Point2Point

Welcome to part 5 of my series of articles on Great Modern Travelers. It's taken a while, but finally a lady joins the all boys club here. More on that later, firstly what the heck is she doing on a tractor and is it just a gimmick?

Manon Ossevoort (28) has worked in the theatre as an actress, a dancer, and a theatremaker. In the summer of 2005 she began the biggest performance of her life with a co-star on a trip from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, South-Africa, Cape of Good Hope, South pole. She is raising funds or the charity war child. I believe she is aiming at collecting 2 Euro for every Kilometer covers. 1 Euro goes to the Charity, 1 Euro goes towards the trip.

Alone the way she is collecting the dreams of people written down on little pieces of paper. Once in the South Pole she will build a big snowman and put the 'dreams of the world' in it's belly. Well if that's not a bit of creativity, I don't know what is. But tractors and snowmen aside this is the story of a dream of courage, humanitarianism and quite simply humor that will span the whole of Africa.

Having lived in Africa for a number of year myself I can just imagine the look on a remote villagers face to see Manon coming down a dirt road. The same goes for city folks, though I imagine a lot more noise there. It would never cease to bring a smile. This sort of thing brings us closer as people. We all have sense of humor, and appreciation for courage. No matter where we are in the world there are always good people that will join in to help us, laugh with us and give us support. Those that have not seen that in their travels need to get out more!

Manon's website is quite nice. There are some incredible surreal images of the tractor and her in the middle of nowhere and worth the visit for just that.

I do not know if Manon is updating the site herself while she is on the road. I have a feeling the answer is yes, as it's not updated so regularly in English. In fact the last entry that I can see is from two months ago when she was just leaving Zimbabwe. So I hope all is well with her. The site looks well but could do with more new entries and more photos. Here's the link www.tractortractor.org

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The Longest Way Home

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Welcome to the fourth installment of my feature articles on great travelers of today. I decided to take a look at pure vehicle inspired adventure travel this week. Hence the move over to the two wheels of Ted Simon.

Now considering Ted completed his first trip in 1977 does that make him a great modern traveler. Well in my eyes 1977 is surely within the scope of modern, but moreover than that Ted repeated that same trip some 25 years later which finished in 2003. And yes he was into his 70's at that stage. So That most certainly makes him a valid candidate, what's more Ted's story is more than just about getting on a bike and traveling, its about as inspirational as it gets!

Ted is a British journalist born in Germany. At the age of 43 Ted jumped up on his 500cc Trumph and headed off for 4 years of travel covering 78,000 miles through 45 countries with no support team, no cell phone or GPS satellite navigation. Heck no email or blog either. This was solo travel at it's most real.

Through Africa and the Atbara desert, relinquishing bribes at numerous country borders, prison trouble in Brasil Ted was a pioneer in the field of both motorcycle travel and overland travel. He really did boldly do where no one went before. In this day and age, that's not an easy thing to say nor accomplish.

But what happens when you've done such a big trip. Well, you write a book about it. Back then it wasn't so much Print on Demand and Blog lifestyles but it was publishing houses looking for a good story. He had one and it was published. "Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph".

After a little rest, 25 years, Ted did something that I can truly admire and appreciate. Do you remember your first solo holiday to that beautiful place that inspired you in your youth? Well, I do. Ever wonder what it would be like some 25 years later? How much would it have changed? Well, Ted wondered that. At the age to 70 Ted set off on his BMW to retrace his steps.

Through Africa, around the Americas, through New Zealand and Australia, and across Asia to Europe Ted retraced his steps. For anyone who had truly traveled could you imagine what this would be like? The past revisited. Memories of people no longer there, places changed beyond description. New wars, and some old ones - friends past and present. New Technology and lost memories reborn. He completed the trip and set pen to paper once more for "Dreaming of Jupiter: In Search of the World--Thirty Years On"

Ted and his travels have inspired both travelers and motorbike enthusiasts the world over. I will freely admit to never hearing about Ted until meeting up with a biker in Iran last year who told of Ted's adventures and mentioned the more publicized travels of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman who were inspired by Ted.

Now here's my connection with this. I remember watching 'The Long Way Round" before setting off myself so many years ago. I really enjoyed the series for what it was. And did give McGregor credit as a person rather than a personality devoid actor afterwards. It still remains a favorite series of mine. However are they considered to be great modern day travelers? Well when you take into account the 2 jeep production trip following them, plus Sat phones etc... hmmmm. Well look, they did a great trip and have inspired many people because of it. So full credit. But I will admit to loosing interest in the second series when I heard McGregor requesting a new seat be delivered for his bike in Tunisia as his Bum was getting sore. Hmmmm. I was stuck in West Africa at the time choking on generator fumes in an slow motion internet cafe while sitting on a foamless nail protruding chair at the time. You can imagine my reaction to Mr. McGregor's bum blight nor the BBC's GPR's entourage.

What's a little sad is that I have read criticisms of Teds travels in today's context. Both from bikers and travelers. Why? Well they forget it was a travel adventure in the late 70's not in 2008. It was a different world. Just like 2008 will be very different in 25 years time. I hope I will not fall into the circle of people who will look back at 2008 in 25 years time and disregard the lessons of today's pioneers. Looking back we may not be able to appreciate the difficulties of not being able to pick of a cell phone or tracking our location on GPS we will still have that core emotional experience of being travelers in search of adventure.

Have a look at Ted's website. It's full of photo's excerpts and interesting material:
Jupitalia

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The Longest Way Home

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Welcome to the third in my articles on great modern travelers.

It's not all about getting to the top of the mountain, or conquering an overland battle through the most torrid of circumstances. Sometimes travel is about us as people.

Inspired by a book his girlfriend gave him Jonny started off traveling across remote parts of India and Pakistan and into war-torn Afghanistan following along the path of Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King". Through this experience Jonny wrote his own book "A Pagan's Song", about the journey.

Sadly that same girlfriend died in Jonny's arms when they were traveling Kashmir together. Two years later and Jonny was still searching for answers. He headed off with a friend into Africa motorbike. What was meant to be a duo trip turned into a solo trip due to an accident. Jonny took on Africa and battled with both this great continent and with his own demons on an incredible overland journey.

Jonny is a bit of an entrepreneur as well. He's been the lead singer in a rock band and is a sound engineer by trade. In last big documented journey he had a go at movie making and set about a documentary about his journey along the old silk road with a total stranger on horseback. It's a great story that's pretty in your face when it comes to travel relations and personal expectations.

To cap it all off Jonny has done what a lot of travelers would love to do. He made the travel lifestyle his business. These days Jonny runs Wild Frontiers. An award-winning adventure travel company that spans the globe for those seeking tailor made adventures! He is in fact living the lifestyle so many travelers yearn for. Perhaps what would interesting is if Jonny wrote a forth book on his life within this company and the very many adventures he's had there ...

I was just out from Africa myself when I came across Jonny Bealby's book "Running with the Moon". In which he details his great Africa overland adventure. Not only is the book a great read for those that like travel or adventure books, but also for anyone thinking of taking a trip across Africa either by bike or car.

I thoroughly recommend "Running with the Moon", and "Silk Dreams Troubled Road". They are both excellent reads in their own right, and make great traveling companions. Unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on "A Pagan's Song". I actually saw it in Pokhara Nepal, but it was a choice between that or Silk Dreams Troubled Road, my bags were full and a girl I met traveling bought the latter for me. So that's what I went with. Now it seems the book is becoming a hard find out there.

As for me? I am still waiting to some visa issues dealt with and will continue these articles while working hard on this home finding thing. The Journey for a home continues.

I have also started the Portugal Diaries and The Knights Templar Trip that I never had time to write about while on the road. I will post them soon, but they will be in a slightly different format which I hope will appeal to a reader. Until next week.

Check out more on my website for the full list and more...:
The Longest Way Home

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As a continuation to my weekly articles on Great Modern Travelers of our time I am featuring Christoph Rehage another walker who is currently in the West of China making his way to Germany. OK it's a risk writing about someone who has not completed his trip yet. But then we all take a risk when we head out onto the road to accomplish something; do we not?

Christoph is a 27 year old from Hanover, Germany and his major was China Studies, hence the reason he is probably starting off in China! He plans to spend two years walking via Beijing to Western China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, Turkey, and then to Germany.

What I like about this guy is that it's a new journey. He's doing it for him, and not mounting it on a charity or another worthy cause. He is Traveling because he wants to. Simple as that.

Another nice thing about his site and I recommend you visit it at least once, is his gallery. Christoph is quite the Photographer and has some great not so typical images to share.

I have been looking at a lot of travelers blogs and websites this week. And there's one thing for sure that I have noticed. A blog has it's role, but it does not do justice to a great traveler. With a website you get to see what it is all about within a few seconds. In a blog this whole last entry is the first displayed makes it had to see what it's all about. Having a site with a blog that's attached seems to be the way to go.

It sometimes makes me wonder why I never hear of some folks out there. You'd think with a website like www.thelongestway.com it would be easy to find in regards to looking for great travelers. I guess in the reality of databases, tags and listings the term travel might not have been linked with overland which was not tagged with great. In other words: Thanks to marlis from TP for letting me know about the story.

Another thing that's popped up a lot on these blogs and sites is the amount of Australians going from either the UK to Australia Overland, or vice versa. Some with great stories, others with drunken rampages. The maps can be misleading too. You see a travel map, and go WOW they did it. Then half way through the blog read "We caught the plane to..." hmmm.

Taking a plane in the middle over hmmm lets say the whole of the middle east kinda dilutes the whole overland thing. That's not to say they are not great travelers but I myself would drop the great bit if the overland thing is still mentioned at the end of the trip.

Check out more on my website for the full list and more...:
The Longest Way Home

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In my break from writing about my search to find a home I decided I might write some short entries about some other world travellers in search of something; be they lost, simply taking an huge adventure or simply trying to achieve something above the norm.

My first entry is about a guy I heard about 8 years ago. When I was taking my own first tentative steps of travel Karl Bushby was setting out on a, then, 12 year odyssey to walk around the world without any other means of transport. And by walk, he means walk. He was the first recorded man to cross the Bering Straits. OK he swam, but you get the point.

Karl is an ex-paratrooper from the UK. He set off in 1998 in South America with little more than $500 (could have been $50) and walked all the way to Russia. 10 Years later, that is where he is now. 2 years ago the Russians arrested him. Part of this was due to the fact he entered Russia by literally swimming over the perishing ice filled water of the Bering Straits and popped up in an abandoned Military base. As you could imagine the Russians were none to pleased. Since then he has been battling(diplomatically) with the Russians for a Visa that would allow him to walk across this leg of his journey.

Last year I read his mid point book. It's a book laid out in diary format and a good read for those traveling as it's easy to pick up and start again. It's also a fascinating look at the man himself, the how's, why's and can be's of his life. Not to mention a great read on traveling the Americas by land. But more than all that, the book stays with you. Karl's quest is to accomplish something with a life he once thought had amassed to little. This alone makes the book worth reading as it puts a great perspective on our own lives and what we do with them.

For more entries in this series I have categorized them all in "Educational" on the links on the right of this page.

Here is a link to the the Goliath Expeditions website if you would like to read more about Karl's Great Journey.

I am going to try an post on a weekly basis on any other great travelers I find out there that can inspire us in either our own travels or quests in life.
Check out more on my website for the full list and more...:
The Longest Way Home

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