The Idea

Well everything starts with an idea.

If you just can’t get rid of a thought, I believe you will eventually do it.

In our case, everything started in 2008, when I tried to meet with 2 other friends to celebrate our 50th Birthday (we called it our 150th birthday) together.  We were discussing what we could do, thinking about riding motorbikes through Europe or Australia.

One of my friends mentioned that he would like to ride the Pan American Highway in Chili and Argentina one day.  During the discussion we came up with the idea to ride the whole Pan American Highway, rather than just a section. We dismissed the idea pretty quickly because it would take too long and would be too expensive.  We decided to delay another 10-15 years until we were pensioners.

But the idea was born, and I for one couldn’t get it out of my head. Through the following years things happened to friends around us which emphasized that there is no guaranty that we would reach our pension age or that we would be capable of riding a motorbike for a long distance even if we did.

So Sigrid and I thought about starting our journey earlier and did some feasibility studies (read: crunching numbers… Boring!)

It turned out that it would be possible, but we would have to quit our jobs as we wouldn’t get such a long time off.
We continued to plan the trip, looked around and found some valuable resources and inspiring stories on the internet.

At the beginning it seemed to be a crazy idea, however the more we looked into it, the more apparent it became that it was quite the opposite. Perhaps insanity was finally setting in, but it seems to be normal that people travel around the world on a motorbike, and for many the start was a trip along the Pan American Highway.

There are plenty of people out there who have done it and made their experience available on the internet. One of the best resources is the Horizon Unlimited web site, which is really the communication point for all motorbike rider which travel around the world.

The other was a journal of an American couple, Jeff and Linda who traveled from the USA to Terra del Fuego. I really enjoyed reading it and it encouraged us even more. Be warned, though.  Don’t read it if you don’t want to turn your life upside down ~ their enthusiasm is contagious!

And then there was the DVD “The Ride” from the GlobeBusters motorcycle expedition that showed that even inexperienced dirt bike  rider can make it. The internet is a wonderful source of information, and inspiration  🙂