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I’ve been on the road for six months now trying to psych myself up to get this blog up and running. Sometimes it amazes me how difficult it is to do something you actually want to do. I have handwritten dozens of drafts and compiled hundreds of notes, but it feels like the first post has been blocking me from starting. It has loomed over me, taunting me with its apparent ease. It’s never as easy as everyone tells you it will be. So here I am, six months in, finally posting something to get it started and move past that barrier.

I am currently in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, and this location feels especially appropriate for my inaugural post. This is the first place I ever rode a motorcycle overseas. In 2012, a mate and I hired little Honda Cubs here, the most sold vehicle is history. They were simple semi-automatic scooters, perfect for zipping around the countryside. And, also, Joe didn’t have much, maybe any, motorcycling experience! So we found a nice quiet back road and spend an hour doing laps up and down the roadway until he had mastered the basics. Then we headed out to explore the tea plantations, riding the windy mountain roads and exploring the area.

I think this was the first time that my teenage idea of travelling by motorcycle found some real-world, tangible, experience. That sense of freedom, of not being tied to public transport, routes or schedules immediately resonated with our (and especially my) way of travelling. Not to mention the exhilaration of taking curves and mountains passes on two wheels, even with only 50cc to play with. It seems apt then, that I take the time to start this journaling process here. Now.

Since I was 15, I have wanted to ride from Melbourne to London.  It’s only taken me close to twenty years, but here I am, finally, doing it now. I bought my DR650 (Rusty) in 2019 and have spent the last few years setting it up for RTW (Round the World – you’ll need to remember this acronym I’ll be using it a lot) travel.  I will go through some of the set-up and ideas in a later post, but suffice it to say, I got carried away (as I often do).  I finally left Melbourne (after Covid delays) in May 2024 and I have plans to get to Europe around November 2025. I’ll be on the road for about eighteen months. Sleeping will be an adventure that will see me mixing it up between camping, hostels, and hotels. I can’t wait.

The plan was to ride up the East Coast of Australia to Cape York, then across to Darwin. Before you ask, because everyone does, I planned to ship the bike to Dili in Timor-Leste because, as I’ve been told many times and am very aware of, there is a sea between the two. Once there, I planned to island hop across Indonesia to Malaysia. And, spoiler alert, I’ve made it safe and sound. Now that I’m in Malaysia, my plan is to travel through south-east Asia into China. From there, though, I have a decision to make. Do I head west into Nepal and the Stans, or north into Mongolia and then west across the steppes of Siberia.

I don’t know what the future will hold. All I know right now, is that it’s finally happening. I’m realising that teenage dream of mine. A lifetime of preparation and I am so excited to finally be crossing the world on a motorbike of my own. I have already seen so much, experienced so much, met so many incredible people, and I am only just getting started. This blog will mostly be a record of my travels on this trip, but also revisit some of my previous trips, the way I chose the gear and bike I ride with and share my thoughts on the places I go, and on myself. So, if you want to follow along and watch the journey unfold, here is where you’ll find the records of my thoughts and tales while Seeking the Unknown.