Overland to Egypt on a 1952 BSA Bantam by Gordan G May (2012)
Read: September 2012
We'd been waiting to read this book for quite a while as we'd assumed Gordan would publish it soon after his adventure finished (summer 2010) but in fact it was only published nearly two years later.
The reason we were so keen to get our hands on the book is because we followed Gordon's adventures on his Overland to Egypt blog at the time of the trip and in fact met him when he finished his (outward) journey in Cairo. It was really great to meet Gordan as we got to learn loads about his journey and got to show him around our favourite part of Cairo; the Bab Zuweyla area. On reading the book we were honoured to find we had two mentions; one for our meeting and wander, and a second when Gordon followed a tip-off from us about looking in to the SS Thistlegorm wreck.
The reason behind the delayed publication of the book was one of the things that actually makes the book so unique and 'of a time'; the fact that six months after completing his trip the Arab Spring took place. Gordon felt that he could not publish the book until he knew that everyone he had met in the region was safe and well. The person he worried the most about was his guide whilst in Libya who had travelled the breadth of the country with him and welcomed him in to his life. It was another six months or so after the Arabi Spring that Gordon finally heard from Ezzat that he was safe and well. As a result of the change in the region, it is just no longer possible to do the trip that Gordon did because of security concerns and boarder regulations.
I found the first half of the book itself rather difficult to read. This was because it is so 'bike' heavy. This is to be expected I guess because the focus of the trip was to travel to Egypt on a vintage motorbike. I found this first part of the (two) journeys to be very technical with details of the set up and maintenance required on the bike. At the end of the book, Gordon notes that he learnt a lot about himself, the countries he visited and about motorbike maintenance (!) and I feel that in this way I did too! Gordon doesn't go on about this aspect of his journey unnecessarily, as the bike seems to break down / need maintenance a few times each day as well as a large overhaul each morning it seems. By the end of the book I really did question how wise it was to do the ride on this bike in the first place. I understand his sentimental reasoning, but considering all the problems that there were (even from the first day of the ride!) I think that for any future ride he should really consider a far longer 'test' period to get the bike 'worn in' whilst on familiar turf. It took him four days to travel to the Channel when it should have taken two, but surely some of the problems he came across could have been identified (or he could have gotten used to) beforehand.
The journey travels through Europe before hitting North Africa and then returning via the eastern Mediterranean, and my preferred section of the book was definitely when he entered Libya and then Egypt. I found this to be the most interesting because of the personal connection to that coastal road that we too have travelled on, and of course this was my preferred section of the book as it involves us meeting Gordan!
We get a mention on two different days in his journals - first from our meeting and the lovely evening we spent together. And then a few days later too, when he follows up our tip that BSAs were carried and shipwrecked on the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea. We truely did have a wonderful evening when we met Gordan. We love wandering around Downtown and to meet up with him in a small ahwa outside his hotel was brilliant. We got to meet Peggy too, of course, and after a wander together we had dinner. I think we got along really well - considering he is someone we effectively 'met on the internet'! - and we weren't left wanting for conversation. In fact we even walked back to his hotel for a nightcap at the bar there.
After finally getting to his destination (and I am proud to say that we gave him the tip-off about visiting Saqarra pyramid which is where he got the cover shot from) he is still under pressure to keep moving, but seems to be a lot more at ease with the bike. This makes the journey a lot more enjoyable it feels and he utilises a whole host of different methods for getting the bike to where he wants to me (lifts on the back of lorries, boats, trains etc).
Read: September 2012
We'd been waiting to read this book for quite a while as we'd assumed Gordan would publish it soon after his adventure finished (summer 2010) but in fact it was only published nearly two years later.
The reason we were so keen to get our hands on the book is because we followed Gordon's adventures on his Overland to Egypt blog at the time of the trip and in fact met him when he finished his (outward) journey in Cairo. It was really great to meet Gordan as we got to learn loads about his journey and got to show him around our favourite part of Cairo; the Bab Zuweyla area. On reading the book we were honoured to find we had two mentions; one for our meeting and wander, and a second when Gordon followed a tip-off from us about looking in to the SS Thistlegorm wreck.
The reason behind the delayed publication of the book was one of the things that actually makes the book so unique and 'of a time'; the fact that six months after completing his trip the Arab Spring took place. Gordon felt that he could not publish the book until he knew that everyone he had met in the region was safe and well. The person he worried the most about was his guide whilst in Libya who had travelled the breadth of the country with him and welcomed him in to his life. It was another six months or so after the Arabi Spring that Gordon finally heard from Ezzat that he was safe and well. As a result of the change in the region, it is just no longer possible to do the trip that Gordon did because of security concerns and boarder regulations.
I found the first half of the book itself rather difficult to read. This was because it is so 'bike' heavy. This is to be expected I guess because the focus of the trip was to travel to Egypt on a vintage motorbike. I found this first part of the (two) journeys to be very technical with details of the set up and maintenance required on the bike. At the end of the book, Gordon notes that he learnt a lot about himself, the countries he visited and about motorbike maintenance (!) and I feel that in this way I did too! Gordon doesn't go on about this aspect of his journey unnecessarily, as the bike seems to break down / need maintenance a few times each day as well as a large overhaul each morning it seems. By the end of the book I really did question how wise it was to do the ride on this bike in the first place. I understand his sentimental reasoning, but considering all the problems that there were (even from the first day of the ride!) I think that for any future ride he should really consider a far longer 'test' period to get the bike 'worn in' whilst on familiar turf. It took him four days to travel to the Channel when it should have taken two, but surely some of the problems he came across could have been identified (or he could have gotten used to) beforehand.
The journey travels through Europe before hitting North Africa and then returning via the eastern Mediterranean, and my preferred section of the book was definitely when he entered Libya and then Egypt. I found this to be the most interesting because of the personal connection to that coastal road that we too have travelled on, and of course this was my preferred section of the book as it involves us meeting Gordan!
We get a mention on two different days in his journals - first from our meeting and the lovely evening we spent together. And then a few days later too, when he follows up our tip that BSAs were carried and shipwrecked on the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea. We truely did have a wonderful evening when we met Gordan. We love wandering around Downtown and to meet up with him in a small ahwa outside his hotel was brilliant. We got to meet Peggy too, of course, and after a wander together we had dinner. I think we got along really well - considering he is someone we effectively 'met on the internet'! - and we weren't left wanting for conversation. In fact we even walked back to his hotel for a nightcap at the bar there.
After finally getting to his destination (and I am proud to say that we gave him the tip-off about visiting Saqarra pyramid which is where he got the cover shot from) he is still under pressure to keep moving, but seems to be a lot more at ease with the bike. This makes the journey a lot more enjoyable it feels and he utilises a whole host of different methods for getting the bike to where he wants to me (lifts on the back of lorries, boats, trains etc).
