My Round The World Adventure
How do you deal with life’s stresses? Elspeth Beard’s solution was 35,000 miles on a motorbike!
Igot my first bike when I was seventeen as a cheap and convenient way of getting round London,” says Elspeth Beard. “But it was when I later bought my BMW 600 that I really suddenly started to see the potential for travelling.”
After a series of trips around the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, an idea began to spark.
“I started to think how great it would be to ride my bike around the world. With my brother I went on a 3,000-mile trip across America before returning to college, where I was halfway through my training in architecture.
“The round the world trip became a reality the following year, in 1982. I was reeling from a broken romance and I just thought, ‘Actually, now’s the time to go.’ So aged just 23, and having worked all summer in a pub to save some money, I just packed the bike up and left. There were no satnavs or mobile phones then. I really was going into the unknown.”
Having shipped her bike out to New York, Elspeth toured through North America. She then shipped her bike out to Sydney, spent two months exploring New Zealand then flew to Australia to pick it up. She went on to motorcycle 6,000 miles in the country, having to negotiate some incredibly harsh conditions and even being hospitalised for two weeks after a road accident.
“It was tough; intense heat, flies, dust and endless miles of nothingness. Sometimes there were 200-300 miles between the road houses and petrol stations and absolutely nothing in between, which was mentally tough.”
From Perth, Elspeth rejoined her bike in Singapore after travelling through the likes of Bali, Java and Sumatra by public transport. She overcame
obstacles such as the theft of her valuables and, while in Thailand, a bad accident after which she was cared for by kindly but impoverished locals. She fell in love with a Dutchman she met in India and ticked off Nepal and Pakistan on her ambitious itinerary, before riding through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Europe and – with an impressive 35,000 miles under her belt – back home to London.
“When I switched off my engine for the very last time it was a pretty amazing feeling. There was no reception committee and no fanfare – I arrived at 5.30am on a freezing cold November morning. I didn’t have a front door key and couldn’t get in!”
Elspeth’s expedition experiences also included civil uprisings, biker gangs and corrupt police and, as a lone female rider, some tricky personal situations.
“When I was actually on the bike everyone assumed I was male. I wore a full-face helmet and unflattering clothes. You have to be sensible and to minimise the risks although obviously there are times when you are more susceptible to trouble.”
The biking culture back in the early 80s was very male-oriented.
“While trying to secure some sponsorship ahead of the trip, I’d received some incredibly rude, chauvinistic replies. When I got back from my trip in ’84 it was pretty much the same and there was little interest in what I had done. So I packed all my journals, my photos and everything relating to my trip into a cardboard box. That’s where they remained for over 30 years until in 2006, my journalist boyfriend at the time wrote a short piece on my trip for a magazine.
“Over the next few years the story was picked up and I was even contacted by a Hollywood agent. I realised it would be a good time to write a book as an accurate account of it all and I wrote Lone Rider.
“My experiences changed me in so many ways. When I returned from my trip, there wasn’t anything I didn’t think I could do, or deal or cope with. It taught me that if you want to do or achieve something in life and people say no, then you have to find another way around it. I have taken this
forward through my life ever since, including when I converted my 1890s water tower into a home, something which I was told would not be possible!
“I have done lots of travelling since. Nothing on the scale of my solo trip around the world, but then, I don’t really feel as though I need to do that one again!”