There should have been trumpets and a drum roll, but the trumpeter sloped off months ago and somebody turned the drums into lampshades. Nevertheless, it was a momentous event. That beautiful piece of brass I have been rabbiting on about for ages did finally arrive. So today it is OFFICIAL. I have finally got the brass plaque. The names are on the plaque. The plaque is on the door, and the door is open.
It’s just over a year now since I moved into this house, thanks in part to a long list of people, the ones on the plaque, who liked my idea of a retreat for travelling writers, and in fact it has been operating unofficially for a while now.
It’s a nice spacious room, with a lot of light, a useful table, a rustic beam, and a very comfortable bed. There’s room in the garage for a bike and there’s a bar/restaurant just round the corner. Jupiter’s Travellers have priority but I’ll be happy to consider anyone with a serious purpose, even if all you’re doing is trying to figure out what you’re doing.
Is it heaven . . or is it hell?
What kind of a time you’ll have in that room just depends, of course, on what kind of writer you are. For me writing is purgatory (well, I exaggerate, as usual) but getting it finished is a high like no other. Some people, I’m amazed to hear, actually enjoy the process of writing. But whether you love it or hate it I’d like you to take advantage of me. The cost will be minimal – just enough for laundry, light and heat– maybe a few euros a day.
There are two other bedrooms as well. If you’re not a writer but just a nice person I wouldn’t at all mind if you want to come for a holiday. I’d ask you for some money and we’d have to talk about it, but it would help to keep the place up. You could think of it as an AirB&B. Thirty minutes from a really good beach, and about the same distance from mountains. There’s a baker and a grocer in the village. Big shops and supermarkets are ten minutes away, in Clermont l’Herault.
I would also like to hear from someone, preferably a woman to keep the balance right, who would be interested in living here for an extended period through the summer in exchange for keeping the place clean and tidy.
So we’re here and in business. If you’re interested, let me know. Send an email to tsimon@mcn.org
Here are some notes about how to get here. No doubt some might be on their own wheels, but that’s not always possible so let me explain how to get here by public transport.
MONTPELLIER has an airport and a train station. Getting here from there is a bit long-winded but quite easy at reasonable times of the day. From the airport you get a shuttle into the city. Its the 120 bus and they call it a Navette. It goes to the Place de l’Europe. From there you take a blue Number One tram (the trams are great – and cheap) to the end of the line at Mosson. From Mosson there is only one bus to bring you to Aspiran. It’s the 305 and it leaves at 17.45. To get to Mosson from the airport this way you should allow an hour and a half, so you should have a flight that arrives at 4pm latest. The bus ride is a pleasant way to to be introduced to the area.
If you come by train (which is how I like to come) it’s just a couple of hundred yards (or metres) up a gentle hill to find the same blue tram Number One. The ride will be a little shorter from there – about 30 minutes. If you arrive early without too much luggage you can walk on up the slope to the Place de la Comedie, a huge open square surrounded by cafés where you can watch life go by, and take the tram from there.
The tram stops have ticket machines which take coins and cards. A single ticket is €1.60; buy at least two. Ten tickets cost €10, and the same tickets work on the buses.
BEZIERS has the cheaper flights with Ryanair, but getting here from there is a little harder.
There are two flights from England on Thursday and Saturday that will let you get here by bus, and two from Germany on Tuesday and Saturday that will also work.
Again you have to take the shuttle into Beziers, then a bus from Beziers to Pezenas, and then another bus from Pezenas to Aspiran. If that’s how you’re coming let me know ahead of time so I can help.
My little essay on records has stirred up a bit of controversy and predictably turned over a few stones. So first, let me reassure everyone that I don’t actually give a hang about setting records. If you didn’t notice the tongue in my cheek it must be that my cheeks have grown too fat on all this lovely cheese I’m eating in la Belle France.
There were also some strong women who resented my using the epithet “Pah!” in relation to their gender. I thought that was an obvious joke, directed at myself. I must learn to use emoticons, I suppose.
As for the record itself, I’ve had a few entries.
José Porros Novalbo, from Madrid told me about a couple who rode Norton Dominators in the fifties, and one of them, Lennox Cook, wrote a book about it. They went from London through India to Australia, then to Canada, across the States and back to London.
Bernd Tesch, my old friend (though he is still not as old as me) has more about the Cooks on his website, which is a great resource :
http://www.berndtesch.de/English/Continents/WorldAround/WorldAroundMotorcycle1951-1970.html
The Cook book was called “The World Before Us”. But there were two of them so they don’t count –emoticon.
Bernd still insists that Clancy Stearns has the record, but as I explain, he doesn’t count because he didn’t take his bike back to where he started. Bernd also has a bunch of couples who went round in the fifties, Germans, Austrians and Kiwis, and a very interesting British bus driver called Ernest Bell who did it on a Dominator, but he did the first half with a group of Australians, so he doesn’t count – more emoticons.
The Omidvar brothers from Iran probably had the most extraordinary story and were on the road for eight years. Lois Pryce wrote about meeting one of them in Iran in her latest book, Revolutionary Ride, but obviously they don’t count either – invent your own emoticon here.
Actually Bernd’s list goes on and on, with other couples, and people on scooters, and the bare outlines of incredible adventures, and maybe one of them did fit my exacting criteria, but I can’t tell and it doesn’t matter anyway.
Personally I would award the prize to Peter Lee-Warner who went round the world in 1953 on a bicycle with a Power Pak attached. Here’s his story, thanks to Dan Alsop who told me about it:
On 20th March 1953 he set off to ride to Australia and back on a Tradesman’s cycle powered by a Synchromatic Power Pak. The intended route was outwards via France, Italy and the Balkans, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, India, Burma, Siam, and Malaya. The return journey was to pass through Egypt, North Africa and Spain. The cycle was fitted with a 2 gallon auxiliary fuel tank in the frame triangle and a tank of drinking water below the front carrier. By the middle of May he had reached Baghdad where he recorded an account of his experiences so far for the BBC Midland Regional programme “What Goes On” which was broadcast on 28th May. It was while in Iraq that Peter changed his plans and decided to make his journey a trip around the world. September saw Peter on his return journey, flying to San Francisco on a “Clipper” airliner. Then there was just the 3,000 mile journey to New York to complete before boarding the “Queen Elizabeth” for the voyage back to Britain. At midday on 20th October 1953 Peter rode up to Australia House, the starting point of his journey, where he was greeted by Vivian Blaine, star of the musical “Guys & Dolls”.
All they gave me when I finished my journey was Miss Great Britain.
So sue me, sue me – what can you do me.? I love you.
The other day in London I met Gianluca Renato, the marketing director of Pirelli, a very likeable, youngish man with an obviously acute intelligence. We met thanks to an introduction from a friend in Russia, who thought we might be able to help each other. Unfortunately, like too many people, he had never heard of me, and I had the uncomfortable job of having to explain myself.
“Well”, I said, “I rode a motorcycle round the world and wrote a book.”
But obviously that wasn’t enough.
“That was in 1973. I was on a Triumph. It took four years. The book was called ‘Jupiter’s Travels’. A lot of people have read it.”
So you were the first to go round the world?
“Well, no, not really. There were others, long before me, who made very long journeys . . .”
And that was when I started thinking, what does it actually mean to ride around the world?
When I first told Harry Evans, the editor of the Sunday Times, that I wanted to ride around the world I was thinking only of how to describe the journey, to make it understandable – saleable, if you like. The act of making a complete circle was not at all important to me personally. I just wanted to see as much of it as I could. But I needed to raise some money and if I was going to write a book – which was always my aim – then that label, that headline “Round the World” would be important. And so far as we knew, I’d be the first to do it.
Since those days in the early seventies the business of making and breaking records has grown with record-breaking speed. The Guinness thing has become a huge business. Everybody wants to swallow more eggs, jump over more buses, swat more flies, fly, float, drive, swim, climb, drop, skate, crawl further, faster, longer, than anyone else and get a certificate.
I wasn’t thinking about records when I travelled. It would have been easy, for example, to nip across a few borders here and there to rack up a few more countries but it didn’t occur to me because that wasn’t the point. But now, forty years later, I think if a record would sell more books, why not?
So did I create a record? If so, what would the record be? I rode a bike around the world, solo – one uninterrupted journey, on the same bike, and I rode it back to the point of departure. What’s the competition?
According to Wikipedia, in 1912 an American, Clancy Stearns, rode a Henderson, starting from Dublin in Ireland, and apparently ended his journey on the East coast of America. He’s credited with being the first man to go around the world with a motorcycle. But at the beginning he was accompanied by his partner Walter Storey, and of course he didn’t ride the bike back to where he started.
In 1928 two Hungarians, Zoltan Sulkowski and Gyula Bartha, started an eight-year journey through 39 countries – a fabulous journey, no doubt – but there were two of them.
Then there was the marvellous Bob Fulton, who began his journey in 1932 from London on a dare (well, actually, he was on a Douglas) and wrote a terrific book called One Man Caravan, but he finished up in New York which was not where he started from.
Then we come to the most serious competition I can find, which was Anne-France Dautheville who apparently went round the world in 1973, but the evidence is very sketchy and she seems to have started with a Motoguzzi to Afghanistan. She then went on with a Kawasaki 175 and there’s nothing about where she finished up. She’s said to be the first woman to ride solo around the world, and I’d love to meet her, but I’m doubtful that she’s Guinness Record material. Anyway, she’s a woman. Pah!
So, the big question is: Am I the first man to ride a motorcycle solo around the world, according to MY definition? And if so, will you buy my book? Somehow I don’t think so, because you’ve probably already read it.
But if you want to challenge my record, I’d really like to hear from you. Who else circled the globe?
Write to me: Ted@Jupitalia.com
