and I took a risk.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: And I mean, obviously it's got to be a gay
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: you know, you've got to weigh it up. But think,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, you have to take risks in life.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Believe it.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: You know that you can do it, that you can
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: do anything. And that's not that's not something that comes
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: It wasn't for me.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: It was that was something I learned on my trip
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: that there wasn't a problem I couldn't deal with and
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: a problem I couldn't solve, and there was always another
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: way around it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: You know, you're going to just think out of the
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: box a bit, and and it just and also to
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: be adaptable, to be prepared to change your your plans,
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: your route, and just to survive.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: And I, you know, and I learned a lot, you know,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: About myself, about the world, and yeah, it completely changed
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: my life.
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: Thanks to Hankoch Dina pro Tire for supporting this week's podcast,
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: head over to Expeditionportal dot com and join us as
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: we take a closer look at an impressive Jeep Diadiator
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: build from the Jeep Invasion event and explore the mountain
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: terrain around Pidgeon for Tennessee.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Those are really powerful lessons to learn it at such
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: an early age, and it's so incredible, Like your perspective changes,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: as you've mentioned, like maybe things that you would think
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that are a big deal, you don't really think they're
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: as big of a deal. Like when you got back
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and bought a water you know, got a water tower
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: and put so much hard work and heart and soul
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: into it, and as an architect, like a powerful stuff.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: And also you got your pilot's license, I.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Heard, yeah, and learning to fly helicopter.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the helicopter.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: But I when I.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Got back and about two or three years later, I
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: bought this old Victorian water tower and no one had
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: converted a water tower the local council, and it didn't
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: have any permits or listed building consent, so basically you
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: can do anything with it unless they gave you.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: You know, the permits and whatever to do it.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: I remember, and I had to buy it auction, so
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: that was like, you know, you had to put the
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: money down and take the risk.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: And you know, I phoned up the local council before
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: before the auction, and I said, you know, I want
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: to turn this WaterTower into my home.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: What's the likelihood of getting change of use? And they
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: basically say, we will never give you planning. We will
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: never give you planning or list.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Of building consent because there were all these problems, you know,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: fire and means of escape and overlooking and thermal properties.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: And insuly, you know, all these technical problems. And I
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: can just remember listening to this person on the phone,
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: and I can just remember thinking, those are problems.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Being stuck in a desert with no water broken down,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: that's a problem.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: Dealing with some fire regulations to get out of a
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: water tower. That isn't a problem. It's a solvable problem,
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: but it's not something you can't you can't work around,
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: and you know and deal with. And so I just
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: remember after Phoco and I've bough fit and then I
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: did fight for a year and a half to get
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: the permissioned and they did turn me down, but then
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: appeal and I won on appeal. So I got there eventually.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: But you know, totally, it's just believing that what you're
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: doing is the right thing.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: And I knew it was.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: And you're like, I've done this bureaucratic thing before I can.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: I've dealt with visas and border crossings and all this.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I'll just apply the same sort of mindset to this problem. Yeah,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: very cool.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: I speak your language. We both speak the same language.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: I mean a lot of the countries. I had a
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: whole language.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Problem as well. You know, I had a lot of
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: other problems.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my gosh, And I wanted to talk to
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you about So when you laughed or before you left,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: people weren't that interested in the trip, like motorcycle magazines.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about the response that you received too, and
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: then you'd go do the trip, this amazing thing, get
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: back home. And like many other travelers, I got the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: impression from the book that you felt as though people
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: didn't really understand or weren't that interested in hearing about
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the trip.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: That's very relatable.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about your trip, but people can't conceptualize
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: it or don't they're like, yeah, okay, cool, like how
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: was it? And then that's the end. And then that continued.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: And while you were on the trip, you had been
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: keeping a diary in journals and recording audio and micro
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: cassette tapes, and that sat in a box for thirty years.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: My question is, take me through the progression of the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: kind of like disinterest in the trip and the ad
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: to how many decades later and all of a sudden
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: you publish this book called Loanwriter.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Well that's a very yeah. I mean, the thing is
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: you've got to kind of understand. And I know it's
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: hard now to imagine a world with no social media,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: no internet, no way of telling anybody or everybody every
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: day or hour or whatever, what you're doing, what you're eating,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: where you're going. It wasn't like that then. It just
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't like that, and people traveled for completely different reasons.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: And I mean, my journey was a very personal journey.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: And when I got back in nineteen eighty four, I mean,
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: the only way then that you could get your story
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: told was to convince a editor of a magazine or
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: newspaper to print your story, put your story in print,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: and then sell the magazine.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: That was it. That was the only avenue you had.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: And unfortunately the British press were not very encouraging to
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: women motorcyclists.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: They were incredibly rude to me before I went, which
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I can understand I hadn't really done anything
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: very much. But anyway, so when I got back and
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: I thought, well I've done it, you know, they might
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: be a little bit more interested in but I think
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: it was just too much for them. They didn't almost
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: want to admit that a woman had written around the
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: world on her own, and so I was kind of
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: completely ignored, and I kind of didn't really, I mean
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: I was, I was a bit.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, I suppose I was probably more hurt because
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: my friends and family didn't show much interest in what
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: I had done. But again, I think, as you say,
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: it's just something they couldn't relate to. They couldn't understand,
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: and you know, so and it's.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Boring for them.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: I suppose to listen to my tales or whatever on
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: their own. They couldn't understand them, you know, they just didn't.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: It was so far from their reference for anything. So
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: I just put everything in a cardboard box.
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: I nearly threw it away, actually, because I was moving
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: out of London. I no I know when I was
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: moving out of London, because my dad had just died
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: and I was moving out of London.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: I'd just become a mother. Tom had been brought.
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: Tom was about six month months old then, and I
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: had just had so much on my plane. I bought
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: the water Toowl, which was a building site. I had
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: no kitchen, no water, and no toy that's nothing. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: I was going to have to live there with my son,
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: who was six months old. And so this box of
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: stuff from a trip that I did like ten years beforehand,
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: that nobody seemed to be interested or cared about, was
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: not really high on my priority list to kind of
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: try and save. So I nearly threw it away, and
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: I thought, nah, just keep it. You know, there might
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: be a few pictures in there or something I might
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: want to look at one day. So I kept it,
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: put it in a cupboard, which is where it stayed.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: I actually stayed there for thirty five years. And then
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: it was a friend of mine who was speaking to
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: somebody at BMW in two thousand and eight or nine,
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: and he mentioned to this guy that I'd done this trip,
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: and so so Andy said, well, why don't you write
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: a short piece and get a few pictures and we'll
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: put it up on our international website. So that's that
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: was the very first time my story was told, or
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: two thousand and nine. So this went out on the
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: international website and it pinged all over the internet, which
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: I had no idea it was happening. There's one picture,
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: not the one on the front of that book, but
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: the one when I got home and I'm sitting on
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: my bike. There's one picture which has become a sort
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: of iconic apparently, but anyway, and that picture just went
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: viral everybody, and everybody will say, who was it?
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: She done? Anyway, So my story was retold and blah
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: blah blah.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: And then it was about four or five years later
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: that this agent in Hollywood picked up my story and
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: they were looking for stories. Then this was in twenty fourteen,
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: and they wanted to buy the rights to my story
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: to make a film. So they flew me out to
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: Hollywood and I was kind of wined and dined and whatever,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: and then but I kind of realized that actually the
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: first thing I needed to do was write my book
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: and have an accurate story of what actually happened to me.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: And I hadn't looked at any of my diaries. It's
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: for thirty five years. I couldn't remember half the details
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: of it all. So I kind of said thanks, but
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: no thanks.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: Came back to the UK and I thought, well, maybe
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: I should write a book, and then I spent the
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: next three years or two and a half years writing
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: a book. That's how it came about, and then it
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: was published finally in twenty seventeen.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: And it's really detailed.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: So I was wondering because you said, you know, sitting
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: there for thirty five years, but you obviously took pretty
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: detailed notes and diary entries and mix.
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, I give all the letters that my parents
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: sent me. They kept all of my letters. I had
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: tapes which I used to send home, but that was
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: only from Sydney onwards back home, so I had tapes.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: I I was quite good at my diary for some
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: bizarre reas.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: I think I was really bored in the evenings because
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: you didn't. I used to get into my call into
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: my tent at four or five in the in the
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: early evening because I never used to ride after dark.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: And of course I didn't have a phone. I didn't
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: wanted to play with you don't have them to do,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: so I used to. I used to write. So I
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: used to.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: I used to write all my petrol and how much
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: and where I bought it, and and and I wrote
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: down where I stayed every night, and all the dates,
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: and all my diary, how much money I had left,
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: how much money I'd spent that week, and I mean
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: it was ridiculous. And also I kept at the end
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: of each stage, I would keep all my shipping documents.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: I kept everything, all my paperwork, and at the end
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: of each various stages along the way, I put it
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: all in a brown envelope.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Send it home.
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: And I hadn't opened any of these envelopes for thirty
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: odd years that they just were thrown in this box,
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: you know, and my parents just kept them, and then
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: I just threw them in this I even kept ticket
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: stubs from temples that I went to in Thailand.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was just bizarre the stuff I kept.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: And I don't know why I kept it.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: Honestly, why I kept it, I just kind of thought
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: I just didn't want to.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Throw it away. Yeah, I kept all this stuff, and
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: I mean it was a year just putting it all
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: in the right order and trying to work out where
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: I was and everything. And then from that the book came.
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: So it was a long process because I did want
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: it to be absolutely accurate the dates, the times, the places,
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: absolutely accurate to what I did.
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: Hankook Dinah pro Tire Welcome to you to visit Expeditionportal
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: dot com and enjoy a series of adventures from the
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: Cheap Beach Event in Florida, the Broncos Stampede and Jeep
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: Invasion in Tennessee, and the Off Road Expo in California.
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: Thanks Han Cook.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Was it an emotional journey going through all that stuff
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: and reliving.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: Very emotional that writing a book was a whole nother
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: journey in itself.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: And actually quite unexpected. I kind of laid quite a
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: lot of demons to rest.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: My parents were very disinterested in my whole trip from beginning,
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: during it and at the end, and never actually never
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: actually saw it as any kind of achievement.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: But they were just different. They were from a different generation.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: So then the only sort sort of you know, achievement
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: that counted for anything was academic achievement, and riding a
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: motorbike around the world didn't count.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: And I was quite hurt by all that. You know,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: they they because they died.
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, my mom died in two thousand and three
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: and my dad died in nineteen ninety, so they went around.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: So I felt quite free and liberated to write what
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: I did, and I mean not in a horrible way,
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I hope, but.
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: It just it helped me unload a lot of stuff,
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: and it also made me Actually the key thing is
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: writing the book made me realize what the trip had
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: done for me, because I never really stopped, I never
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: really stopped to think about it.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: You know. I got back, I was really depressed.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: I felt very isolated, very lonely, really hard to adjust,
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: and nobody wanted to hear about what I'd done. I
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: went back, finished off my architecture. I hated every minute
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: of it, but actually hid myself in my basement, didn't
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: really go out very much. And then I gradually and
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: then I bought the water tower, and then that was
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: seven years of my life building the water Tower.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: In the process of that, you know, I became.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: A mother, I started my own architectural practice, so you know,
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: I just kind of moved on from my trip.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: It just it just was look gone.
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: And so I never really stopped the thing. And I
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: think it was it was actually writing the book and
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: putting it all down. I realized, you know, I never
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: would have had the courage to buy the water Town.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: I never would have taken that risk to buy the
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: water Tower. And without doing the water Town, you know,
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: I never would have probably started at my own architectural
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: practice because I won like five architectural awards for it
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: and all kinds of you know, everything kind of came
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: from that point, really, the trip when I got back,
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: everything I did from there and the rest of my
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: life and how I've lived my life and my attitude
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: to I don't know, just dealing with people and keeping
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: things in perspective, and you know, it's all it all
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: comes from that kind of grounding of that trip.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Big stuff, super powerful, and also that act of being
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: very honest and vulnerable and sharing your story through a
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: book and with so many people as well, and inspiring
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: other people in various capacities of their life too.
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: What has that been like?
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: It was odd because that's the other thing writing the book.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: I think it's so.
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: Much time had passed between doing the trip coming back,
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: and then I'd like lived like ten other lives between
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: and then I wrote my book.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: It was almost like writing it about somebody else. And
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: in many ways it made it easy to be open
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: and honest. And now I've never had a problem with,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: you know, admitting making mistakes in life.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: We all make mistakes, and that's absolutely fine. You have
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: to just acknowledge them, learn from them, and move on.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: So it was it was a very it was, yeah,
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: it really it was extraordinary. How just.
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: It just made me realize, I say, how important and
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: pivotal that trip was for the rest of my life.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: M M.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: What has the response been like? Because you, as you
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: were saying, you did the trip, and then a long
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: period passed, and then you wrote the book and then
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: people started reading it, and I bet your life changed
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: after that as well.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been completely blown away.
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, I honestly didn't think I thought a few
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: people might be interested in reading it. I mean, honestly,
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: I really didn't think it would be received as well
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: as it has been, and it's just fantastic. I mean,
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: now it's changed my life all over again. I mean
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: now I don't do that much architectural work anymore recently
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: the last year or two, and now I just travel,
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: I do talks, I do book tours, I do I
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: you know, it's just fantastics. It's just completely different life,
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: which is brilliant. So something that changed my life forty
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: five years ago is now changing my life.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: All over again.
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: It's kind of like I'm all the way back around again,
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: and now it's changing my life all over again.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Amazing when I don't really want to work anymore.
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm sixty six now, so I don't you know,
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: I'm kind of well, no, I don't like using the
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: word retire. I'm at that stage where it's a good
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: time to start doing different things.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Absolutely wonderful. I'm so stoked. I'm so stoked for you.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: It's so exciting, and especially because I just finished the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: book and so I felt like I was writing along
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: with you in your twenties. And then there's a little
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: bit more of like a wrap up a bit later
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: at the end, and so yeah, what I feel like
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: I've just been transported from the past into the present
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and to see, you know, where things started and developed
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and are going. It's exciting. So, yeah, you've done many
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: many interviews. Is there anything you wish someone had asked
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: you about?
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in the book, To be honest, it's a very
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: open and honest book.
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: As we say here walks and all good and bad. No,
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: I don't think so, I don't think.
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: Okay, great, that's great. Yeah, I loved it.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: I've very like powerful, like I said, honest, emotional, but
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: also I don't want to say practical. I don't know
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: if that's a good word. But it was very much
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: like we're doing this and this, and I am doing this,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: and I found it really lovely to follow along. And
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: I think it appeals to more than motorcycle riders for sure.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: There are like big life lessons in there that I
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: think anybody can relate to. And yeah, the tenacity to
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: go do something that you've been dreaming about, Yeah, that's
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: a huge thing. But I'm wondering too, like who inspires
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: you and why?
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: Mostly I can't really thing anybody that inspired me. It
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: was just kind of in me to do it. I mean,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: none of my family rode motorbikes.
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: My parents hated motorbikes, so they tried to stop me
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: from even riding a motorbike when I started riding when
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: I was seventeen. They actually hated by being doctors, you know,
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: they saw all these injured people coming in a and e.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: So I didn't really and I didn't know of.
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: Anybody else who had done around the world for it.
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: It wasn't really. I was just kind of slightly in
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: my own little world. You know, this is what I
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: want to do, and this is what I'm going to.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Do, and I don't really care about what anybody else
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: thinks about it or tells me I can't, which is
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: what a lot of people did.
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: That's what I'm doing, and so I just kind of
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: ignored all the noise, you know, and just got my
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: head down and I just did it.
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: Does somebody or anybody inspire you today.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: Not really, I mean, that's terrible, that sounds terrible. No, No, no,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: I mean I've read. I mean I've read. Now obviously
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: information is a lot more available and you can find
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: out and you know, I've read about extraordinary women who
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: rode motorbikes down through Africa in the person Robert Fulton,
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: who was American and who rode his Douglas around the
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: world in nineteen thirty something. I mean, can you believe it?
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: I mean he was just completely on another planet. That guy.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Extraordinary man.
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: And so there are there are people now, but I
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: have to say most of them are before I did
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: my trip.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can relate to that.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, most of the people I've been in inspired by
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: I think I can just relate to them more. I
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: can relate to traveling before technology or even before before
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: before before you had bikes that didn't break down every day,
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: before you had riding gear that the you know, Robert
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: Fulton had a pit helmet for goodness sake, he didn't
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: even wear a helmet.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: He was in shorts wearing it and wearing and wearing
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: a sun hat.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And so that I can look at and think,
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: oh my god, you know that's extraordinary, that really.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: Is absolutely And so I think now I look at
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: these and I know loads of people travel and I
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: think it's fantastic that people do. But you know, I
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: see them all on there, snazzy by that never break
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: down hardly, and all their great riding gear that's all
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: perfect and all that and the GPS and the this
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: and then that, and I I don't really see it
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: as I don't know, it's not the same.
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: It's different.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not it's just different totally.
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: Good, Thank you Elsbeth for coming on the podcast and
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: chatting with me. Oh my gosh, it's been really fun. Yeah.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. And I loved the book. And
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: if anybody's looking for it, it's called Loan Writer by
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: Elsbeth Beard. Yay, great book, highly recommend And where can
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: you find Where can we find you on the internet?
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: And what do you have coming up next? I heard
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: there's a Pakistan trip happening.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm doing well.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: I've been invited to lead a tour in Pakistan in
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: end of May beginning of June. And that's going to
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: be an amazing tour. It's all in the northern Mountain
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: to Pakistan. It's the most spectacular scenery. It really is amazing.
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: And it's with you know, a tour company who are
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: really good. They just do mainly do trips in Pakistan,
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: and so yeah, it's very well organized, very safe, and
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: it's great.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: It's really good. So it would be good. And then
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: I'm doing a book tour.
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: Hopefully I'll be coming back to the States in September
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: October time, doing a sort of book tour in Ohio
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: and Maryland, Virginia and.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: New York State. But we'll see. It's all early stages.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: Early stages.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: Great. And you have a great website. People can hop
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: on there.
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: And I've got a website which is just Elsabethbear dot.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Com, perfect and Instagram as well, and I'm sure that's
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: probably pretty easy to find. Yeah, awesome stuff. Well, I
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: look forward to following along with the of your adventures
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and that Pakistan trip sounds incredible. But yeah, thank you
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: again so much for taking the time to chat with
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: me on the podcast today. It's been it's been wonderful.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks very much for having me.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: And a shout out to the Overland Journal podcast listeners.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: and we will catch you later