Who can remember their first big trip?

[SafariMul]

1997. Kawasaki 550. Didn't like altitude. but 1st of many runs to the Hills.

Donington GP. Left Saturday for Ferry at midnight. Off Ferry & Kipped in a service area on grass in clothes I stood up in.

Col Du Liseran.jpg (97.94 KiB) Viewed 2788 times

Chrz Mul.

[92kk k100lt 193214]

Very simple one really....

It was 1975.....I had recently taken possession of a nice shiny Candy Gold Honda CB500-4.....for those who remember 1975 and 1976 rain won't feature in your memories of those two summers. Took it on what is now the Wild Atlantic Way over a very extended periods over those two summers, wild camped all the way, all on beaches. Top box took the gear and tent strapped on, spare clothes in a tank bag, that was it. No electric gadgets and one fold out map. It was commonplace to wear a rear tyre and chain over a two week trip.

Met some great folk along the way and some wonderful scenic captures.

Much as I love similar camping in France it doesn't come close to that experience.

[gbags]

“First proper adventure trip didn't involve a motorbike. 1989. Hitched in cars, vans, on top of trucks, walked, took trains, boats, ferries and matatu buses etc across Africa - from Morocco/Algeria south across the Sahara via Tamanrasset, up the Niger river to Timbuktu, down to Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire and across the central African rainforest, 1000 miles upstream on the Congo river to Kisengani, over the Ruwenzori mountains and down the E African rift valley / Uganda /Kenya/ Mozambique, then up the Indian Ocean coast on Dhows to Lamu Island. Flew home to London from Nairobi via Moscow on a cheap Aeroflot flight. Much of the route I took is now impossible due to various wars and restrictions. You can't really take the central Saharan southerly route any more and the Congo has been allowed to silt up making the DRC riverboat trip almost impossible nowadays too. Big adventure. Lots of danger and hard times, but SO rewarding, and I don't go a week today without thinking back to that 9 month trip in some way or other.

Bloody marvellous! That’s a proper Boy’s Own trip!

Thanks gbags. Yes it was exactly that. I've got loads of pics, but they're all 35mm prints. I must learn how to scan them in and digitise them some time. When I returned, I started my History BA at Bristol Uni and I did my dissertation on Henry Morton Stanley's exploration of central Africa in the 1880s. Having followed much of his route up the Congo was really helpful for getting some understanding of what he went through.
[/quote]

Hi Dave,

Do you have a decent one volume biography on HMS that you’d recommend? I plan to go back to Africa and like books on the places I’m travelling through. I read The Rift by Alex Perry last time out.

[daveuprite]

Hi gbags

Yes definitely. It's by Frank McLynn:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1044796/stanley/

There's loads to read about him if you want to go into the detail I did, but McLynn is the best short read in my opinion.

If you want the atmosphere of late 19th / early 20th century exploitation in Central Africa, then Conrad's infamous Heart of Darkness is a must, as you probably already know.

For a more recent take on travelling in the Congo basin, then I really recommend Tim Butcher's Blood River - which is IMHO the best travel book written for years. [b]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/ ... _River[/b]

if you want a great cure for insomnia you could read my dissertation - but I wouldn't recommend it.

Where are you planning to go on your trip?

Dave

[Fried Egg Sandwich]

1985, just passed my test. Me and GF on a CG125, tent, sleeping bags, rucksacks for panniers and tankbag, toured lowlands of Scotland, Northumberland and Lake District for a fortnight in the summer. Must have looked a right site.
Most terrifying bit was going down the A6 at Shap realising that the brakes were really not up to the job with all that weight.

Fabulous first trip under my own steam.
Could have done with twice the cc's though

[Boo Cock]

1986 and my new Harley shovel head. I bought it five years earlier and now had 50,000 miles on the clock. Yes, I like to ride it! And no it never gave me grief.
Booked a ferry with team bike tours from Weymouth to Cherbourg. Did 3,000 miles in 10 days.Straight down to Andorra, Spain, then across south of France to Geneva. Hot as hell all the way. One day of rain heading up across France and back to Cherbourg. Met two guys in Apt on a Sportster from London. They went to St Tropez hoping to sell jewellery and live it up, but were not allowed to as they never had a licence to sell on the street.
We dossed in a field at night lulled to sleep by the sound of crickets. I still have a picture on my wall of the sunset that night. It was magical! They then carried on to Amsterdam and who knows what?
I slept in picnic areas and a few campsites and lived on the cheap. I have been back every year since except for one. Mortgage stops play. On arrival home, my girlfriend at the time said why did I not call or write? The following day she received postcards from every corner of Europe. I didn't tell her, or anyone else where I was going.
The ironic part of the trip was that at the ferry port I met a couple from Bath. He said he had an uncle who lived in Cornwall in Falmouth near me. He said he had not seen him for some time and that he had married a local girl. I asked him, is his name Richard Haddon? To which he surprisingly said yes. I told him, he married my sister. Small world isn't it?