WHAT
MAKES
YOU
HAPPY?
TRAVERSE 17
I
n 2017 a friend and I started a
rough plan to travel together;
the thinking to take a month
or two off work, buy Hon-
da Wins and ride Vietnam.
Unfortunately, my friend
realised that the best time of year to
do it wouldn’t fit his schedule.
Moving on to solo travel research
I realised that anyone and their dog
seems to do the Vietnam by moto trip
these days, regardless of motorcycle
abilities. I then began looking into
alternative, less traversed options
and discovered the surprisingly large
motorcycle overlanding communi-
ty. After heaven knows how many
hours of the last year spent scrolling
through the adventures of Mamuts
World Tour’s Nykoss, The Modern Mo-
torcycle Diaries (Alex Chacon), Got 2
Go’s (Lea Rieck), 2 Wheeled Adven-
tures (Linas and Asta), Steve Rides the
World, Adventures in Yellow’s (Nor-
man and Maggie Magowan), and so
many others, my idea for two wheeled
travel steamrolled way beyond a trip
to Vietnam and I found myself at the
precipice of getting my own expedi-
tion underway: New Zealand to Eu-
rope. And before you ask, yes, I do
know there are some oceans in the
way.
Something very important to me
needs to be brought to attention be-
fore I jump into the start of my adven-
ture.
In most of the photos with Robin
(my 2015 Triumph Tiger XCx), you’ll
notice my panniers have large “Heads
Up Guys” stickers, which isn’t me be-
ing sassy reminding people to watch
out for motorcycles. Heads up Guys
(www.headsupguys.org) is a Vancou-
ver based organisation that provide