Motorcycle Men
Motorcycle Men
Episode 479 - Talking with Author Graham Field
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Hello Boys and Girls,
Today on the show, we welcome back one of the most thoughtful, raw, and quietly rebellious voices in motorcycle travel writing—Graham Field. For more than a decade, Graham has taken us across continents, through borders, into solitude, and deep inside the human condition. From his breakout book In Search of Greener Grass to his newest—and final—work, he’s been chasing something far more elusive than miles: meaning. to his newest—and final—work, he’s been chasing something far more elusive than miles: meaning.
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.... We say stupid crap so you don't have to.
Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to the Motorcycle Men Podcast. I am Ted, your host, and here we are in the V Twin Cafe in the corner booth, as always, and this is episode 479. Hey, joining me today is our very good friend. You know, I gotta be honest with you, I had this prepared thing that I was gonna read leading up to who was gonna show. And after reading it back, I realized how inauthentic it sounded. And yeah, I gotta get away from that. The thing is, the truth is, Graham Field is on the show today, and he is honestly one of my favorite people to talk to. I love having Graham on the show. I love talking to him even when we're not recording the show. And it's just absolutely wonderful to have him on again. It's been a few years. So here's here to tell us about his new book and possibly maybe even his last book, but we don't know. But anyway, before we get into the interview with Graham, let's talk about the sponsors of the show. We got Scorpion Helmets offering high quality, innovative motorcycle helmets and technical apparel at an incredible value. So to learn more, get on over to scorpionusa.com and wild ass seats. Now you can improve your comfort and ability to stay in a saddle longer with a cushion from Wildass Seats. So if you're tired of those painful pressure points and fatigue, get on over to wild-ass.com and tell the real Craig Johnson your butt hurts and he'll get you a cushion. Alright. And Viking Bags. They are a world leader in motorcycle luggage and one of the fastest growing companies in motorcycle parts. Luggage for whatever you need, wherever you go, and whatever you ride. And as always, Tobacco Motorware. For the best in casual riding gear for men and women, there's only one place you should be going, and that's Tobacco Motorware. Visit them at tobacco motorware.com, and our listeners will get 10% off your order when you use the code Motomen. Your safety is worth it. So get on over to Tobacco Motorware and get in Dave's pants. Alright, now time for that wonderful chat with Graham Field. Alright, and we're back joining me all the way from Bulgaria, our good friend Graham Field. Hello, Graham. Welcome back to the show. Hi Ted, good to be back. It's excellent to have you. It's been a few years since you've been on.
SPEAKER_00As I don't really do the podcast thing that much anymore. It seems a great idea when I've had a few drinks, and then in the cold light of day, I think, oh God, do I really want to do that again?
SPEAKER_01I remember the first time I had you on the show. That was, man, a long time ago. It was just after you did uh In Search of Greener Grass.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01That was a long time ago. A long time ago. And I'm uh well, we won't get into that, but so listen, you've traveled widely and you've written uh really honestly about nearly everything you've done. Uh now you did this recent trip to uh Kyrgyzstan and which was which is basically the heart of your new book, your tenth book, uh Extremes Beyond the Screen. Um but the trip seemed to, based on what I've read so far, reaches beyond the usual boundaries of your travel. Now, did this trip begin with clear intention or was or did its deeper meaning uh reveal itself after you were already on the road?
SPEAKER_00Really, my only intention was to just get away from everything, to just be in pure, untouched nature, where for 360 degrees there is no sign of human impact on the planet. Nothing. That's really what stirs me. That's what I just love, is that there is nothing but me and my own survival instincts, and um I've had it a few times in my travels, and that's really what I was in search for. Utter solitude, utter tranquility.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I you know that's something I I have never done, and I it's something personally I long to do. Just to get on the bike and just go and until you're done, you know, and when is done, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, yeah. I mean, I listened to your audio book, um, The Road Most Traveled. Um, that definitely wasn't about solitude and tranquility at a long shot.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. Uh what made you decide to take this ride in the first place? Was it I mean, did you have a lot of preparation and planning, uh, or did you just go on instinct and chance and all that?
SPEAKER_00I I I had intended to do this trip in 2013. The Eureka book um was originally that which the Eureka was my second book, and having the success of the first one in Search of Green Grass, I thought, right, I'm gonna do another trip. This time to the stands, I'm gonna write another book. That is entirely the wrong reason to do a trip, thinking that you're gonna make a book out of it. And by the time I got to the edge of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, the planets were just not aligning, it just felt wrong. And I began to sort of have the feeling that perhaps people who didn't get on the Titanic had. And I just thought, I'm not meant to do this. So I did a U-turn, I didn't go straight back home, I didn't have a home to go to, it was rented out, so I just meandered my way back through um the rest of Asia and uh Eastern Europe back to the UK, and um and then I thought, actually, you know, I am gonna write about it because a lot of people's trips go wrong, and um, it's okay for them to go wrong, and so I the response to that book was, I'm so glad you said that because I thought I was doing something wrong, but you know, you screwed it up too. Yeah, if there's one thing I'm good at, it's screw the stuff up. So, so this trip, yeah, um, I'd always wanted to go at the stands, I always wanted to ride the Pamir Highway, the old Silk Road. Yeah, and um, I was sounding like the people who used to come to me at shows to buy my book and say, Oh, yep, one day I'm gonna do it. Well, 12 years had passed, and that one day still hadn't happened. Exactly. Um, so it was my girlfriend who said, You better do it. She didn't add before you get any older. She didn't add it.
SPEAKER_01It was implied.
SPEAKER_00So uh so I didn't do a lot of research, and the reason for that is, Ted, um, is slightly because of laziness, but more because I like the surprise, I like the unknown. So, and I knew I was going to be retracing some of my steps uh across Turkey into Georgia. The only way for a British passport holder like myself to get to where I was going, if unless you want to have a guide to hold you by the hand and make sure that you're not doing anything wrong through Turk through um Iran and Turkmenistan, the only way to go independently is up through Russia. So that's what I did um through the Chechnyan part of Russia, which uh when I'd been 13 years ago was just after a war and now was considerably more affluent and and better off. Oh anyway, through Kazakhstan, only to find out a crucial border was closed, and it was crucial. So uh 2,700 kilometre diversion. Oh man. That's a little detour. Even if I'd have known that, I don't see what I could have done. I mean, that was the way it was.
SPEAKER_01So um That's why they call it adventure, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, and the other thing I should probably mention, Ted, Mr. Experienced World Traveller um put on the Horizons Unlimited site not long before I left. Are IDPs still important, international driving permits, or are they like travelers' checks and totally obsolete these days? Right. And the general consensus was no, get one. They cost virtually nothing, and it's good to have that documentation if you need it. Okay, I'll apply for one, it's straightforward enough. It would be if my licence hadn't expired. This was at the end of May, and I realized my licence had expired at the beginning of May the year before.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's the kind of thing you should keep up on, right?
SPEAKER_00Shit. I'd ridden through the States, I'd ridden through London on a dodgy bike, I'd ridden all through Europe, all with an I'd got driving tickets, I'd got pulled by police. No one, including myself, had noticed I'd for over a year I'd been riding with an expired license.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Oh man.
SPEAKER_00Stuck. Um, long story short, because I I have a license to drive a truck, if you want to renew that license, you've got to have a medical, it all takes time. I thought I'll sacrifice my truck driving license. I need a license now, and that took two weeks. So and then I had to apply for the international private permit, which originally provoked this whole situation. Um, so I was about two weeks behind schedule by the time I left. So consequently, everything had got super hot, and I was riding in like 40 degrees Celsius. What's that, like 118 of your of your Fahrenheit? Um super bloody hot. Um, and I also decided um I didn't really want to look like the um, you know, the the climb and the rucker suited adventure biker sort. Did you wear oh did you wear the purple camouflaged pants? I did wear them because I was just wearing them today, Ted. I was just wearing them in town today. But I also decided to wear a leather jacket because my theory is, and my theory was in the 80s when I used to arrive, leather is breathable. Well, not really. Not when it's that hot. I wasn't vestigated. So there I am, later than expected, not necessarily the right uh clothing. And and of course, the other thing on the forums that no one no one can agree in on is hard panias or soft panias. Yeah, and so I had both. And if I use my hard panias, I had more room than I needed. And if I use soft panias, I was they were really packed capacity. So I went for one hard and one soft. Now you did this on the KLR, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Oh, geez.
SPEAKER_01Is this now is this the original KLR or is this a different one?
SPEAKER_00Bits of it are.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty funny. Bits of it.
SPEAKER_00It's um I I really messed it up. After I did a 685 conversion some time ago, I then screwed it up beyond economic repair and I did replace it with another one. But I there are a lot of bits on that from my original KLR, which took me to South Korea and Iraq and other various places. So, yeah, some of the bits are better traveled than others.
SPEAKER_01Now, in your first book, uh In Search of Greenergrass, that was literally about basically just chasing the horizons at the time. Now, this new book is about arrival, not geographically, but internally. Now, when did you when did you first sense that the search itself was no longer the point?
SPEAKER_00Um, well, I think because what I saw out there, and this is ironic considering I used to do uh be an advisor on a travel podcast, is that I seem to be a bit out of touch. And I ride a lot all the time, but to do a trip like that, and I define a big trip, there's many definitions, but my definition is one that needs visas, visas that are a pain in the ass to obtain. And the Russia one particularly was about 15 pages long, and you know, history of your family, and you know how many how many genocides have you been involved in, and all the rest of it. Um, so yeah, so visas that determined the size of this trip, right? And um, but what I found, well, two things I found. Firstly, is that everybody these days, and perhaps this isn't used, majority of people, but everybody points their phone at everything these days, and no one is looking around them.
SPEAKER_01You're not kidding, man. Oh, it's what a major annoyance. I've been to Sturgis twice, and every time I went, even what I mean, yeah, people, some people were looking, but there's a lot of people walking around. That that phone just plastered in their face all the time.
SPEAKER_00And I know we sound like grumpy old men because we remember how it was. I mean, I don't go to live music events anymore because I do not want the glow of someone's phone in my face. Yeah, yeah. Why can't bands say, look, you can film the first song because you're all excited, and you can film the encore because it's going to be the most light. Yeah. But please put it down. Right. And why can't they? I mean, they used to be able to ban cameras, they can ban smoking. Why the hell can't they ban phones at concerts?
SPEAKER_01I agree with you 100%. Absolutely. I I I despise that myself.
SPEAKER_00I suppose my only answer to that must be the bands loved it because they're uploaded to YouTube, they're uploaded to social media sites, and they're getting more publicity. Yeah. And I guess that's their reason not to ban it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_00It stopped me, it stopped me going. I just, or if I do, I have a front row, not front row by the stage, but front of a tier, so that you know there are. You got nobody in front of you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. Exactly. Ah man, I anyway. Anyway, I've gone off.
SPEAKER_00That's okay. I don't mind. Don't mind at all. So anyway, there that there is the planet, a planet of bloody human tripods. Everybody's looking at their phone. And as I get to the greater and more fantastic scenery, the uh Caucas Mountains in Georgia, right? There are parades of tour people with selfie sticks and phones, and nobody's looking around them. Nobody, everybody's filming it, filming landscapes in portrait, and just like zombies. And I just and the more contrarious I am, the more I see that, the more inclined I am to keep my phone in my pocket. Yeah. The more tattooed people that I see, the more I roll my sleeves down. The more long-haired people I see, the more I put my hair in a ponytail. I just don't want to look, be act, associated with the rest.
SPEAKER_01Understood.
SPEAKER_00And I was in this stunning place in Georgia, craggy, jagged, snow-capped mountains, right outside this open-air restaurant. And I'm just sitting on my own eating, watching this, and there must have been an office party or something. All these pretty, well-dressed girls were coming out of the restaurant one at a time with their back to the scenery, taking their selfie for Instagram or whatever. You're not even looking at the scenery. It wasn't about the scenery, it's about you getting your likes for your reassurance, for your influence, for your followers. Anyway, so there I am being a grumpy old man, looking at the world, looking at its screen. And I'm thinking, well, you know, I don't want anything to do with this. I I'd already bought maps. I don't like apps. Um, I don't like Google Maps. I I've as a truck driver for 17 years, I can read a map.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I like to know where I am within the scope of the rest of the country, the rest of the air on the map, whether there's a lake over there I might want to camp by, what the topographic is, is there's some mountains coming. So I navigate by maps anyway, which is significantly harder when I wear glasses, but I'll stick with it.
SPEAKER_01Whatever works for you, man.
SPEAKER_00So that was one thing to answer your question. That was one thing in my quest. The other thing, um, which I'd gone to Kazakhstan and I was outside a little hotel, and there was a bike that was covered up. And it was this Italian bike, it turned out, when he took it off, and I saw the plate. And it was this young stud of a rider. He was all muscular and had a forehead of hair and tanned, and I think he was just shagging his way round Asia. I'm pretty sure he was using Tinder. He was a nice enough guy. Anyway, he was to my mind, he was kind of a mind of information. He knew about all this up-to-date stuff. And this is the irony, considering I used to be an advisor. This is an app, which I'm sure all your listeners will know about, called iOverlander. Yeah. I had never heard of it. Never heard of it.
SPEAKER_01Are you serious? You'd never heard of it. Seriously.
SPEAKER_00No, why would I? You know, I travel independently, I travel solo, and apparently I travel in the past. Um, so he told me about it, and you got it, you get it free for a week. And Ted, I was I was appalled. I was absolutely disgusted. It's an oxymoron, an adventure app. Either you're having an adventure and don't know what's around the corner, or you have an app and know where you're gonna stay, where you're gonna get gas, where you're gonna eat, where you're gonna get mechanics. That's what a fucking adventure. That is a dictation. Yeah. So what I found was, as I travelled on and met people, hang on, as I dropped, as I met people, is everyone, everyone, without exception, was on the iOverlander app. And consequently, if a place was on the app, it was inundated with travelers. And it was just it was a procession, it was a parade of phone-obedent zombies. And um, and back in the day when I used to backpack round India in the 80s and that, I would use a guidebook. And guide is the operative word here because it is a guide. As soon as something is printed, it is dated. And an app, of course, is totally up to date. If a while campsite is like, oh, there's glass there now, or there's or something. People know that instantly. So with a guidebook, you had to have an element of initiative. With this app, you had zero initiative, and right so uh so in the old days with the lonely planet, if uh if a hotel or a guest house was listed as very popular with travellers, right? Okay, I wanted to go in there then. Avoid that, yeah, and um, and that's kind of what I was doing this time. Um, I mean, like I said, I I downloaded, I thought if you really want to hate something properly, you better know what you're hating. So I downloaded it for a week, used it for a week, decided I was appalled at it, and now was appalled with with with experience rather than just generalized. I'm appalled with experience.
SPEAKER_01I like that. There's a t-shirt in there somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Um, so that's how I decided to continue my trip. Um, with uh you know, if someone had said, oh, you know, it's on the app or that going there, I avoided it completely. I went through this okay, this is another under-research thing. In into Jekistan, there's this mountain pass at the top of which is a tunnel. Not unusual. It turns out, as I approached it, um it well, I as I approached there was a camper van in front of me, thank God, because I was able to follow its taillights, because the tunnel was five and a half kilometres long. Woods had no lights, it had no ventilation, and it and there were road works, potholes, and I couldn't see a thing. I I simply couldn't breathe. I was getting asphyxiated. All I had was a bandana across my nose. I remember reading in your listening in your book, and you were talking about how many bandanas you packed, and I was like, now I know why. So um, so I had um, and and I was you get to the point of no return. What am I gonna do here? Right, yeah. I can't hold you know, long since a pearl diver couldn't hold their breath that long, and I'm trying to sort of breathe slowly, and then of course, you're starving yourself a breath, so then you're hyperventilating, shiver breathing, and eventually, and I mean eventually, there was light at the end of the tunnel, and I got out, and I got out, and I metaphorically collapsed on the ground. And this guy was Swiss, I think, got out of his camper van and said, Oh, that just shortened me life expectancy. Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me? Wow, it says, Oh, yes, tunnel of death. I was like, Well, yeah, googled it after tunnel of death.
SPEAKER_01That's that is that's the actual name, tunnel of death.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, people are asphyxiated, people suffocate in there, there are multiple deaths in that in that tunnel. Well, what would I have done if I'd have known? Doubled over my bandana, you know? I the alternative was this huge diversion through Uzbekistan, and Uzbekistan now rates in my own personal chart of number one most dangerous driving ever.
SPEAKER_01No way.
SPEAKER_00So I think I would have opted for the tunnel of asphyxion over the death driven drivers of Uzbekistan. Anyway, that's the kind of the under-researched aspect of my trip. Dealing with what you know some people always say that's stupid, and they'd be very right to say that. But before you say it's stupid, ride in Kazakhstan, ride in Uzbekistan and you see which is the most stupid option.
SPEAKER_01You know, old firefighter trick. If you wet your bandana or uh like a sponge and you breathe through that, it filters out all the toxins and you're breathing fresh air. Right. See?
SPEAKER_00Thanks for looking now.
SPEAKER_01It's a year late, but it's okay. Was there a single moment uh on your trip to Kurdjikistan? I can't even say that. Kur Kurdistan, right? I can't say that Kyrgyzstan. Yeah, I got it. When you realized you weren't uh chasing something anymore and you were basically finding something?
SPEAKER_00Well, I did. I got it was kind of I really feel the trip was serendipitous. Um, I got to a little town in Tajikistan, and when I got there, um there was a traffic jam. Now you don't get traffic jams in Central Asia, you don't get traffic, but all the traffic was backed up. Turned out why the president was coming into this town because I just happened to arrive on national Tajikistan Day. So big celebrations, helicopters, police, president flying in, loads of national dancing people in national costume. Because of that, everybody was congregated there, and so I wasn't really there for that. So I'd left onto a road which was absolutely sparse. I mean, they're sparsely trafficked anyway. This is the old Silk Route. This is a 2,000-year-old trading route called the Silk Route because uh camel caravans would come from China, uh bringing their textiles to the west to sell. And this is what carved this route through the through the Pamia Mountains, and and it it really hasn't changed. So they had a protection racket even then, 2000 years ago, guaranteeing you safe passage with uh a cost involved. So as I started to get out there, you really wouldn't see much, but there were, of course, travelers using it, and you'd see those huge Unimogs, the big four by four big rig things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um much as I'm intrigued by them, I've always found them kind of unapproachable. Uh, because I don't really know what to say to them, and they're up there in their little cab, and when you're down on your bike, there's really a big sort of David and Goliath difference. So I um one of them flashed me. Most unusual. And uh so he stopped. He said, Oh, the road ahead is blocked, so it's uncrossable. I said, How far is about 200 kilometres now on dirt road, 200 kilometres is a day's ride. Yeah, and okay, and I so I asked a few questions, he didn't know much. I carried on because this is my route. This was exactly what the whole point of the journey was. This happened again, another four by four flashed me down. I said, Well, how how long is this crossing? I don't know. Well, how bad is it? I don't know. I saw it on the app, I saw a video. There's news flashing around that there's this. I thought, well, fuck it. I'm I've I've got to go and see. I'm not going to be turned around by hearsay.
SPEAKER_02There you go, right.
SPEAKER_00So, what we've got is the president in town that's taken all the locals, a supposedly uncrossable river that's taken away all the travellers. So I have got the Pamir Highway to myself. Wonderful. And it was wild, just deep canyons, the most outrageous, scary-looking, turbulent river in the bottom of this valley that you wouldn't even dream of white rafting down or anything. It was the most vicious of rivers. And this absolutely barren, inhospitable, deserted terrain, it was stunning. And that was exactly what I went for. Just me and the elements. And I I and this is the thing. Much as I'm down on phones and apps, you can't deny they exist, and you have to some degree do that. So I was just in awe, absolutely felt like I found what I was looking for. No one but me in the whole wide planet. And so, what do you do? I took a selfie.
SPEAKER_01You gotta document it somehow, right?
SPEAKER_00And and in the twisted irony that I have of the book that I'm so down on apps and phones, I made that selfie the cover of the book. Of course. So, anyway, I eventually, and this is a long story short, and it's a long story, it's a long book, but I get to this river, and yes, it is truly uncrossable. Uh, but I reasoned, and this was late in the eve, or you know, late afternoon, early evening now. I thought, well, it's been a hot day, every day was hot. Surely at night it's going to cool down. When it cools down, the snow won't melt, it will reduce the flow. The only thing I don't know is how far the snow is from this bit of river. So I camped right by it. It's like camping next to white noise, it was so loud. And woke up at like four or five in the morning, first light, and sure enough, the level had gone down. And I kept checking, kept checking, and about I thought I'm not going to cross this on my own. You know, there will eventually be another vehicle come. And I'm slowly preparing, walking it back and forth without my boots on, moving rocks, tracking a path, and um eventually by about nine o'clock in the morning, I thought, I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna do it. What's the worst that can happen? I get washed downstring into Afghanistan. Well, yeah, what's the worst that can happen?
SPEAKER_01That's all nothing. Don't worry about it. It's nothing.
SPEAKER_00Um, so anyway, I managed to cross it, which and the thing is, and I I've done this before, and I've seen other people's GoPro stuff on YouTube. You can never capture the the intensity of a river crossing because on the screen it really doesn't come across as being quite as bad as it was when you were behind the bars watching it. So anyway. Plus, I was on the end. So, anyway, that really what it was about, and that was when I kind of knew I'd found what I was looking for. It was just me and my own abilities against the elements and refusing to believe in the hearsay, be frightened by the people who were scared by their app who never tried it. Yeah, and um, and consequently, because of that, because I was defiant, I got what I went for. I got the plant to myself. Um, so fast forward some time, um, Tajikistan had a fuel shortage, a fuel shortage. I was buying fuel in like 10-litre cooking oil containers, uh, not the best quality of octane, um, and eventually had to cross into Kyrgyzstan because there simply was no fuel, and I was running on fumes. And across the border, and so I stopped at this little guest house, and then it became apparent to me this was a guest house that was on the app. And just this influx of cyclists, of four by fours, of camper vans, of motorcyclists, and as soon as they came in, the they went to the the little counter, it was only a little sort of a tiny shack, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi code, and everybody just sat there on their phones, downloading their maps, uploading their Instagrams, doing I don't know what they were doing, and I was just this is what it is, then is it? This no one's talking, no one if no interaction, no nothing. The the the the extent of the human interaction is to ask for the hype Wi-Fi code, and um I just thought, well, I think I think I'm so glad that I traveled at a time when your communication was picked up in a post-restaunt, you know, which you told someone you might be at six weeks before, when there was an element of communication with locals, with other travelers, when there was an element of risk of unknown. And I just thought, much like the concerts, I think I've seen this at its best, and I don't think I want to see it anymore. Oh man.
SPEAKER_01You know, many years ago, um way back before the internet was something, uh, a friend of mine at the time had said that he worked for ATT. And he said, There is going to come a day very soon where there is not going to be a place on this planet where you can't get in touch with anybody. You know, and yeah, man. And when you when you were out there, did you stop and listen to the silence?
SPEAKER_00Exactly that, because I love that. Isn't that wonderful? It is, and that's when you realize how bad your tinnitus is.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, yeah, you're you're you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00No, it is such a loud, it is such a loud thing. You hear, you can hear the blood in the vessels in your ears. You hear so much. It is it. I mean, it's kind of a cliche to say the loudest silence, but it really is because we always have something. There is always something, whether it's a plane flying over, there's always something. And it was, as you say, utter, utter silence. I love that. You very quickly waken this dormant instinct. You hear the rustling of little wild animals, you you get to feel the clouds and the weather patterns, you get to smell what's happening. You it's amazing how quick, when you're out there, you this sort of survival instinct kicks in, this awareness that we are sterilized out of our society, and we really don't feel because there is so much stimulation around us everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Did you did you feel the moment like you're out there and you just feel like okay, I can live right here?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. Yeah. Yeah. I do I've got about three days worth of salami with me. The salami, that's right. Um so yeah, I really think I still think I could. I mean, I'm quite lucky living here in Bulgaria, one of these uh pop Europe's least populated countries, and I can get right out there, not to the extent of of the Pamia Highway, but I can go off on my bike and within well, I just went today and and and find where I can just see fields and mountains for 360 degrees. Yeah, and uh really that's what I yearn for, that's what my soul yearns for. That's where I feel happiest is just listening to the birds song, listening to the crickets, the cicadas, the the wind. I think I was meant to be born in a wild, wild east or something, not in bloody Essex, England.
SPEAKER_01I totally get it, dude. For me, I have to go a few hours to get that, to get that quiet. And even then, uh you're bound to hear another vehicle or a plane flying overhead or some noise from somewhere. You know, there's that that peace is I think the closest I came when I rode to Sturgis in 2023 in the middle of the sand hills out in Nebraska, and I was the only one on the road that I could see from forward and backward, and I had to stop and take a picture of it because that's like our hero silence, but I gotta get the camera out. I've got to take a picture of it. So I I read your well, I'm sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say, I remember riding through Idaho once. I was riding north, I was going towards Canada, riding through Idaho, and I was with two other two friends, and they were both riding behind me, and there was zero turbulence on the road. I was it was like an air tunnel, you know. It was just like as I was piercing my way through this perfect, untulent atmosphere that I couldn't see, and then one of them overtook me, and then I'm getting all buffeted. It was a wonderful experience prior to that.
SPEAKER_01Nini ruined it. Uh, and I read your synopsis. Now, in there, you uh had this beautiful distinction uh of uh happiness on a sunny day and contentment and uh is a rainbow. Right? How did that metaphor uh come out to you during this trip?
SPEAKER_00I think because you know I love my early mornings. I love to wild camp, get up at dawn. I mean, exactly this time last year. I was on the road for the summer solstice and what have you. And uh, so you can't sleep past four o'clock in the tent, you know, it's already light, especially if you wild camp, you want to get out and out the way. And the mornings for me were absolutely the perfect time. It was still cool, you're fresh from a night's sleep, you're wondering where you might stop and eat. And so that was happiness. That's me getting up in the morning, packing up the tent, knowing I'd got away with a wild camp, riding down a road I'd never been before. That was happiness. Me, self-contained, on the road, always solo, always unsupported. Contentment is when I came to those sites that I described earlier, and you feel it. And and if there's any frustration at all, it is how can I put this into words? Because it really is a feeling, and it's a unique feeling. If that's what you yearn for, if it's if it's tranquility, open space, pure nature, if that's what your soul yearns for, then when it comes, it's not directed on a map, not on an app, not a suggestion, not on a tour guide. It's just something that when it occurs, round that next corner, you feel it. Yeah, and you just have to stop and and just let it fulfill you. That's contentment.
SPEAKER_01Oh now the happiness and contentment. Uh now you got the solitude of all these landscapes you're in. Did that help you understand the difference between the two?
SPEAKER_00Um I think I suppose insofar as as the solitude continues, as the as this untouched terrain continues, when you do the the the the little settlements um are very small, and they're not an assault on the senses, right? Other than the fact that they don't have trash collection, so they tend to burn all their rubbish. That's a bit of an assault on the on the sense. But it's not like you're suddenly going into golden arches and traffic lights and stuff. So it's a slow, gradual transition. That's okay. And then you do inevitably find yourself coming into a even a signpost, a poster on the side of the road, it feels like graffiti. It is so shocking to see this human, disgusting thing on the side of the road advertising a guest house, I don't know, a drink, a gas station that's going to be 50 kilometers away. It's it's obscene, it really attacks things, and I think that's then in retrospect, you know, that was contentment back there. Now I'm coming back into my more usual reality.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, billboards for me are I think the most disruptive thing to scenery.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01I mean, here in the US, you can't go on any interstate and not see dozens of billboards a lot, just ruining the view everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's that's my distaste with uh long distance travel on interstates, but that's what I do, fortunately.
SPEAKER_00I remember cycling through India and I'd come up from the south through Kerala, and there were billboards, of course, but it was all written in Hindi and couldn't read any of it. And as I cycled north and I got to Goa, which is an ex-Portuguese colony and also a very popular tourist place, all the billboards are in English for things like Johnny Walker whiskey and various other things, and I could read them. So I'm at a cycling pace, and so I'm reading them because I can read them because you know I understand the language. And then I read them again because I'm cycling and I still haven't passed them, and then I read them a third time, and that was so annoying.
SPEAKER_01You told we talked earlier, you mentioned about you know people telling you not to go this way because the road's blocked and stuff like that. It's that, you know, uh your warnings and your trusting your instinct and stuff like that. Uh, did any of those decisions to just teach you anything about fear, intuition, uh, or maybe just following your obsession with just going forward?
SPEAKER_00I think again, when you aren't distracted by all the other stuff that we have ongoing on around us, yeah, it doesn't take long for some kind of second sight to kick in. And you do kind of know to some degree if what ahead is going to be troublesome is gonna cause you problems. Not totally, I mean, you don't have a crystal ball. If I had, I wouldn't have been pulled by corrupt cops in Ketchnya and robbed of $200. But so I wasn't that able to see what was ahead of me. But in general, I think, and and I perhaps this is exclusively something for people who travel solo. Yeah, because as soon as you're with someone, inevitably when you stop, you take off your lid and you talk about what just occurred, what you just saw, thoughts, or whatever. I don't have that distraction, you know, traveling alone. I you know, I it's so uh again. I do you know, this even used to happen to me as a truck driver. Again, undistracted in a cab. You would just sense things somehow. You'd have you'd just be more aware. So um, and I thought I mean that's how the human being survived back in the day was to have that.
SPEAKER_01And they didn't have the tunnel of death to deal with. No, no, uh, now uh let's go over your books in search of green grass, the eureka, near Varna, different natures, not working, second world problems, and the whole I should have trilogy, and now your tenth book. Okay, yeah. How has your um your voice changed across all of these works?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's a good question. I suppose it has changed because um because don't say you're older.
SPEAKER_01Don't say you're older.
SPEAKER_00You have to no, it's changed because the world has changed. My copy editor is constantly picking me up. You can't say that anymore. That's offensive. Really? I can't say that, and um the the I'm always and I'm not out to be offensive, I'm not out to be sexist, racist, or anything like that, but apparently I say things which are now frowned upon. And I don't know about you, but I okay, here's an example. I recently listened to Steven Tyler's uh autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? And I think that was written about 12 years ago, something like that. And it's one of the I've listened and read hundreds and hundreds of celebrity and rock star autobiographies, and I would rate that in my top five. It was fantastic. He does this hour by hour through the day what it's like to be a rock star. Well, you probably know this test.
SPEAKER_02I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00But it just makes you think, actually, God, I don't want that life. You think of the girls, the drugs, the rock and roll, the fandom, the money, and he paints such a different picture. Yeah. And you think, oh god, you know, maybe I don't want that. Anyway, the point was that's not a very old book, but the stuff he says, you realize how incredibly woke everything is now. It's like, she, you can't say that. You can't say that anymore. That's offensive. That's or people will be offended by it. You find yourself picking it up like you know, like a sensor. So and you know, all these books they are of their age. As I was saying earlier with guidebooks, the second they're printed, they're dated. And so to how my voices change, my voice has changed with what can and can't be said anymore. And um, for example, I was passing trucks in Kazakhstan which were had the 100-meter-long sails which they put on the wind farms, these huge extended trailers with and they were they were 100 meters long, incredible things. And the the tip of this long sail would hang, I don't know, 50 foot, maybe more, off the back of the telescopic trailer, and it would have streamers taped on it. They'd travel in convoy with with um you know warning cars at the beginning of the end. And the back of these of these tips, these sails, would flex with the road as it was going. And I was trying I needed to, you you can't move your hand up and down, you know, in a book. I needed to, what else flexes like that? I was trying to think of something else that flexed like that. And all I could think of was a diving bald when a fatty jumps off of it. All right, that's fine. Can't say that, can't say that, can't say fatty anymore. So then I say I say, okay, well, a ruler when you flick a rubber off of it. Now that won't work because rubber England is an eraser, and it's not what they're thinking in America. So I had to leave, I just left that analogy in the end. So I suppose my voice has changed because I have to be a little bit more careful what I say, because so many people now are quick to say that was offensive, you're racist, you're sexist, whatever, you're not misogynist. You can't people frown on it if you say pretty girls now. I go, Oh, yeah, that it was a wonderful town, all the girls are so pretty. You can't say that. What do I have to say then? You know, I'm just trying, they were pretty.
SPEAKER_01You know, I like what Ricky Gervais said. Uh, if you're offended, fine, be f be offended. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah, here's my ammunition for you. Fire away. Exactly. So uh I'm sorry, mate. No, go on, go on.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was gonna say now, because uh your your voice has changed through the books, now what does this say about your final book that the early ones don't?
SPEAKER_00I'm trying not to be cynical, it's almost a hard reaction at this age to it's a defense mechanism. If you don't like it, you're cynical about it. Um, which is why I did download this uh eye overlander app, just so I wasn't just down on it for the sake of being down on it, you know. Um, so and I try not to let that creep in. Um, because no one wants to hear it, they'll hear it anywhere they go, in the pub, the taxi driver, whatever. Anybody everybody's moaning. There's no talent in moaning. Um, and I I read a thing recently that said, Whatever you do daily, you get better at. So if your default mode is to moan about shit, then you're gonna get really good at it. So the I do not, I will rant, I will definitely rant, I'm not don't deny it, but I will find positives where I can. And that ultimately is what I found. I rode through some very controversial places, a lot of Islamic places, um, through Russia, on the edge of uh on the edge of uh Afghanistan, places with names, uh Chechnya as well, that conjure up negative images, negative headlines. And again, as a solo traveller, you're not a threat to anybody. And with your helmet flipped up, with your bandana pulled down, with a smile on your face, it's reflected. You get such a good reaction. And I met the loveliest people, and I think we are we are generally almost brainwashed to believe that anybody who isn't like us is an enemy, is is a problem, and it ain't like that. I was in this in this city called Grozny in Russia, a very big Muslim city, beautiful city of neon and glass and steel, and I was in this outside restaurant, a huge storm blew in, and um I literally got soaked to the skin uh walking back to my hotel, and I'd had my bike covered. And it was I say hotel, it was just a couple of rooms and this reception downstairs. And when I got there, this older Muslim woman who was behind reception was expointed to me that the wind had got under my bike cover, blown my bike over. And her and her friend who was in the bakery, the pair of them lifted it up. I mean, just a couple of frail Muslim women lifted up my bike for me. She showed me where it could be put under cover, um, in open up a shutter door, push it inside, and then because I was, I was just dripping, I couldn't have been any wetter if I'd have jumped in a river. She offered to put my clothes in a dryer and dry it. This is the kind of hospitality and trust and goodwill that you get from these people. They're they're dressed different to us, they look different to us, but the traits of these people are always, nearly always, without exception, just wonderful people. And it's so reassuring when you travel the planet to places with names that conjure up negative thoughts to find that we're just we're all the same, Ted. We really are, and uh, it's very reassuring. It gives me hope for the human race.
SPEAKER_01Hope is what we need, definitely. Uh, so let's talk about the KLR for a moment. Now, the 25-year-old bike, right? Right. Yeah, so here you're riding it from Bulgaria to Kirk Kurdikistan and back. Uh the age of the bike, little quirks, some limitations here and there. Did that help shape the emotional tone of the trip?
SPEAKER_00Um, well, I know it very well. I put on a 14-2 sprocket at the front because I figured there'd be a lot of off-road. I wasn't in a hurry, I wanted it geared down. I suppose it probably worked for me, but my god, it was slow. Really, anything over 50 miles an hour was, you know, the engine wasn't liking it. Now, I'll I'm gonna put on my KLR Anorak now. And if you're not a KLR fan, this is gonna bore the ass off you, but it's really quite interesting. Um, the US model of the KLR has a temperature gauge, but the UK version doesn't. It just has a little red light that comes on when the engine overheats. And the reason you know that red light works is because every time you turn on the ignition with the bike in neutral, the red temperature light comes on with the neutral light, so you know the red light works. Second you put it into gear, the temperature light goes out along with the neutral light. I have never, I've owned seven KLRs, I've ridden over quite a lot of the planet, I've uncalculable miles, all sorts of terrain. I have never seen that red heating light go on without the neutral light. I've never seen it come on on its own, never been that hot, and I have been hot. Now I was in Shimkent in uh in Kazakhstan, and there it was hot, it was 40 degrees, over 40 degrees, and there is this a long um long hill, this long slow gradient, and the truth's killing the trucks, and they're stalling, they're dying on the highway, and I'm thinking to myself, man, I'm glad I'm just a little light load, and then my bike starts missing. Oh, and uh, okay, it's too hot. I pulled up, there was no shade. There's this adequate little sparse tree with no leaves on it, and I'm trying to stand under there, just letting the bike cool down. It's not going to cool down, it's 43. I'm watching my temperature gauge, it's 43, it's 45. So double it and add 30. That's 120, you know, in Fahrenheit. Yeah, and um, and then I managed to get into Shimkent at five o'clock on a Friday afternoon. It was a gridlock, and my bike is just frying between my legs. There is heat radiating off the road, radiating off the buildings, radiating off all the cars, coming up from my engine, um, and just sweltering. It is a furnace, absolutely atomic, and for the first time ever, my red light comes on without the neutral light.
SPEAKER_02Oh man.
SPEAKER_01See, that and when when that happens right away, they're okay. Now I now I got a problem now, right? Yeah. So what are you doing? You just like sit there, you just sit there and wait for it to cool down, right? That's what you do. That's all you can do, yeah. Short of going.
SPEAKER_02Stop blowing on it, right?
SPEAKER_00You don't have like an external fan on it. I have the fan um that's on the radiator, um, which was blowing like crazy, but that's the only fan I have, you know. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, and a few on Facebook, but they didn't help. I got these, I got these fans on my bike called, they're called love jugs. And there's these two little fans, literally about the size of my hands, like this, and it mounts to the horn, and it each fan is a high velocity and it blows on the each cylinder head. Wow. And it works great, but the problem is it blows the heat over to the right hand side and bakes your leg on the right hand.
SPEAKER_00That's right, and you've got your exhaust there anyway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so yeah, you're you're gonna be hot no matter what. Uh do you think that if you had a newer bike, it would have maybe robbed you of any of those moments that you were searching for?
SPEAKER_00Um possibly. I mean, my first KLR had such huge sentimental value, and it was originally bought, it cost me about a thousand dollars, and it was originally bought because even then in 2010, I knew not what I was going into. Yeah, and I thought if it all gets beyond me, if I break a leg or it's just beyond my ability, I can afford to walk away from it. It doesn't owe me, it's not a 13-15 grand bike, right? And the irony was that my it became my travel companion, and the sentimental value was so great that I would have done anything to rescue it from any other situation from any situation.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I I'm less sentimental now. This one isn't the original, it's still got some of the parts on it. So um, it wasn't all much as I'll I'll pat it at the end of every day, and you know, I I do love it, it is my travel companion, wasn't quite such a strong love. Um, now I've got a 2022 Triumph Scrambler. Yeah, it's it's a computer on wheels, it's got a keyless ignition, it's got traction control, it's got all this stuff. Love it as I do, I wouldn't take it out of Western Europe or I wouldn't take it out of Europe. Oh no, because something goes wrong. What the hell? I don't need the uh a spanner, I need a fault diagnosis system, and I that would be the adventure right there, would be trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with it and how I'm going to repair it. Right. The KLR is so simple, it's a carburetor, it's a single cylinder, and it's I've it it's you you it's it's not indestructible because I've fucked one up beyond repair, but it's pretty much bomb proof.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, it's the difference between analog and digital.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_01That's it. And us old farts like us, we know that analog is so much better in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00There's a book bit in the book saying where do you draw the line? You know, points and condensers, lick uh kick start. At what point do you want to accept technology? Yeah, I like a button to press, yeah, I like electronic ignition, points that don't click me cleanly, but I don't need traction control, I don't need um of ABS and stuff like that, you know. Um I'm happy, I know it. It's and also I'm not in a hurry. I don't, I'm not out to break any records.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like it they're they're a nicety, they're not a necessity. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you described looking for something, would you write, uh wild, pure, and real, right? Something that can't be booked, uh bought, or algorithmically recommended, I think. What does untouched mean to you now?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's definitely not me. I'm well worn out. What does it mean to me now? Well, it is still that, and as I say, in Bulgaria, there are still places I can do a three-hour ride, and there's this bit I love where it's a hilly little community, and there's a rocky road, and at the end is this cliff face, and para centres jump off of it. Um, but after all the paracenders have gone home, or jumped off of it more accurately, um, you have it to yourself. And because the the land drops away, it faces east, and you can I've camped there many times, and you can watch the sunrise out of the distant horizon down below you, and you can look down on the sunrise. Wow, and yeah, that is that is one of those things that is sort of untouchable, which is which is still something that that can't be, isn't it has isn't on the tourist map, isn't part of a parade, isn't uh you know, it isn't like you know, watch the sunset on the pyramids or the sunrise over the Taj Mahal. It's just something personal and special, and and I'm not gonna tell you the village it happens at.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Um how did all that change how you view the world we live in now?
SPEAKER_00Well, I suppose I was reassured that generally people are still good. Yeah, I was somewhat disappointed at the way people travel. They the younger ones, I mean it's great people are getting out there because travel broadens the mind. Right. It stops bigotry, bigotry, it stops racism. It's good that people are getting out there. I don't really know what they're seeing. I don't know if they're seeing it, and I don't know if they know any different. And you know, like someone telling you, oh well, when I was at school, we had ink wells and we had to quill or something, you know. And I'm sort of saying, well, when I used to travel, we just had a rough guide book, and I don't think they want to hear it. They don't, it's like, you're right, granddad, whatever, you know, my app's telling me to go here where I can get a burger. So I don't think they know any different, but I really feel they're missing out massively. And I also feel they're traveling for the wrong reasons. It seems everybody's doing it for likes, for influence, for validation. And again, I'm walk on the on the line of hypocrisy there because I write books for informing and for entertaining, and to sell books, you need to have a following, you need to have some influence. So I realize I'm screaming hypocrite, but at the same time, I do feel like I'm seeing something real and not just following a crowd, and that's what I hope I'm able to relay, and which is hopefully a slightly different aspect of travel to what it appears to me travel has become now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But you said in uh the reward was uh not a photo or a post, but it was awe during this traveling. Can you describe any one moment? Maybe you already have, but was there one moment where you re reached that that awe moment?
SPEAKER_00There were a few, and and there was one bit where I was heading north out to Jekistan, and again, landscape still wow. There was huge lakes, but mostly dry lakes, and and just an unfathomably vast view, uncalculable miles to this range in the far distance, and I could see a lake shimmering, all around me are mountains, and I just pulled off the road. What road there is, I say a road, you know, it's just a track. Pulled off of there, pulled out onto this flat terrain, parked the bike, and then just decided to walk away from the bike. I don't even want to hear it click as it cools down. Yeah, and and again, you know, nothing around you. That is all, and it's also it feels unnatural. This is my my bike, it's my life support system, it's my way out of here. And leaving everything on it passport, money, food, keys in the ignition, I just walked away from it because there is nothing around, or I like to think there was nothing around someone hiding behind a rock with a spare crash helmet. Um but I uh two and and that. So I got that time after time on that trip. I found what I was looking for. Yeah, and when it did end, as I said, you go into smaller villages, you start coming into civilization, and there were little tours you could see to go see Marco Polo sheep or various stuff. And I just thought, I don't want to do that. I've done my thing, I've found what I was looking for. The last thing I want now is to be cooped up in someone else's car, away from my bike, to be pointed through a window and say, This is you know, some site. No, the sites I want to see are the ones I come across.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_00And not with expectations, and and that sort of goes back to the not researched. I don't have expectations because I didn't know where I was going.
SPEAKER_01That now that what you just described, is that that picture that you posted with your blog uh with the uh synopsis where you're standing in there with your arms open wide and you got the mountains behind you. Is that that's that that moment?
SPEAKER_00Doing my Jesus Christ pose, yeah. I was, and it was it does seem a bit pretentious, but it was genuine at the time because it was there was no one else around. I I put my my my phone on a on a rock and took a wide-angled self. And it didn't, I didn't know I was gonna do that. I stood back, I had like a 10-second timer, and it just felt right to put out my arms, which I can't do in this recording, and um, and just I just put my head back. It just felt at the time that was the that was what the environment bought out in me. I see now it can look like pretentious bollocks, but at the time it was really quite real.
SPEAKER_01I don't think so because I know exactly what you're talking about. Uh did that that that moment that did that silence that lifelong urge to keep searching?
SPEAKER_00To a degree, because the other thing is there are certain places I've been to in my travels which I will never go back to.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Because I they were so good, they were so perfect, and I know I could never replicate that. I I would have expectations and I will be disappointed. So uh and I won't do the I will not do the Pamir Highway again. Uh I loved it, I love it dearly, but it's it's in again I sound pretentious, but now it's in here. I've got it, I'm I've got it with me, and I won't go there again. There's other places I haven't been there. But did you see it? But did you see it all? I it's it's not that long. I I don't know if I saw it all because I don't know what I didn't see. Yeah, but um that there's another thing called the Bar Tang Valley, which I didn't go to. Yes, I've heard of that. I have right. Well, I was too late in the year um because of the whole licence thing, and by then the snow melts have made rivers sort of rumoured to be uncrossable. And again, as a solo traveller, you have to have an element of self-preservation. I don't want to get myself in a situation where I'm trapped between two rivers. Um so uh so there were places I didn't see. I might, I could, you know, if I and I have enthused about this so much in my book to my family, to friends, anybody who listens, and I could, you know, in a camper van or something, take my girls and we could go to the Bar Tang Valley. But I think I might be enthusiasm so much, I'd be setting them up for disappointment. And and if there was disappointment, I'd be disappointed, and the whole thing was vacation from hell.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I was uh meant to uh you ever been to Moab, Utah? Yeah, yeah. See, now I went to Moab, Utah the first time in 2011, and it just blew me away. It's like I that's where I wanted to be. I went back in 2017 with my wife to try to, you know, so and her expectation was like, yeah, it's nice. I was like, no, what do you mean just nice? You know, right? No, it's awesome. So, but I totally get that.
unknownYou know.
SPEAKER_01Um you said that uh in your in your synopsis that you no longer need another horizon border or journey, right? Does this book for you, your tenth book, represent closure? Or is it the beginning of something different?
SPEAKER_00I it does represent closure, I think. Um there are still places that intrigue me, and I'm not saying I won't travel completely. Um, I met an Italian guy, uh, which who uh not the not the pimp, a different guy, and who who absolutely now he left me in awe. There is this road that's called the BAM, the BAM. It's the Baikal and something, I've forgotten what it stands for. Point is it runs across Russia all the way to Magadan. Magadan's quite a well-hyped town in the far east of Russia, which a lot of adventure bikers like to go to. Originally, Charlie and Ewan did it in the very first, the long way around, they took the road of bones. And so he said, in his broken English, he said, uh, I'm I'm gonna ride the BAM. And I said, the Trans-Siberian? No, the BAM. What the Road of Bones? No, the BAM. Okay, I'd better get on Google. Now, yeah, they built the Russians built this railway line that would get because it eastern Russia is full of natural minerals, and they built a railway line which would bring all these natural minerals from the wild far, far east of uninhabited Russia into, you know, to the sort of the western side. Uh, the building of this railway resulted in little towns that were where people would, you know, get their supplies and ended up living these tiny remote uh towns that only get their supplies via the railway. And he was riding this on his own. And he was a very good rider. And he didn't have a satellite phone, he didn't do social media, didn't have a blog, he was doing it for him. And he was hardcore. And he was about five years younger than me. He was he'd been everywhere. Wherever I'd been, he'd been further. He wasn't bragging. If I've gone from Alaska down to uh Guatemala, he's been all the way down to Terra de Fuego, you know. Um what we we've out we put out we've we've traveled quite a lot. I thought when I said goodbye to him, I thought, I'll never see you again, mate. You're never gonna make it. And I was wrong. He occasionally, when he did get um reception, would send me a little WhatsApp message, and he did it. He got all the way to Magadan, he fell off twice. Didn't I do that in a day? He he dropped it once, he had to cross uh a river. The only way to cross it was on the railway, and he was on the railway and he dropped the bike, got trapped underneath it, but knew he had to get up because the trains are really quite frequent. So he kicked the bike into the river to avoid a train and then jumped off into the river to retrieve his bike. That was one of the times he fell off.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Another time was um he was another huge river crossing, and there were these big six by six Russian uh uni mod vehicles for logging and stuff, and they let them put his bike on the back of that. They got across the river, but it's it's like a meter and a half off the ground. Yeah, the other side there was no bank or anything. So with a I don't know, along the bed, he's a maximum of 15 foot with a 15-foot runoff. He jumped off the back of the truck on his bike, just hit the road and carried off. So hardcore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's hardcore, all right.
SPEAKER_00And you know, so there, you know, my book is called Extremes Beyond the Screen, meaning having some extremes beyond the screen on your phone. His extremes were absolutely beyond my ability, absolutely in a different league, and utter, utter authenticity because he was doing it only for him. No sponsorship, no social media, nothing. I thought, wow, that was so enlightening to meet someone like that. We both were sort of disappointed at the way the world had been, but at the same time reassured that I was reassured that there's people like him, and apparently he was reassured that there's people like me. So uh yeah, that was a wonderful that was a wonderful meeting.
SPEAKER_01Wow. You know, and what do you hope readers will uh get from the book? And do you hope that they'll start searching for in their own lives uh after reading it?
SPEAKER_00I hope it inspires a little bit of initiative to not follow, not and and it's again it's an element of hypocrisy, you know. I don't want to be an influencer or even a de-influencer, I just hope they consider what they want, not the influencer with the most likes, the most sales, the most following, but really think what their soul yearns for and trust that they can find it. Because you can. And I know if it inspires, if that's the message in the book, if that's the message people get, between the rants, between the disappointments, between the near-death experiences, I really and also between the telling that the people of this planet are not all bad and not all evil. If it inspires people to actually search within and then go and search outside to try and fulfill what they really want, right? That would be a wonderful result if that were to be the what happens to people who read the book.
SPEAKER_01All right. Uh, do you uh feel the need now to go out and do anything else like for yourself again? Another ride? Um, well, I maybe well you're a writer, so that's something it's in your blood.
SPEAKER_00I've got two more books that I want to write. Um there's no shortage of material. I've got I've got more material than life expectancy, so I certainly don't need to ride for that reason. Right. And there are a couple of well, when I say there's one place on the planet that I really want to see, and I'm not gonna say, and that is probably something that might inspire me to take off again. But right now that's not because I'm aware that I can find a level of tranquility that is acceptable in this country where I live, I think I ought to focus my attentions closer to home to find my little my little shack with my big shed and my massive view and my solitude. Because I think really that would that right now that would work for me. In actual fact, this morning, the reason I was wearing my purple combat and on my bike was I was off to see someone who was selling an off-grid solar system. And so I guess I am working towards that because that was um something I was thinking about.
SPEAKER_01Now, ordinarily, at this point during any of the interviews I've done, I'll ask my guests, okay, what's next for them? Uh does that question have a purpose in your case here, or should I even ask that?
SPEAKER_00Well, okay, what's next immediately? Um, as we're sitting here looking at each other in front of microphones.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, my last book, Second World Problems, I re I recorded the whole book for an audiobook and the quality was substandard. It just wasn't usable. Ah, long story, very long story. I won't bore you with it. But you know, if I get one story star reviews, it's got to be because of content, not because of quality, because I can do something about the quality. Um, so consequently, I'm an audiobook behind, and right now I'm sitting here, I can't show you this, but this is my script.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I am now reading the new book, Extremes Beyond the Screen, um, into the mic and doing the audiobook. So I'm two audiobooks behind. And this studio was homemade. I've got a pretty good mic, I've got the pop filter, I've got a good audio interface, I've got a good door. Okay, but I I've just been plagued by stupid ass little problems. I've recorded eight audiobooks. Never in the past have I had issues. Lately I have. I've replaced a lot of parts, taken so much advice, and if this doesn't work, I'm just gonna have to hire a studio and go to a professional studio and do it there. Because um the audiobooks are the most lucrative thing, uh, far more than the paperbacks and the Kindles, and I've gotta get them done. So I am now two audiobooks behind. So when you say what's next for me is to get these two audiobooks recorded. Uh the the the great thing about having my little booth, my recording booth here, is I can be as animated as I want. There's not an engineer behind the glass, and I can giggle, and sometimes I even have a drink, and I can really I'm telling a story. I'm not reading a script, I'm telling a story, and and nobody's there to frown or pull me up. And I feel it and I can hear it. The second I'm in a proper studio, firstly the clock is ticking, the engineer wants to go home, and I'm under pressure, and the more pressure I'm under, the more I'll screw up. And uh, and also, you know, for example, second world problems about Bulgaria, all of a sudden I find I'm trying to do an impression of a Bulgarian girl. I was like, hang on a minute, I've got one just there. So come in the studio, read this. So you get all this talent come in. Yeah, you read these little parts, and I know myself, when I'm listening to an audiobook, if all of a sudden there's a different voice, it jolts you, it shakes you, you know. Oh, what's this? You know, a different narrator.
SPEAKER_01I'd never thought of that.
SPEAKER_00So I will persevere to get these two books recorded. Um, and that is huge. This has been prying on my mind for so long, and uh, I've got to get this done. So that's what's next for me is to get these two books uh up and done as audio books.
SPEAKER_01So I was gonna ask you again if you've asked that same question of yourself, what's next for me? But I think we already know that answer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that, and then find a place in the middle of nowhere where I can sit and be a nomadic retired road warrior on the edge of time.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. I love that. Uh you do that every morning though, from basically from what I've seen on some of your posts. You sit out there on your little deck and watch the uh sun come up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do. I did. I have it's it's not enough. I it's it's we had some uh I had some friends from England this time last week came and visited. They're in Bulgaria looking for a place to live, read the books, thinking, Oh, yeah, I think I want to live in Bulgaria. And uh yeah, they come here and say, Oh my god, look at this view, listen to this quiet. It's like, well, no, because there's dogs barking and there's motorcycles reving, and it's not enough. It's it's for them, it's incredible. For me, it's like, no, it's too noisy.
SPEAKER_01Uh how can people learn more about Graham Field and your books?
SPEAKER_00Uh well, my website is getting quite extensive now. There's um, apart from synopsis of all the books uh in the shop page, there's a bunch of different blogs. There's also an option to sign up. I do sporadic newsletters, sometimes videos uploaded on YouTube. Very spontaneous. The absolute antithesis to what the books are. The books are so carefully crafted and gone through. The videos are absolutely spontaneous. I'm in the shed, I think I've got something to say. I say it, and the next morning I decide if I'm gonna post it or not. And generally it gets an okay response. So I really, you know, if you really haven't had enough of my voice yet, that's a that's a place to find out more about me. There is, I offer free shipping in the UK. Shipping is very expensive for books. Yeah, but what I do is if you order over 40 pounds worth of merchandise, which is what three books, the postage is free, even to the States, even to Australia, free postage. So it's what I try and do as an incentive to, you know, you buy a bit more and I'll give you a break. I'll take the hit on the postage. So, but you'll see all that on the website.
SPEAKER_01So that's it. It's uh gramfield.co.uk. Yeah, dot co.uk. Of course you're on, you know, you I'll I'll put all the links in the in the show notes, but you're also on Facebook, apparently Twitter also, X. Oh god, they're once every three years and Instagram and of course YouTube. I I recommend the YouTube channel highly. So I'll put the links in there. But before we say goodbye, I'm gonna ask you 10 rapid fire questions. Okay, this is this is the thing I do now. All right. So if you're ready, here we go. All right, number one, what's the one item you always pack but rarely use?
SPEAKER_00Um an SLR camera.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really? I thought you always had one with you. Uh number two, the best sound in the world from inside your helmet. Don't say tinnitus.
SPEAKER_00Uh oh god, Ted. It's tricky.
SPEAKER_01You mean uh of an actual sound or just you're inside your helmet. You got your inside your helmet.
SPEAKER_00What's the best sound in the world from the best sound inside my helmet is when I'm singing the guitar solo of comfortably numb.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's funny you should say that because I was listening to uh animals uh the other day, and the guitar solo in I think it's pigs.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01I said, I gotta learn that. And I started playing my guitar job trying to figure out how to play this. So that's my ringtone, actually.
SPEAKER_00That works.
SPEAKER_01No, uh, is that dogs or is that pigs? I can't remember now. I'm not getting your version of it. I know it's not working. You'll listen to it and you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Number three, border crossing you'll never forget.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I just had one earlier on this month. I just went from Montenegro into Bosnia, tiny border crossing on the edge of a canyon. No one in front of me, stamped straight out of Montenegro, across a wooden bridge on a river, into Bosnia, stamped straight in. Not another person. It was a three-minute border crossing out of one country into the next. Fantastic. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um, number two.
SPEAKER_00And of course, the bigger the more miracle, the smaller the crowd. No one was there to see it, and if there had been someone there, it wouldn't have been such a quick crossing.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Uh, number four, a border crossing you wish you could forget.
SPEAKER_00Um, well, probably let me think of a bad border crossing. Oh, yeah. Into your native country.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_00I was young and I was stupid, and um it was in Minneapolis, St. Paul, flown in from this from England, and I look like what I was. I was a stupid young drugie, and uh she went through my diary, she read my diary. Really? Yeah, and I'd been doing quite a lot of illegal substances, and uh, so I was interrogated and then I was strip searched, and it was so fucking humiliating. And I just you know, I'll just put me back on the plane, send me home. I don't need to be in your country this badly. So, yeah, that was a pretty horrible thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, holy crap. Um sorry for that. Oh man. Number five. This is gonna be an interesting question for you, I think. Uh, the most honest moment you've ever had with yourself on the road.
SPEAKER_00I went, I was in Belize, and I was looking, um, well, I was looking for a place to stay, and I was in this tiny town, and I went past this bar, and there were all these black dudes hanging out outside, dreadlocks, playing reggae, and they're kind of waving me to come in. But a wave, when we're trying to wave someone to come in, our hand is up and our fingers are towards us, their wave, their hand is down, and it doesn't look encouraging. Anyway, I went, I found myself a place to stay, and there was nothing around. I thought, you know what, I'm gonna go back to this bar. I'm not the sort of person who goes into bars on my own, certainly not into bars where I am the only white person in a foreign country that I've only just got in. And I bravely, in my opinion, went to this bar and it was just a shack. There was a big chest freezer with ice in it, and they pulled out a can of beer. That was how it was done. And the guy who was the barman, for want of a better word, there was Bob Marley all over posters everywhere, and green and yellow and red flags and stuff. And and there was one guy, he was white, I think it was Belgium, he worked for Dole Bananas, and um, he befriended me a little bit. He thought he was black, and uh he befriended me a little bit, and I remember the barman suddenly spontaneously deciding to sing some Bob Marley a cappello that um god, I'm not gonna that bit. Oh, pirate ships are winning. I don't know how it goes. Don, you rock my board, and it was just stunning, he was so good. Anyway, I ended up being there, but I bought the first beer I got there. I bought a beer. Everyone, everyone, every other beer was bought for me, and um, and people were friendly, people talked to me. I really pushed myself to go in there, and it was so rewarding. It was it was it was uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was your honest moment.
SPEAKER_00That was an honest moment, yeah. Because I fight my inner instinctive racism that my parents had, which society breeds. Yeah, I pushed it all aside, I went in there and I I got over it. Good.
SPEAKER_01Uh number six. Uh I'm I'm curious to hear the answer to this one. A book of yours that surprised you the most while writing it.
SPEAKER_00I don't know about a book, but sometimes I'll read a passage. I was like, wow, did I write that? That's actually quite good. There's some of those in different natures, definitely. Um, and when I just go off on one, really, and and and I and I'm really just feeling how I felt then. There was a time camping in a cactus desert in Mexico, which is relayed in different natures. And and I think that when you just you're back there, it's you just feel it again, and then it's so easy to write. You're not saying, Oh, the cactuses are about 20 foot tall, and you you're just feeling it. You're just feeling it, and it knows the words that flow. If if it's not forced, if it's you know, I say to people who are who are who write blogs, if they're on the roads, oh god, I've got to do my blog. It's like, look, if it's a chore for you to write, imagine how difficult it is for someone else to read. If it's not flowing, if you've got nothing to say, and I apply this to social media, to YouTube, to dinner table conversations, if I've got nothing to say, I don't say it. Right.
SPEAKER_01Forced conversation is not conversation. Exactly, right? Um, number seven, a place that felt like home even though it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00I suppose I always get that feeling in Colorado. Um, when I go back to Denver, particularly south of Denver, oh, it just feels I've spent all counted probably seven years of my life there over the last 40 years. And it feels I feels comfortable. I can look at places, I know what that store used to be, I know where that shopping, what was there before that shopping mow. I knew that that flyover when it was the traffic lights, and um that always felt that always felt good. It always feels reassuring. When I fly in and I see those Rocky Mountains and I see the Denver skyline, it just feels comfortable.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, I understand, I understand. Uh number eight, the most underrated emotion in travel.
SPEAKER_00I've those mornings, generally mornings, when your tank is full, your tummy's full, you're cool, you washed your clothes perhaps in the sink overnight, and they're all clean, and the engine's running well because the air is cool around it, you're fresh, you're well rested from a good night's sleep, you're ready for the day ahead. What the road will bring. You're not actually needing anything right now. There's nothing niggling in your helmet. That's a that's a lovely feeling to start a day with. Yeah, I can agree.
SPEAKER_01I can agree with that 100%. Absolutely. Uh, number nine, the best advice you ignored.
SPEAKER_00The best advice I ignored. Um okay. Well, did anyone tell me this? Yes, yes, okay. The best advice I ignored was in Russia on the road, when they have a solid white line down the middle, you do not cross it, not for any reason at all. Because the penalty is impoundment of vehicle, suspension of license, and um disproportionate fine. Do not cross that line. I got caught once, I got fined once, I did it a bloody game. Wow, man.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, that's a little extreme. All right, final number ten. The one word that sums up this final book.
SPEAKER_00Um completion, I suppose. You know, do you know that bit in the spinal tab when they said what do you want on your gravestone? And he says, uh, here lies David St. Hubbins, and why not? He said, what you want? He said, No, he just sprung it on me. I don't know what I'm thinking. That's funny. What sums up the book? There there is an element of completion, of I wouldn't say satisfaction. Just yeah, you know, if you're looking for something, if you're incomplete, if you're yearning for something, perhaps this book was completion. All right, that's perfect.
SPEAKER_01All right, Graham. Listen, thank you very much for spending the time with me. I appreciate it. Don't go anywhere, I want to talk to you when we're done. But uh, thank you very much. It's been wonderful speaking with you again.
SPEAKER_00I've really enjoyed it. I don't know why I keep putting it off.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Graham. We'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_00Cheers. Bye.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for joining me and Graham Field here in VTwin Cafe, where he told us about his brand new book, Extremes Beyond the Screen. Now you can learn more about Graham and get his new book and his other books too by going to Grahamfield.co.uk. I encourage you to check out everything he has. You'll enjoy every book he has, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the new one too. Hey, don't forget to get on over to the Ride with Ted YouTube channel and watch some of the many videos I have there. And if you would please also like and subscribe, that would be a tremendous help to the channel and of course to the podcast. And you can get a copy of my book, The Road Most Traveled, now direct from me on the Motorcycle Man website and save nearly eight dollars. Of course, you can still get it on Amazon and you can also get the audiobook. But if you get it from me, I'll sign it for you. Hey, the Motorcycle Podcasters Challenge kicks off in one week. Registration is now closed. We have uh five full teams and 18 solo riders for the challenge. So check out MotopodChallenge.com. It's in full swing, and uh we're gonna keep the scores going so everybody knows what's going on. It's a lot of fun, kids. Maybe next year y'all can get involved in it. All right. Hey, for the rest of the motorcycle men team, thanks for listening. And remember, we say stupid crap, so we don't have to. Right safely, kids.
