Doing stuff without fanfare.
 

We were having a shouty and cynical chat last night about people who have the TV rights sorted, newspaper coverage, the whole kit and caboodle, of their latest adventure.

Then we got down to talking about people who'd 'done stuff' just to satisfy themselves.

Things like...
I remember being in Addis Ababa and meeting a cyclist heading for London. He'd started off in Cape Town. I left him my phone number. Much later home in London I got a message left on the phone just saying he made it and 'thanks for the coffee'. :thumbup1: That was it...never heard from him again.

Follow my drift?

I often ride solo and do so because I like to go to places that interest me. I have completed many long trips in Australia (some have been with other riders) and had a couple of trips to New Zealand (one to North Island and one to South island - I shipped my bike to South Island). I have met interesting locals, interesting local riders and riders who are from other places in the world. An enjoyable chat is often had over a simple meal.

It is a rewarding experience to exchange email addresses and have someone contact you later and simply ask "how was the remainder of your trip"?

I have presented at a few HU meetings - not to show photos - but to simply pass on "experiential learnings" that may entice others to "go for a long ride".

I must say that I have found the HU site and members to be a very helpful and a valuable source of information.

I'll sit on the fence here. I can't watch the "What I did on my extreme adventure extreme adventury holiday" YouTube series, but I can appreciate a nice photo on Instagram or something.

Andy

For me, I like to be able to read what other people have done - it helps to remove the mystique and barriers to the prospect of my planned journey. I think I understand what Mike means about some people - the journey seems to be the means to an end rather than its own objective.

I always think it's nice to share what you've done, especially these days when it's so easy to share. Back in the 80s you wouldn't have found many people interested in coming round for a slide show, even if your trip was more groundbreaking than a quick weekender to the Nordkapp these days. If nothing else it's nice to have a way of looking back on your memories and thoughts from the trip.

But that said, there are a lot more travelogues and YT channels out there than are actually worth watching. Only so many different pics of someone grinning in front of a statue or an alpine pass, or a lingering drone shot of a bike going down a dusty road over a stock guitar soundtrack...

So yeah, blog it by all means, but leave out the pretensions to being the next Ewan and Charley or Ted Simon, don't regale us with tales of "me, being greeted by all the local bikers because I'm such a celebrity" or "my sponsor's gear worked brilliantly" because you're the only one interested in that stuff. Unless you're going somewhere really special, your televisual skills are not the attraction.

Making a fuss about nothing does seem to be a viable career path these days - ask any newspaper columist or YouTube 'influencer'. Years ago everybody wanted to be a rock star but as there's no money in it since Spotify there's a lot of people looking for alternatives. 'Adventure Travel' does have some of the same 'sex and drugs and rock and roll' glamour to it (to an outsider anyway) and as getting people to pay to live a kind of second hand danger free travel life has become much more achievable there's a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon. It's all just a branch of showbiz these days - even down at grass roots level (HUBB meetings for example) Anyone who's sat through a talk by Simon Gandolfi (or even Austin Vince) will know what I mean.

Meanwhile, down at the other end of the spectrum, there must be plenty of people who are out there traveling for their own personal reasons but you ever get to hear about them. I've met lots of people like that when I've been on the road, people who do it because they enjoy it (or whatever) and that's enough for them.

I suspect that as and when I do my trip I will log it on the HUBB and "The Dive Forum" as it will be a great deal easier to do that than to use either a personal website or Facebook and it will mean that my family will be able to see where I am and what I am upt o more easily - Facebook is virtually unsearchable as far as I am concerned. I want people to be able to see what I have done - if only to demystify and possibly even inspire others - but by the same token I do not want to be all "shouty" about it.

I realise that I am contradicting myself within the same paragraph but I have never claimed to be consistent.

are you referring maybe to Long Way Up (Round and Down) series ? :thumbup1:

Personally I never travel without whole Television crew and cheerleaders LOL

Youtube and TV
 

I think that there is one large factor,
besides beeing wanted to be "popular".

Economy/Buisness.

Popular Youtube channels generate money.
When Corana hit i saw this:
Person #1's largest problem was how to generate income. When there was no travel to make videos from. Not that the travel itself stopped

Person#2 was releasing a video more or less daily. Sitting at a table drinking beer and talking about Corona situation. And hoped for som clicks and some money.

And so on.....

People having popular Youtube chanels also get sponsor support.

It is a way of solwing the finacial for travelling.
(But as I stated earlier. Also a willing to be known and get many likes,
Many likes make some people happy.

Other type of traveller.
 

There are traveller that do not talk about themself and what they "achieved"
But descibes the world that they could see.

I have one example of a person who used a bicycle from Chile to Alaska. Long time ago. And the wrote a book of what he saw and learned. He wanted to describe that part of the world for us. And the real world for the people living there. Not tourist attraction.
That is what I like.

And to see a country/culture you have to approach them on their level.
You can't come in a huge 4X4 and look out the window.
But alone on a bike/motorcycle. Tired, frozena and hungry. They will treat you in a completely different way. And you will learn the culture in a different way.

Without any political discussions. My view is that Ernesto's and Alberto's travel is a good example of that type of travel and travel story. They wanted to learn how South America was. And they described what they saw in their books. And what they saw and learned, affected them hard.

I will never write any book, or make any youtube video. I want to experience and learn. For myself. And to do that I need to get away from big cities and tourist attractions. And be ready to meet the real world. And if I can collect some memories and learn something. I will be happy.

Others may have other goals. I do not care. Let them do what they want. As long as I can be the one I want to be.

I, like Erik_G, will never write a book on my travels. The learnings I have from travel started a fair time ago and have not left me. They have been added to and changed over time.

I used to ride a motorcycle to work and university at night. After graduating I had an idea I should experience other parts of the world. I talked my employer into giving me at least six months off work so flew to Europe and bought a cheap car (not a motorcycle - but thought about swapping the car for a motorcycle in Holland but that is another story). Travelled as far north/ south/ east and west in Europe.

This was the mid seventies - no mobile phones, no internet, no GPS, many borders to cross money to change and talk your way into some of the Communist countries. You learn a few things about yourself and others in these (sometimes challenging) circumstances.

The learnings and experience from travel stay with you, in my opinion. I can still remember many of the characters I met where we had hearty conversations using a bit of English/German/French. A great education in people, life, geography and politics.

I think these things are personal and may not be of interest to others.

When we again venture to previously visited places we have a great basis to compare the (inevitable) changes over time. Again based on your own experiential framework.

I will say that motorcycle travel has more potential to brings out the best in people. Locals (in my experience) like to come up to a packed motorcycle rider and ask where you have been and where you are going. "But you have not been to ***, I will show you on your map where to go!" Priceless.

That sounds so good/positive..

Yes, it's the quiet ones who are impressive. Following the Dakar Rally one winter in Morocco I was teamed up with Steve Attwood and Simon Bowles, two guys I had met online on UKGSer. Simon has done a few impressive trips including Syria and Jordon, West Africa to Cape Town, East Africa back up, also Iran.

But this post is about Steve Attwood, who is a calm quiet character. It was two weeks into our trip before he mentioned he'd ridden from Vladivostok to London. What I subsequently found was that in order to join the group doing the ride he had first ridden solo from London to Vladivostok to meet them.

And then some time later when I mentioned his name on AdvRider in a trip report someone asked whether that was the same Steve Attwood who is a living legend in Iron Butt circles. It seems he won the 1993 event on a Moto Guzzi covering 12,458 miles in 11 days, see report at https://www.ironbutt.org/IBRhistory/IBR1993.html



On a subsequent trip Steve and I saw a guy in the middle of nowhere selling tea so we stopped to have a drink. The tea was pennies, but Steve then offers to trade a 10p coin some women had been given.

Just sharing a couple of wise old sayings .
Have a fabulous day everyone.

MikeBarton
I note you are from NZ. In the last couple of years (around Feb/March) I have had a couple of trips of at least a month on motorcycles to NZ North Island (hired a bike) and South Island (Shipped my bike). I was travelling on my own and I lost count of the number of times I stopped for a bit of food or gas and had locals provide information or just want to chat. On occasions I have been buying provisions at the small local shop and the owner asks "where are you headed to"? I have responded and next second I hear tap tap tap then they swing the computer monitor around to show me the weather map and say " weather looks a bit wet there tomorrow - I suggest you go anticlockwise around the peninsula not clockwise (Coromandel)- that way you will see the place at its best". I followed the advice and had a great ride and no wet gear.

Other times I have been at the bike and a couple have come out of a shop. Before you know it their map is out and I am getting great local information. I often think, how good is this, I am concerned about their frozen goods and ice cream melting they just want to give me really useful information. No doubt about motorcycling - you get the chance to meet interesting people.

I found in NZ If I go to a pub for a meal, I always take a small notebook and pencil to capture the information a local provides. Bloody helpful lot!!

I think these encounters are personal and sometimes hard to describe to another person. The information to pass on is "you will get some valuable learnings and life experience when you travel by motorcycle"

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody saw it fall, did it really fall?

If you rode to Ushuaia with your significant other as pilion but you did not start a Youtube channel over this, did it really happen?

This promotion of individuals is a sign of the times IMO.

In the age of social media people have shifted their views of what they are as idividuals and a lot of people are totaly fine viewing theselves and their experiences as a product.


In the end all that matters is what briought you true happiness. To me that hapiness was relaxing and sipping coffee for 4 days in Cusco and chatting with other travelers. To a guy in the next dorm it was spedning the same 4 days editing a video to upload to youtube.

Very subtly and well put, if I was to be brutally honest with a response to this post it would upset a certain type of person/ traveller. The love or lust for travel should remain so. The need or crave for attention is a very personal and individual requirement/necessity. Each to there own I guess.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

There’s power in numbers and strength in unity.
It’s a well done from me to anyone who promotes, my passion of, motorcycling however they do it.
I don’t want to do it myself and I might pick and choose what I watch or read but if someone spreads the word and the interest in motorcycles and travelling on motorcycles increases then they get my thanks.

If people make a living out of it well good luck to them - they’re not arms dealers doh

Some may remember motorcycling in the UK during the 80s. The powers that be were out to get us and a lot of hard work was done by a small amount of people to get our voices heard.
Divide and rule is so easy for politicians because people just like to judge others and slag them off.

I met a few of these travelers on the road, very modest and have extensive travel experience but keep mostly to themselves. These guys are usualy awesome to travel with and are a goldmine of information and good advice. They wont boast about anything but you start asking questions you quickly realize that they have are the real deal and they probably have a few books in them. Keep these guys in your contact list and give them some help if you can.

Very true, it takes all kinds and if other riders are motivated by the content that is being put out there it's a win-win for everybody. If you arent into that stuff, you just dont have to watch it.

I personaly enjoy a lot of content being put out there by youtubers and others.

Where I draw the line is the my personnal choice as to the level of promotion I am willing to put out there for my travels.

I have zero interest in making any money from traveling or any level of sponsorship for that matter.

Why? Well I have my reasons: First and foremost I travel for myself and to get away from obligations. When you start putting content out there you quickly realize that it is a lot of work. This is a job. I wrote a few ride reports on forums for short trips and let me tell you to put together a decent summary it's a lot of hours in the making. Making/editing videos I havent done but I am sure it's even more work. One reason I take time off to travel is to get away from work. If I am traveling and have to constantly be planning my days around filming and uploading and editing videos I feel like it will rob me from the very reasons that I travel. If you travel and create content as you go and do not feel this way, more power to you.

While I travel, the limit of what I am willing to do is upload photos on my FB profile and write up a quick summary. This takes 5 minutes at the hostel with a good wifi connection. Once the trip is over and I am home, if I have some free time I would not mind pulling some photos together and a narrative for a ride report or an article. Anything more than this, the ratio input/return is just not there for me.

And also I am not that guy. I am not the guy who films himself, in the middle of nowehere or in public places. I have never been and probably will never be. I should not use the word never but I am just not feeling it. I just want to travel slowly, relax, take lots of photos and be out there in the world without any expectations other that to eperience new things and have a good time.

On occasion we meet tourists who we think interesting and invite them back to our place. Mostly from the 'backpacker' crowd. A lot of what you say ties in to what they have told us.

My favourite tale was given by three young ones from Berlin. They'd had an encounter with some nasties. Following that they were in a cafe having breakfast when an older man asked what was up. They told him about the encounter and he decided to make it up for them. "We're not all like that". He went home and got his teenage kids and their friends He took them, tourists and teenagers, along a sealed road then a gravel road then a track then a walk through bush... down to a beach...and they were the only ones there.

Well worth keeping in mind I reckon.

Each to their own and don't knock them for it.
 

We did most of our bike travelling in the 1980s and about the only thing around then was Jupiter's Travels, though I didn't know that until we were on the road and only read it after we'd returned, when to be honest I disliked the book. However, after coming across and ejoying Dreaming of Jupiter just a few years ago, I re-read the original too and found that I now do enjoy it.
In recent years we've predominantly travelled by sailing boat and nowadays there are an ever increasing number of you-tube vloggers amongst the cruising fleet. We've met many of them and become good friends with a few, despite which we've done little more than skip through an odd one or two of any of their videos; they're just not very interesting. However, for more than few, those videos are how/why they can afford to live the lifestyle that they do and believe me, they work seriously hard to produce them. A 'watchable' 20-30 minute you-tube video sounds to be over 20 hours of work, excluding the time that you've already lost/wasted in frigging about with the cameras whilst doing/fixing whatever's on the resulting video. I suspect the 'aggravation' factor on a motorbike must be even worse, as it's got to be a sight easier to dig out the go-pro and set up shots on a moving yacht rather than a moving bike?
Yes, there are a few 'hey, look at how cool I am' offerings, but the only ones of that type which remain successful/popular have a wife/girlfriend who looks exceptionally good in a bikini (their 'followers' are soon lost, but new ones will replace them) indeed, I know two who find and pay local nubile totty to play the part of 'crew'. The majority though are trying and generally succeed in producing a decent insight into the lifestyle (stylised/glamorised to a greater or lesser degree) and tens/hundreds of thousands of people enjoy watching them. But and it's probably the same 'but' as comes across here with regard to motorcycle travel-vloggers: Their target-audience is most definitely NOT other travellers - you don't have to have done much yourself to see through them - they're primarily producing videos to entertain people who through choice or circumstance want to 'travel' & 'adventure' vicariously. So, the makers earn a few £/$/€ - perhaps enough to make the difference between making this or the next trip and not, whilst the viewers are getting their 'adventure' fix and neither's doing any harm to the rest of the travellers.