The Gap Yah. Most people do it at the age of 18. Others do it after Uni at 21.
However, as most of my mates love to point out, I have the terrible habit of being late...all the time. I would, without a shadow of a doubt, be late to my own funeral.
But even by my standards, being ten years late is pretty damn good going.
Yep, at the comparitively ripe old age of 32, I'm taking myself off on a Gap Yah.
After riding across 10,000 miles of Europe on two trips over the last 2 years, I’ve become a firm believer that there’s no better way to see the world than by motorbike.
So in just under 2 weeks time, I’ll be flying myself and my motorbike to Buenos Aires in Argentina. I’ll be making my way round South America around 3 months, ending up in Bogota in Columbia.
At the end of the 3 months, I’ll ask myself a very simple question - “Where next?". And if I want to keep on going, I'll do just that.
“OK”, I hear you say, “what are you going to write about then?
“Aren’t you just going to fill my Facebook feed with an ever increasing number of photos of exotic locations, enigmatic photos querying the meaning of life and tw*ts with braids in their hair, all of which make me want to reach through the screen in punch you in the face?”
Well, yes, there is the distinct possibility that will happen, though I’ll try to avoid it.
Having only ever been away from the UK for 2 weeks before, this is my first experience of doing any long-term travelling. As I'll explain in the coming weeks, the trip is hugely important to me on a number of different levels.
Aside from that, I wanted to blog about this trip for three reasons:
I like writing. Actually, that’s a lie. I love writing. Most of my career has been based around writing to persuade people of particular a point of view - press releases, letters to Government Ministers, speeches. This blog, though, is about learning about a different kind of writing - one that’s about being creative to be interesting, humorous, entertaining and thought-provoking for anyone who reads it.
I am travelling with Barney. For those of you who don’t know Barney, he’s a big fella. Weighs about 210 kg, in fact. He’s pretty strong though - he’s as powerful as 60 horses, drinks petrol by the gallon and, flat out, can run at 120 mph. Yep, you guessed it, Barney is not human. He’s my 2010 Triumph Bonneville motorbike.
'Travelling’ is a catch-all phrase. But travelling solo by motorbike provides double the fun, double the misery and double the opportunities compared to travelling any other way. I don't know what it will be like to be on the road, riding solo, thousands of miles away from home for months on end. I might get to 3 months and hate it. But that's the point of the trip - it's meant to be an adventure not a holiday, something to experience rather than just enjoy.
Over the last 3 months, I’ve been stoked by the number of friends who have not only encouraged me to do this trip, but also encouraged me to pursue writing whilst doing so. I've done some of that before, but this time I want to make it more of a priority*.
Most importantly, I don't want this blog just to be a procedural, blow by blow account of events. It has the potential to be, and hopefully will be, much more than that. I want it to be an honest and unflinching account of how it unfolds.
I hope that you'll want to be part of that.
*If you want to see some of my previous ramblings from the two trips I've done to Europe before, head back to the front page of this website and scroll down.