Motorcycle Explorer May 2016 Issue 11 | Page 97

When Mickey and Katie met at an off-road school in 2014, both were considering travel. It was never in question that the travel would be on bikes and they knew they wanted small off-road bikes. “Lots of people have asked us why we chose 240’s” says Mickey, I was working as an off-road photographer when we met so I was surrounded by enduro bikes and it seemed fitting to travel on them when we met riding them. But also, I always remember something a guy from Oz told me many years ago. He said the postie bike he was travelling on was “fast enough to get there but slow enough to see everything”. This sums up what we both want from our travels so choosing a smaller bike was an easy decision to make.” Where in the World? The route remains fluid for the exploring duo Their route will take them through Northern and Eastern Europe, crossing into Turkey, Iran and Pakistan and then on to India, Nepal and South East Asia. On the last leg of the trip they’ll ship onwards to Australia and finally New Zealand. Their route is flexible though, and their approach minimalist. This keeps them free to explore places and spend time with people as the opportunity to do so arises and allows them to experience as much as possible on a budget. Ultimately, they say, it’ll be the people they meet that make the journey what it is and they don’t want to compromise that. “We view the whole process more as a different phase of life than as a trip with a fixed beginning and end” says Mickey. “We want to strip our lives down to the essentials, live a bit more in the moment and get back to what matters to us”.