About Me

My name is Bjorn, I'm 33 years old and prior to this trip used to live in London/UK. Seven years ago I left Germany to go to England for a 6-month student exchange. Somehow I never went back. Instead, I finished my studies in England, went travelling, came back to the UK and found a job in London where I've been living over the past 3 years.The first vague idea for doing this trip came about 5 years ago. Having come back from a 3-month journey through South East Asia and Australia, I realized that if I was to go travelling again, I wanted to be more independant from busses, trains and taxis. A motorcycle offers just that: independance.

Early childhood & adolescence memories probably contributed towards the idea of travelling on two wheels: I remember prepping up an old, rusty fold-up bike to 'BMX standard' (6-year-olds can have A LOT of imagination). And I certainly won't forget that moment back in the early 90s, when I first saw Honda's legendary ' Africa Twin' parked in front of our local supermarket.

One year before the trip, planning got a bit more serious. I started taking Motorcycle Maintenance lessons at Hackney Community College in London, and swapped my trusted Kawasaki ER-5 for my travel bike: a BMW's F650 Dakar (named 'Dolly', because of the sheepskin in the seat bench). Despite being tempted to get an Africa Twin, I believe the F650 was the better choice & more suitable bike for me.
Trip Update: As it turns out, the Dakar was a good choice. Only problems so far were a broken rear shock absorber (after around 50000km) and 2 broken subframe-bolts after some horrendous roads in Tajikistan.

Straight after getting the F650, I took an offroad-training course – followed by trips through Germany, France, Spain and England's Lake District & Cornwall.



For some people it might be hard to imagine quitting a good job and leaving for an open-ended journey. I certainly had some doubts every now and then, wondering whether this was such a good idea. Travelling to see the world is one thing – but why not settle down and do what people usually do when their in their thirties? I guess the last doubts were taken away when a friend of mine put things into perspective: Sometimes you've got to escape your comfort zone and do what feels right. And if someone had told me seven years ago that I would stay in England for such a long time, I probably wouldn't have believed it. After all, I had a great time so far – and I realized: Who knows what tomorrow brings anyway?