Motorcycle Explorer September 2016 Issue 13 | Page 37

MAGS Magowan
I am a native of Holywood, County Down, and am a qualified Pilates instructor, teaching my own classes in
the Herts area (for more details check out Magspilates.com). Recently I have also taken up Yoga, pursuing
the necessary qualifications to become an accomplished instructor. I have been passionate about travel
from an early age and we have been fortunate that Norman’s job provided ample opportunity to live and
work abroad.
We met when we were 17 and there were two major influences on our early lives together:
The first was inspiration from the book ’Jupiter’s Travels’ by Ted Simon, read by just about everyone who
ever travelled anywhere on a bike.
The second major influence came in 1981 when we set off, together on a little single cylinder Kawasaki
Z200, to undertake a 3,000 mile round trip from Belfast to the South of France. It was our first adventure
and left us well and truly bitten by the travel bug. Since then motorcycles have taken us around most of
Europe, across North Africa, coast to coast across the USA and of course on that epic Pan-American journey
spanning some 15-months and 35,500 miles on the road…