We find a few smiles in the miles as two great motorbike rides roar out of the pages of Geoff Hill's Book.

WAY TO GO


"On a motorcycle, I am still a boy on a bike"

The thing about being an armchair taveller is that the worse it gets for your hero/heroine in the book/film the more you enjoy it!

Be it a lone yachtswoman in a howling gale or an intreped reporter with the runs on an Indian train, you can savor the experience without the suffering.

If the author has a witty turn of phrase and zanny sense of humour so much the better.

Geoff Hill fits the bill perfectly and his new book " Way to Go" is an hilarious account of two of the World’s Great Motorcycle Journeys

Geoff's jaunt from India came about as a "shopping expedition" that was organised during a drinking session. During it he enthused about motorbikes in general and the old Enfield Bullet 500 in particular.

He was surprised to learn that although the bike was no longer produced in the UK it was still being made under license in India and at a bargain price.

Geoff and a friend Patrick Minnie decided to place an order but instead of having the bikes shipped over from India they would fly out and ride them back all the way from Delhi to Belfast.

In the event it was an adventure tinged with humour. Even at the start when Geoff's bike stalled and he found himself lost in the chaos of Indian city traffic.

Rush hour was approaching, he had minimal riding experience and he found himself with eight people giving different directions.

(A problem he solved by following a taxi and breathing in its exhaust fumes.)

Thereafter they seemed to be in one scrape after an another.

The crossing of borders via India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey brought not only dramatically changing landscapes but in some cases a need for caution when it was prudent to cover up western style clothes.

In the different countries Geoff gathered the local colour and was able to file daily reports about the journey to his newspaper in Belfast. The voices of the girls who took down his copy on the phone each evening brought the sound of home across the long miles.

But as they travelled he bemoaned the loss from sight of females, who seemed to be in many places covered up like walking black pillar boxes. "In Esfahan," he says, "we had seen entire wings of bazaars given over to shoes, about the only chance an Iranian woman has to express herself"

In Way to Go we get a feeling for each country that is quite different from the strife torn television coverage.

After long dusty miles he writes

"The landscape changes in northern Iran, all around us were fields of wheat and a colour that had been lost to our vocabulary - green. A rich sap filled green, alien to the parched south .
And amidst this sea of fertility rises..the beauty of Islamic architecture..... the gigantic, tutquoise dome of Soltaniye, proof that the Mongol hordes of Gengis Kahan were as nifty with the builders trowel as they were with the sword"

Back in Belfast and almost immediately after this adventure Geoff set about planning his next trip and set his sights on the USA.

Returning to the office, after his seven weeks away, he approached his Editor.

"Sorry I am late Boss , we got held up in Istanbul.. I was wondering if I could take a month off to do Route 66 on a Harley?"

Geoff adds the comment

"I left the office soon after since I find uncontrollable sobbing unseemly in a man"


And so it was that Geoff with sponcorship from the Miller Beer folk, who have a plant in Millwalkee where the Harley Davidsons have their original factory set about tackling Route 66 and the 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Once regarded as the Main Street of America he found that it had long been bypassed by multi laned interstate highways.

In some places it disapeared and ran into weeds, but determined to follow the original route as best he could he took a final look at Lake Michigan, the last expanse of water he would see until he reached the Pacific and started on the long road west.

He was to be frozen in the mountains and sweltering in the desert but there were fascinating places along the way, both plastic and original.

He sums up Santa Fe "Looks like Mexico would if it got an Arts Council grant."


Many of the Route 66 landmarks had gone but there are places where they had survived like the El Vado Motel where he stayed and another where he woke in morning under the watchfull eye of a lizard.

Dusty garages, gleaming old chromed and finned cadillacs, locals in diners plus lots of odd and humourous observations, are all there in Geoff Hill's book. If it doesn't awaken the wanderlust in you it will certainly make you smile.

Review by Allan Rogers.

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Way to Go: Two of the World’s Great Motorcycle Journeys was published with the assistance of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and is available in book shops, through the Blackstaff Press orderline on 0845 1200 386 or +44 (0) 113 399 4040, or online at www.blackstaffpress.com.

THE AUTHOR

Geoff Hill is the features and travel editor of the News Letter in Belfast. He has either won or been shortlisted for a UK Travel Writer of the Year award eight times. He has won the 2004 UK Travel Writer of the Year by Croatian National Tourist Office.

He is also a former Irish Travel Writer of the Year and a former Mexican Government European Travel Writer of the Year, although he’s still trying to work out exactly what that means.

He writes about travel regularly for the Daily Telegraph and the Independent on Sunday.