Surely water is better in a pool. Coffee should be in a cup

We too have just got back from our six months in Africa. Mrs bob-lad and I are both feeling the blues.

We've realised that for us it seems to be the daily challenge that we are missing, so we've decided to busy ourselves gardening and planning some building projects around the house whilst saving and planning for the next expedition destination and vehicle. Haha. easier said than done, I know.

As others have said hopefully keeping ourselves busy will help alleviate the desert pangs.

bob-lad

There is no escape. You'll never stop.... (at least I think I will never)

Well it has been a few weeks now since I wrote that first post, and it has been an up and down road. Thanks for the comments some really useful to me others not so much, but all appreciated. (except for the one who said i am over 40... i got a few years to get there yet )

The funniest part was I got a job and had the bike serviced (badly BTW) but 3 days with out my ride and I was going though withdrawals. Like a crack addict I was so very happy to get it back.

Most of my feeling are the same, I still cant go a day with out wanting to get on the bike and just go. I miss the travel more then I though I could, even the bad stuff is now bliss in my head (now i know that is insain). Having a job has kinda helped, but the job is not perfect and that part does not help at all. I spend my nights editing photos of the trip(s)and living in the past (which I know is bad) but the editing needs doing so it is a trap I cant escape. Besides i like it (the photography part).

I don’t think I will ever not be thinking about travailing and planning (or maybe scheming is a better word for it). I can say I have stabilised if not improved. I still find it hard to talk about my trip and don’t really spend anytime here, which I feel guilty for. So many people have help me with my trip and I don’t feel I have given enough back, but I am working on it. So thanks again and I’ll see you on the road.
Cheers
X

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Me and 2 buddies took off for 6 months traveling the world as far as our money would take us. Upon returning, we all kept up the same pace of exploration here on weekends while looking for work during the week. We spoke of all the great times the trip offered to our friends constantly and to this day still do, but not frequently. This allowed me to keep the trip fresh in mind while also keeping the reality of real life balanced. Coming back off a long road trip did not depress me, it made me yearn for more, which I did on weekends.

So, get up, shake off the road dust and then go out and collect more dust on your days off. Believe me it will settle your mind, bring back great memories, and relive the experience to a small degree.


As for me. I don't see myself ever doing that again, but I'm fine with that because I am always out doing something fun.

MofS

I hope things have improved for you the last year. I left Australia in 63 and travelled and worked for 5 years overseas, rode across Nth Africa, drove from London to Herat, sold the car and backpacked back to Australia. I arrived broke and had to work in the Northern Territory to pay my way back to Sydney, but the work in the NT opened up a new world of paid tourism that lasted for the next 30+years, I'm now approaching 70 and still thinking maybe I'm not too old to do it again. I hope you didn't resort to medication. Sometimes the cure can be worse than the cause. But the curse of having "travelled" will probably never leave you. You need to adjust to that.

Me and my friend call this the 'lassoo effect'... when you are on the road, everything makes sense. Your friends all look dumb for living in the grind and you feel like you are the smart one... free, rejuvenated, excited, stimulated - you have it all figured out. Then your rope runs out, you're cash runs dry, the good times stop rolling and come to a abrupt halt, you're lassoo'd back into the real world.

I guess the key is to be a millionaire eh? Or just suck it up. It's life eh. Wouldn't enjoy trips so much if you didn't have to work for them.

3 years around Africa, down west & up east coasts, arrived back in London a few weeks ago....

I always remember this quote from 1899:

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome , to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance."

(Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 1899)

I have heard, and this may just be heresay, but it makes sense. That NASA Astronauts suffered post mission depression in the early days. Basically what they were doing was the pinnacle of their career, what they had worked towards, and well, once you have been in Space, what more is there to achieve right??

So what they make the Astronauts do now is set post-mission goals. Because they need something to think about and focus on to ensure they don't drop into depression post mission.

I am about to finish my trip in a fortnight and am going home. I have written out a few different goals, creative, fitness and career goals that I am looking forward to getting stuck into - have even begun working on some of them.

It also helps for me that I made a big list years ago of all the things I wanted to do in my life, and travelling by motorcycle was only one of many, maybe make a similar list and consider the things you want to do in life that will make you happy, that are not on a motorbike. I am looking forward to going home, it isn't daunting.

To be honest though, if you were using your trip as a form of escapism to get out of a situation you were depressed in, you can't go back to that situation and then expect anything different. Eventually you are going to have to change that situation.

Anyway, in a couple of months I will let you know how I feel.

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www.thegreatgallivant.com - video blog of my current year long trip around Europe on the F650GS Twin

These are some really good ideas. Although I haven't been on a big trip yet, your words inspired and somehow warned me - thank you for the advice! I hope that they are working out for you, too...

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“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ― Saint Augustine of Hippo

Maybe this could be helpful as well for some who want to prepare for a trip...?

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“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ― Saint Augustine of Hippo

About 10 yrs ago I was on the road and met four different types of traveller:
1) Gap year kids who saw it as a big holiday and would drop back into society (with financial assistance from their family)
2) Those (like me) who left for adventure, to see the world or with a particular goal in mind
3) People who are able to take 3 weeks off at a time & maintain a normal life
4) People who started out as types 1,2&3, but never managed to re-integrate into normal society and are on the road 15 years later

I'm a type 4. I returned home when I was 25 and managed 4 years in the UK, moving every few months and living out of a bag (I also did a degree at the time). Since then, I've relocated to Western Australia, Canada, the UK and now back to Western Australia

I can't stop travelling. By going where the work is, i keep earning and when it's time, I move on

A fifth type exists, maybe rare, but I've done it for 15 years.

Steady job, volunteering for travel work and lots of overtime.

Gets paid for travelling

Takes 2-3 months off, for private holiday every year :-))) sometimes starting out from a stationing in foreign countries.

__________________
Poul
May you enjoy peace and good health !

Very astute Andy.

I was a type 2, now a type 4 also.

Looking to ditch more and more work and ride more as time goes by....

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome , to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance."

(Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 1899)[/QUOTE]

Oh ho I can relate to the above !

I have not had the pleasure of extended touring, I have managed 45 days at most. This year I managed 2 jaunts, 45 & 30 days. On returning home I experienced and still do to some extent exactly that which you have described. I have made the decision to sell everything I own and go touring permanently. It has improved my disposition although I'm still a little apprehensive. Marketing lot, stock and barrel is a mission to say the least.

am in the same boat....... again.
i have had a life pattern of this living and then normality and the normality always feels like the slumps.(i have travelled by foot,backpack,yacht for 7 years and of recent years by bike and its the same pattern).whilst travelling you have sensations of hieghtened experience good and bad and also meet with likeminded eclectic people.once you get home that kind of dulls and for most hampster wheel walkers washing the car on saturday and who won the local football game seems of a hieghtened importance to them.even if you try you can never really re connect to this (if you were ever connected in the first place).
a wise fellow yachtie (3 circumnavigations on a yacht called upyurs!!) once told me once you get the sand between your toes you can never wash it away.travelling by any means is exactly like this and with bike is no exception.
i have always found that you have to pay the ferryman and thats what i consider the slumps but in that time ....you can slowly and quietly draw your plans.re group,consolidate,repair, and then go!!!
whens the best time to plan the next trip i always feel its when you are actually on the one you are on.if that makes sense.
the first step is always the hardest but the rest will follow and then all of a sudden you have the 'flow' once again.

i am washed up on the beach (meterphorically) in perth also at this time alas 2013 will be better for one and all.
happy new year!!