Most of us can identify that over time our lives can be divided into chapters. Some are obvious, and fairly universal: we all share at least the identifiable chapters of 1. infancy, 2. toddler years, 3. schooling. Most cultures mark the start of the adult chapter with ritual and ceremony – a book-end if you will. Our Western culture is the weaker for having lost the value of this marker in defining a young man or woman’s new responsibility and accountability for their own decisions, actions, and emotions. And we rarely more than blink as any other chapter closes.
Beyond these early chapters, each of our journeys diverges into a glorious diversity of experience. But with time and if you’ll look for it, “chapters” continue right through life – with common-to-man themes but with each telling your own unique story which reads as no other’s will.
In my case I could describe separate chapters for University, early consulting career, mid career and business-building. Each has a measure of success, much failure, some learning, and hopefully a contribution-by-degrees to rounding me out as a man.
Many of our chapters blend into each other, and only with the passing of time can you recognise one from the other. Others are well marked.
I’ve just passed ended a chapter in a really, really marked way. It would be my 25th wedding anniversary coming up this December, for the last nine years I’ve been building two businesses, for the last 22 years I’ve been involved in the broader Crossway church family. But in May 2020 all of that began to unravel, and is now but history.
The closing of this chapter has been particularly dark, with lots of grieving, shame, failure and despondency. While I remain enormously thankful for friends, for a roof over my head and food on my table, in reality I have been stripped back to near-nothing.
I’m a natural fighter and typically attack these challenges with grit, stubbornly believing for better and working towards tomorrow. But I have had a growing sense it might be wiser this time to lean in, rather than to kick against the pricks. So “lean in” I will.
A literal journey can a great way to process these chapter boundaries. So I’ve been playing with an idea to ride a motorbike through a six month Sabbatical. This is designed to blow out cobwebs, and explore what a next chapter might look like. Leaning in to being stripped back, it seems good to go further and tear out my cultural context and daily rhythms, cutting out the “noise” of life.
A good outcome would be to come home with a renewed sense of identity, and a new “assignment” for this next chapter. I need a metaphorical map and compass point for this next phase of life, so why not explore across the literal map?!
The epiphany that started this exploration was a brainwave to ride around India. That felt like about the most dramatic change of context I could aim for on this blue ball, and the most complete way to blast away the assumptions built into my suburban Melbourne life. And I do love India anyway!
A friend John with whom I shared this early idea just a couple of weeks ago asked the wisdom of focusing on India for this trip. John pointed out that we all need physical, emotional and spiritual stability to function well. Since India is well-known for spiritual darkness, perhaps that isn’t an ideal place to search out my God and find rewind identify and my new assignment.
That got me thinking.
I’ve long wanted to spend a little time in Israel, and love the idea of a visit to continental Europe. So upgrading the India ride, I decided to try Chennai in South India up to Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Israel and back through Jordan across the top of Africa. A short ferry ride would then take me to Spain, to ride through France and then Italy.
That second plan really got me quite excited. Evolving even further with a couple of ferry rides from Israel rather than continental Africa, it looks pretty exhilarating on a map:
Only as I’m actually writing this diary entry, the visual of looking at the map image above has spawned another possible epiphany.
I wonder if anyone has ever ridden from Melbourne to London? Could it be done? I could ride up through Alice Springs and Darwin. That should be doable enough. Could I get up north from there by boat with my bike to Timor Leste? I could ride and sail and ride and sail through to Jakarta and Singapore. Then the ride would take me through Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and across the top of India. Then it would join up with the original (second) plan through Iraq, Iran etc.
Melbourne to London by bike. “From the Antipodes”.
I think I rather like it.
In some ways it would be logistically easier than starting in India. I would “kit up” on home turf, and would get kinks ironed out of the trip all without cultural and language barriers.
I suspect this would probably be roughly 20,000km by bike. That’s six months riding if I can average 150km a day with a rest day every week and 3 weeks up my sleeve for larger breaks. I imagine I might do 1,000km per day through easy territory, so 150km per day seems a very achievable average over 6 months.
20,000km might use around $5k in fuel, which should be manageable. I’d probably need $5k-$10k for repairs and mishaps. I suspect I’d spend $30k on bike and gear. The trip might cost $55-$60k, sleeping in a tent and spending on food carefully.
Some of the key challenges include:
- Navigating countries with whom the West has strained relationship
- I’ve not taken the “Covid vaccine”, and many countries en-route may require this for entry
- If I leave soon and my six-month estimate holds, I’ll need to manage travel through both really hot and extremely cold climates all while carrying only luggage on the bike
There is quite a bit to do to plan and prepare for this trip. Some of the logistics even at home are a little daunting:
- Pack up my flat and put my things in storage – please let me know if you have a better idea than hundreds of dollars a month at Storage King!
- Contact embassies to confirm the feasibility of travel in light of the challenges above
- Identify relational contacts in each country who will vouch for me – please let me know if you have either first- or second-degree connections in these countries who might be my “host” or “handler” through borders and with any local challenges
- Prepare papers – perhaps including a description of what I’m doing in each of the local languages where I may need to describe my purpose to local authorities
Beyond the brainstorming I’ve represented in this post, I’ve really so far made only three definite steps towards making this happen. I have:
- shared the thinking with a small number of people, each of whom has added some richness to the idea
- purchased an International Driver’s (rider’s) License
- set this blog up so that I can defeat my very effective forgettory, so that when I look back at the conclusion of the trip won’t have lost the essence of the journey’s genesis
All journeys start with small steps. This one may find me riding to London. Or who knows but that it may fail to even launch. Or perhaps I’ll get some way along the journey and need or want to bug out for whatever reason. Part of the power of it is that none of this will really matter. I’ll take off with an overarching idea, and simply take each day as it comes. I’ll put my “A-Type”, driven, goal-oriented, project-planning, flag-on-the-hill self aside, and just watch the kilometres roll by with a new adventure each day. At least that’s how it feels now. Sitting in the comfort of my Melbourne lounge room. With big ideas and no experience for the task ahead. We’ll see how we go.
I’m not generally disciplined at diary keeping. But this trip (in whichever variant lands) will most definitely need a diary. I will build this discipline for my own sake, to help with the main purpose of the trip in looking to reinvent, to rediscover identity, to find a new mission. I’m not writing it for you! I expect I will write “rough” and without editing, so if it is overly wordy (well that’s just me) or poorly structured, then that’ll just be how it is. Remember – I’m writing for me, not for you. But if you’ve stumbled across it and you’re intrigued despite these caveats, then you’re welcome to follow along as I plan and as I ride.
A good friend Jason has prompted me that it would be wise to have a small team praying for me while I travel. If you’re up for a little more mutual commitment, then let me know and I’ll include you also in additional private posts also here on this blog. Please only join that if you want to be active in partnering with me, as those private posts won’t be for simple vicarious voyeurism.