I’m home washing clothes and repacking after a fantastic weekend at the Overland Event. The weekend was packed with inspiring talks, people who had ridden across the world on motorbikes, scooters, post bikes… you name it. Your imagination is your limit when it comes to ways to explore the world. Needless to say, my journey to Ireland feels rather tame after meeting all these people. But one day, that will be me… just need to practise a bit of gravel riding and rough camping and I will be good to go 😉
This bike belongs to Jacqui Furneaux, who rode it around the world, a journey that lasted 7 years. Her talk was one of the many inspirational talks that we listened to, the title was “Plan? What plan? How to have fun whilst going with the flow”. At the moment she is writing a book about her travels, keep an eye out for it!
Another talk was “Africa with Autism”. Melanie Cowpland was sharing her plans for a future journey, taking her daughter with her in an Ural with sidecar, travelling from England to South Africa. I will, for sure, follow their progress. Search on Facebook for Africa with Autism if you want to know more.
Another amazing person I met was John, who built his bike with what he could find and it will take him around the world, a journey he is doing in memory of his late wife. He has an extensive website with lots of information, about the bike, his plans and his progress: Townie v the World
The Overland Event sponsored MoR, Motorcycle Outreach, who have projects going in Tanzania and Indonesia, supplying bikes, training riders and mechanics so that nurses and doctors can reach remote villages with medical aid. The organisation was founded by Simon Milward, who travelled around the world and sadly died in an accident not being able to complete his journey. His story is told in “The Road to Mali” which was launched at the event. I look forward to read it.
Another cool thing was that there was possibilities to test ride a few bikes, there was three different Triumph’s and the CCM. I was keen to test ride the CCM, which is a UK manufactured bike, witch seems to have a lot of potential for traveling and fun riding on and of road but it was fully booked for the whole weekend when I finally got hold of the coordinator. I did however get to take the Triumph 800 out for a ride, it is very smooth, hardly any vibrations in the foot pegs which is my Achilles heal, but rather top heavy which I don’t like at all.
This is just scratching the surface of what we experienced during this weekend. Now it’s time to end the day with a movie and some wine, tomorrow I set off, Going West.
