News from Jupiter
From My Notebooks In 1974: South Africa’s South Coast
April 19, 2026
I’m still travelling through fairly civilised country – if you can call apartheid civilised – being handed on from friend to friend, and taking a day off in Hermanus, another delightful village on the South Coast. Just to remind you, these are raw notes – it would take a book to explain what they all mean. Sunday 14th Idleness. Paperwork. Walk on beach with […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Johannesburg to Cape Town
April 12, 2026
From Pretoria, Lucas arranged to have the bike and myself shipped to Johannesburg. I had an introduction to some friends of Tony Morgan: Don and “Trish” Ord. He was a successful industrialist and also a yachtsman. They invited me to stay with them while I tried to find a passage from Cape Town to Brazil. All the shipping lines were in disarray due to the […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: South Africa
April 5, 2026
Leaving the hotel at Louis Trichardt I am hoping to get to Johannesburg, a good day’s ride away, but it’s not to be. Thursday, February 21st The unseen fate which has been working itself out inside my righthand cylinder since Alexandria, now manifests itself only 300 miles from Joburg where help is assured. Just beyond Louis Trichardt the power suddenly falters, and an unmistakable […]
The end days of Triumph in LA
March 29, 2026
Doing housework on my computer I just now came across this little piece about my reception at the Triumph headquarters on the edge of Los Angeles. It was 1975 and I had come half-way round the world. They greeted me with laconic enthusiasm. For ten days they looked after me in considerable comfort. They put me up at a quite stylish motel called the […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Southern Rhodesia
With all the tough travelling behind me I’ve still got a long way to go to reach Cape Town, but I’m looking forward to an easy ride, mostly on asphalt. I spent a couple of days in the capital, Salisbury (now renamed Harare) and moved on to a motel in Umtali (now Mutare) on the border with Moçambique. Now I’m following the border down the […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Into White Rhodesia
March 22, 2026
February 8th Lusaka to Livingstone. Good sunny day with light cumulus, developing to storm clouds in late afternoon but generally off the road. Felt a real sense of the beautifulness of this earth, and as I contemplated the rich pasture land stretching out in all directions to the sound of lowing cattle, and remembered the thousands of miles since Nairobi (and before in Ethiopia) I […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: To Zambia
March 15, 2026
I’d been riding on this TanZam highway for two days, but my notes don’t reflect the chaotic nature of it. Because of the war in Angola this road had become provisionally the only outlet and supply route for Zambia – copper to the Indian Ocean and oil to Zambia. Much of it was dirt and in the process of construction. There were many diversions around […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Kenya to Tanzania
March 8, 2026
After a few days in Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu, I rode on to the border at Lunga Lunga. In a strangely fearful mood. Monday, January 27th Rain stops. I drive on. No more tarmac. Packed sand. Looks like slippery trouble after the rain, reinforcing my expectation of disaster but it proves easy enough after all, and dries out quickly. But my thoughts stay morbid. […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Still in Kenya
March 1, 2026
The heat on the road to Mombasa melts the patches on my inner tube, and I’m stuck. Kibwezi, 18th and 19th January Could have been just another place. Jumble of buildings on a dirt road. Buses pulling in. Stalls selling fruit and a few vegetables. Main store on the corner (Asian of course). [I cursed myself for not having what I needed to repair […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Day 2 with the Turkana
February 22, 2026
Yesterday Lucas flew me to a remote tribal area, home of the Turkana, north of Nairobi and close to Lake Rudolph. This is my second day. Lodwar, January 10th [Outside the hospital, on the sand with Doctor ”Jerry” who invited me here. We’re waiting for the flying doctor who does operations.] Outdoor surgery. Doctor arrives in LandRover. Soon a woman arrives with her baby […]