About Ted Simon
Raised in London by a German mother and a Romanian father, Ted Simon found himself impelled by an insatiable desire to explore the world. It led him to abandon an early career in chemical engineering to go to Paris where he fell into journalism.
On 6th October 1973, at the age of 42, Ted set off from London on a 500cc Triumph Tiger motorcycle on what became a four year solo journey around the world, covering 64,000 miles through 45 countries.
With the aim of discovering how the world had changed in the intervening 28 years, on 27th January 2001, aged 69, Ted embarked on a second journey. This time he rode a BMW R80 GS over 59,000 miles through 47 countries.
Ted’s books about his journeys, Jupiter’s Travels, Riding High and Dreaming of Jupiter, continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure.
“People who thought of my journey as a physical ordeal or an act of courage… missed the point. Courage and physical endurance were no more than useful items of equipment for me, like facility with languages or immunity to hepatitis. The goal was comprehension, and the only way to comprehend the world was by making myself vulnerable to it so that it could change me. The challenge was to lay myself open to everybody and everything that came my way. The prize was to change and grow big enough to feel one with the whole world.”
“Ever since my original journey I have been learning more about its significance. The idea that I might be making it for others, as well as myself… It seems that when you raise yourself up to achieve something beyond what is needed just to live day by day, the energy you generate has an effect on those around you.”
Read some reviews of Ted’s books: