Elle West (Pic: Jeremy Kroeker)
purchase became a blessing. Bulgaria their new home, a
refuge in time of need.
“We had sold everything back in England,” they
explained. “During the first part of our RTW we found
that we loved Bulgaria and had decided to buy a small
house to use as a base, a place that should we need to
stop for any length of time, we could, without impacting
on the travel budget.
“We had thought it was more likely due to an accident
or illness rather than a pandemic that would call a halt to
our travels.”
Trapped?
Coulthard looked for options within Malaysia, a place
to store his Husqvarna and a way to reach home, now the
UK where his wife was waiting. You see, the Coulthard’s
had moved to the UK at the request of his wife, the deal
sealed with the compromise that he could ride ‘home’.
“After a week or so I decided to get the earliest and
cheapest flight I could to be with my wife,” he explained.
“I sort of no longer had a home … I do however consider
home to be where my wife is, so I flew to where she was
in the UK.”
Oddly, it seemed Coulthard’s greatest challenge was
not of getting home but settling down.
“My wife had just got used to me being away after over
25 years together,” he explained. “My arrival altered her
new routine with no certainty of how long I would be
around.
“Discussions were had about continuing the journey,
the prospect of me leaving again, of flying the bike from
Malaysia to the UK, of how long the next part of the
journey may be and when.”
Trapped?
Many travellers based their decisions on the
information coming from home; family, friends,
government authorities whilst many listened to locals;
citizens and governments.
“We can no longer ride our motorcycles home,”
explained Jeremy Kroeker and Elle West, both from
Canada. “This has radically altered our agenda.”
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