Having already ridden across the United States, Elspeth Beard set out on the ultimate motorcycle tour in 1982 by putting herself and her BMW R60/6 on a plane to New York, despite her mother’s attempts to dissuade her from such a foolish endeavour.
There was no grand plan, no route, no mobile phones, no internet, no GPS, and no stopping her. The hope was that the money would last long anough to get to Australia. Which it did. Just. Elspeth arrived with $50 and stayed for seven months. Staying with friends, in the day she would work at an architectural practice (which would also be part of her university work experience) and in the evenings put in some hours in a pub to save as much as possible for the next part of the journey.
After riding across Australia, Elspeth shipped her bike to Singapore and travelled through Malaysia and Thailand and then on to India, Nepal, Pakistan and Iran. The last leg was through Europe via Greece.
Two and a half years and 35,000 miles later, Elspeth returned to England and no interest at all in her trip for the next thirty years. Nevertheless, she was the first Englishwoman to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle.
