Jim: Ian, tell us how the whole motorcycle thing started for you. When did you start riding your bike?
Ian: When I was 12 years old. Me and my friends bought an old BSA. We rigged it up like a scrambler. I went around his fields. They had a farm. And that’s how it started. Then I got my own bike when I was 16 and started riding then. Because in those days, apprentice mechanics, we didn’t have much money. And that’s the only thing you could afford, was a motorbike. So I had a motorbike until I was about 20, before I got a car. Although I passed my test for a car when I was 17, because I needed a licence for work. But I only got a car when I was 20. But I still had a motorbike all the time.
So somewhere not too long after that you managed to get your own shop going. Your own garage.
Yeah. When I was … I think about 22, I started my own business with another lad who used to work with me. We both started it up. After a few years, he pulled out because he wanted to do farming (he had a farm as well). He wanted to do farming all the time, so I just carried on by myself, working.
Somewhere along the line, you came up to a point in your garage where you decided to go for a ride.
Well, I had a phone call one day from a mechanic who used to work for me. He said that he should be going to Africa as a mechanic and driver, fetching a Land Rover back to England. For a month trip. But he said at last minute his wife’s put her foot down and won’t let him go. He said, it sounds like a job for you, Ian. So, he gave me the phone number, he says ring this chap up. So, I rang this man up, and he said, oh yes, that’s alright. I flew out to Johannesburg, met him there. There was an owner, who was supposed to be the guide, and tell everyone about the wild animals. Then his friend was going to do all the cooking of the food and do the paperwork for the visas. And there were some passengers as well. Now this Land Rover was an ex-army 101 Land Rover pulling a trailer full of camping gear.
THEN UP THERE I TRIED TO ENTER ANGOLA, BUT THEY WERE HAVING A COUP UP THERE. SO, I CAME OUT TO ANGOLA AND CAME ACROSS ZIMBABWE. THEN I WENT TO ZAMBIA, CAME BACK DOWN ZAMBIA AND THEN BACK INTO ZIMBABWE
I DIDN’T GO HOME, I WENT DOWN TO NEW ZEALAND BECAUSE IT’S JUST OFF THE BOTTOM OF AUSTRALIA
Okay. Hang on. Because no matter how easy you think that segue was, we went from somebody who owns a garage and goes to work every day, to someone who just takes this thing offered to them. Where you’re just going to fill in for somebody on this adventure, driving a Land Rover 101 up through Africa, back to England. Where does that come from? Were you an adventurer before this?
Well, no. I’ll do anything. Anything that’s
