My memory is crystal clear: a one-way air ticket to London stuffed in my pocket, scrunched up in cattle class down the back of the plane, staring at the flight tracker map with a little plane icon slowly moving across the Simpson Desert towards Dubai. It’s getting close to ten years ago, but I remember the feeling of emptiness like it was yesterday.
Soon that little plane would be out over the Indian Ocean and the realisation that the only way to get back was to ride home on a motorcycle hit me hard. “What have I done?” I asked myself. “Why am I doing this?” I had left my loving wife and kids back home. Pangs of guilt and Sonia’s last words to me — “I may never see you again” — were ringing in my ears. The stakes were huge, but somehow for me at that time, the balance was tipped towards going for it! Yes, Australia is the envy of the world when it comes to motorcycle adventure. We seemingly have everything in our own backyard: endless tracks, spectacular scenery, isolation, and if you go looking for it, some of the toughest rides you can find anywhere. But I needed more, and I found it in international motorcycle adventure.
The allure of riding through foreign lands is something special. I know it’s a big call but my London to Sydney ride back in 2012 to produce the Continental Drift film for my MAD-TV channel on YouTube fundamentally changed the way I looked at life, its challenges and what’s important to me. It changed the way I looked at other cultures and people, and more broadly, humanity.
I’ve ridden away from these trips with a far more positive attitude towards the world and its people. Surprisingly, I’ve gained an intense scepticism of the nightly news that sells disaster and mayhem for advertising dollars and leaves us suspicious of whole countries and all that live within their borders. I’ve found the reality is very different, with people warm and
