Published in: Media
I thoroughly enjoy reading many of the tales of the road from people who are riding the world right now, and I love soaking up their enticing blend of joy, fear, disaster, and good times.
Recently my thoughts have been off in the direction of the early-day overlanders. What intrigues me most about these travelers is the fact that many of them were ground breakers, and had to prepare for their adventures relying on little else than common sense and enthusiasm.
Take Theresa Wallach and Florence Blenkiron for example. These two amazing women were the first to ride the length of Africa by motorcycle. Their tale is wonderfully told in Theresa’s book Rugged Roads. What courage! 1935 was a time when women weren’t even supposed to be wearing trousers, let alone planning a bimble the length of Africa. To put this trip into context, this was a time when Africa was known as the “Dark Continent,” in part because so little was known about it. There was no well-worn route, so this duo had to carry significant water, fuel and oil. And, they needed a sidecar and trailer to do that. Imagine what it must have been like to have to tow all that gear through the sands of the Sahara!
Then there’s the story of 20-year-old Max Reisch, and his pal Herbert Tichy, who are said to be the first to ride a bike from Europe to India. They did it on a two-stroke Puch. When I read their book India the Shimmering Dream, I realized just how new this was to anyone back then. And, even though they were ground breakers, they made some monumental mistakes along the way.
In Around the World on a Motorcycle, Zoltan Sulkowski, and his pal Gyula Bartha, set off from Paris in 1928 on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and sidecar—on an eight year trip. They gave a very clear-eyed view of the world in the 1930s—a world where the colonizing influences of Europe had affected much of Africa and Asia.
Overlanding enthusiast and passionate motorcycle traveller, Bernd Tesch, has the largest library of motorcycle overlanding books in the world (TukuTuku.de)—check out the link for a real surprise! He’s also the keeper of a huge database of overlanders (BerndTesch.de), of which 90% of the stories are in English. Bernd told me in 2011 that according to his records 250 people have ridden the long road round the world. “But,” he says, “no one really knows for sure, so if you estimate 500 people then perhaps you’ll be closer to the actual count.”
Who were the very early riders and why have we heard so little about them? Is it because they were private people who had little interest in sharing their stories, or was it simply that in their day it was almost impossible to get published? Or, were they published and sadly their stories have faded never to be heard of again? I wonder what tales they could tell of a world that is, perhaps, lost forever.
Who was the first? According to Bernd, the first recorded round-the-world adventure started 101 years ago. He very kindly supplied me with information:
In 1912, the journalist Carl Stearns Clancy along with his film critic friend, Walter Storey, set off on an around-the-world tour aiming to write a world travel guide. They both rode four-cylinder Hendersons—although only Clancy made the entire journey.
So now, you know he existed, the news gets better still, renowned adventure traveler and writer, Dr. Greg W. Frazier, has written Motorcycle Adventurer, about Carl Stearns Clancy. As the blurb from the book says, “The 20-year-old completed his 18,000 mile ride around the globe long before there were gas stations, motorcycle repair shops, roads, ATMs, GPS, or the internet. His 10-month journey took him from west to east across Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States of America. Clancy faced wild animals, bandits, unfriendly border officials, lack of gas and spare parts plus the unknown of travel by motorcycle where no motorcyclist had ventured.”
With books like these around, perhaps that world hasn’t been lost forever. Maybe aspects of the long road haven’t really changed… perhaps we can learn things of real value from these riders of long ago.
For the likes of modern day adventurers, or would-be adventurers, access to the web has opened up a whole new world of knowledge. Does that make traveling any easier or more interesting? Perhaps this huge access to information simply bogs us down. Perhaps ignorance is bliss. I’m not so sure about that, but as always it’s what we do with the information that matters.
One character who risked all was Paul Pratt. Not only did he spend twelve and a half years riding his 650cc Triumph Thunderbird around the world in the ’60s and ’70s—48 countries in all—but he self-published the book, World Understanding on Two Wheels. Self-publishing in those days was usually called “vanity” publishing, and many releases were solely for family and friends to see. By far, most such books were never made available to the public and, if they were, a run of no more than 400 was typical.
Paul raised his head above the parapet, invested every penny he could lay his hands on and stacked the corridors in his home with boxes of books. And, even though the title of his book is rather unwieldy and slightly pompous, it’s very apt. I’m rather red-faced here when I say that, because I judged the book by its cover. I should have looked harder at its subtitle, An Introduction to Overland Travel. But I did buy a copy and wished I had come across it before I’d set off on my own journey around the world. This book is a first and Paul is, to my mind, one of those early travelers who should be sharing more of the current limelight.
Sadly, Paul died in 2010, at 84, but I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet him in 2007. He was still riding his Triumph, and you could see the joy the bike continued to give him.
One of my favorite quotes from Paul is, “What you see on TV is not the world you see from the road.” He also wrote, “In current times so much of the emphasis seems to be on making it round as quickly as possible. Television makes it all look so easy, so instant. That’s anathema to me. In the end, speed travelers just don’t give enough of themselves back; they have no time. They are missing out because one of the main thrills about long distance travel comes from the relationships you form with the people you meet out there.”
I asked Paul if he thought that there was anything special about his round-the-world trip that made it successful. “There are real keys,” he said. “Age isn’t an issue, and you don’t have to be brave or insane, but it’s more to do with a state of mind. You have to have a sense of humor, you can’t shy away from discomfort, and it helps if you are prepared to take a few calculated risks. You have to be able to adapt to the environment you find yourself in, and you need to be able to relate to people.”
We can learn much from these early-day travelers. Every tip of Paul’s comes from hard-earned and well-practiced experience. His book contains tales of the road which keep all of the practical advice in perspective; thoughts-into-reality situations. If nothing else, his story is an enthralling step back into times that will never be the same again. He told me, “I hope that my journey will help readers to understand how their own instincts are the very things that can give them an experience which they’ll be notching up as one of the best things they did in their lifetimes.” Now that’s a thought that hasn’t changed in at least a hundred years!
Sam Manicom spent eight years traveling around the world by motorcycle and is the author of four motorcycle travel books. All are available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle. His first book, Into Africa, is now downloadable from iTunes as an enhanced eBook. Sam-Manicom.com
Bibliography:
World Understanding on Two Wheels—Paul Pratt, ISBN 0 9507353 0 2
India the Shimmering Dream—Max Reisch, ISBN 978-0-9556595-9-1
The Rugged Road—Theresa Wallach, ISBN 978-0-9564975-2-9
One Man Caravan—Robert Fulton, ISBN 978-1-8843130-5-9
Around the World on a Motorcycle—Zoltan Sulkowsky, ISBN 978-1-8843137-7-6
Motorcycle Adventurer—Dr. Gregory Frazier, ISBN 978-1-4502214-1-2
Leave a Reply