AS SEEN FROM THE SIDECAR
Friendship can often be a very spe-
cial thing; a bond, an understanding, a
trust. It drives one to respect, to con-
fide, to challenge. One such friendship
has built a bond so special that it has set
an amazing challenge … a challenge to
ride a small Honda scooter around the
world … with a sidecar …
Childhood friends Matt
Bishop and Reece Gilkes will
embark on an 18-month cir-
cumnavigation of the globe on
a Honda SH300i scooter and a
home-made sidecar. Crazy?
Crazy indeed! It doesn’t get
much crazier, the lads don’t
know what they’re in for … it’s
the perfect adventure!
While they admit it’s be-
ing done for recognition by
setting a Guinness World Re-
cord, it’s the recognition that
will draw attention to an is-
sue the friends believe needs
to be addressed, that of hu-
man rights abuses and mod-
ern-day slavery.
“The idea was born out of
our moaning,” said Matt.
“Moaning at the state of
the world and how unequal
it was. Moaning at the stories
in the news (or the ones that weren’t),
and moaning at ourselves for doing
nothing about it. So, we decided to do
something.
“We’re taking on this huge challenge
to raise awareness and funds for the
fight against modern-day slavery”, Matt
continued stating that there are cur-
rently 45.8 million people enslaved. A
problem that affects every country on
earth, it’s not just a problem of the de-
veloping world.
“That’s enough people to fill
Wembley Stadium over 500 times and
more than double what there was at the
peak of the transatlantic slave trade.”
In fact, it’s twice the population of a
country like Australia.
Neither had any experience of rid-
ing motorbikes before they decided to
circumnavigate the globe on the 279cc
Honda SH300i and sidecar, built by a
couple of generous sidecar enthusiasts.
That wasn’t going to put them off, they
rode around the UK on small Yamaha’s,
in December, to get some miles up.
Two thousand, two hundred of them …
that’s right 2,200 miles.
“We had absolutely no experience
with motorbikes whatsoever,” said Re-
ece.
“We didn’t even know how they
worked, let alone how to ride one. We
had absolutely no mechanical exper-
tise, but we quickly learned the basics
when we needed to put a chain back
TRAVERSE
16
on, in the dark, in the rain and on the
side of a road. We’ve also undertaken
emergency survival training with Sur-
vival Wisdom to better prepare our-
selves for the expedition.”
Matt and Reece will kick off the ex-
pedition with a London to Paris rally
on 21st October to coincide with An-
ti-Slavery Day and to raise
awareness of Unseen UK
who operate the UK's Mod-
ern Slavery Helpline. They
hope to recruit as many sup-
porters as possible to accom-
pany the start of their jour-
ney. The return ticket for all
will be sponsored by Groupe
Eurotunnel SE.
The pair will then scoot
over five continents, through
over 50 countries and cover
around 40,000 miles on the
most inappropriate mode
of transport imaginable – a
scooter with a sidecar. The
trip itself, sponsored by
Flight Centre UK, will take
up to 18 months and will in-
volve travelling on a mixture
of tarmac, mud, gravel, ice
and sand, with temperatures
reaching highs of 50 and po-
tentially lows touching minus 40.
They plan to meet a variety of peo-
ple involved in fighting against mod-
ern-day slavery and other human
rights abuses. They plan to tell the real
stories, of real people, in the hope that
this will make people in their comfort-
able homes feel more connected. By
championing similarities, they hope
to inspire people to make changes to
every-day decisions and improve the
lives of millions around the world.
As well as aiming to inspire gen-
uine change, the project has a fund-