cerative Colitis. So, I decided I would
ride from London to India to raise
awareness and money for Crohns and
Colitis UK.
After looking at a map I realised I
could continue overland to Asia and
island hop to Australia to visit my sis-
ter, and then I started looking at the
Alaska to Argentina route as well.
After months trying to decide which
continent to tackle I decided just to
travel the whole world.
Now to the bike - I wanted some-
thing small, reliable and affordable,
cheap to run, easy to maintain, light
enough to lift up (as I’m super weak
and skinny) and a bike with easily
accessible parts everywhere in the
world. After riding across Asia and
South America and seeing Honda’s
everywhere, it was the obvious choice.
So, I went for the Honda CRF250L.
I made a conscious choice not to do
too much planning or research for this
trip, as I love having the freedom to
just do whatever and not be restricted
by anything, and wanted to forge my
own opinions about every place I vis-
ited and not go with any preconcep-
tions based on reviews from forums
online etc. I had no route planned
through Europe and just set off south,
my route ended up being based on
recommendations from locals.
The furthest into Europe I’d ever
been was to the south of France for
family holidays, so I was really excited
to explore, and when I finally made it
to the Swiss and Austrian Alps I was in
awe! Only a day’s ride from England
was biker heaven! And at that mo-
ment I knew I definitely wouldn’t be
rushing through Europe.
One of my favourite encounters
from my trip so far was outside a Mc-
Donald’s of all places; I’d parked out-
side to use the free wifi to find a green
area on Google maps to wild camp
outside of Turin, Italy, and I noticed
a guy taking photos of my bike, so I
went over to chat. It turned out he
was planning his own bike trip, and
after chatting for almost an hour he
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