Meanwhile, there is the full story here and pix here.

In June 2004 I was made redundant (oops, that should read "released by Sun Microsystems to seek new challenges") and decided that, as the Big Five-Oh was perilously near, this was my opportunity to ride a motorcycle around the world. As properly and completely as I could.

So I set off at the end of August 2004, and three years later I'd made it to all seven continents and 39 countries, riding around 75,000 miles in the process, on my 1985 BMW R80G/S who came to be known as 'The Old Dear'.

There were, of course, many adventures. A few broken bones (the latest of which proved a showstopper), quite a lot of broken bits of motorbike, and an awful lot of tyres, fuel and oil (how frightfully un-green of me). But I found out that there are only a few a****oles on this planet and many, many wonderful, friendly and hospitable people. I also found out who my friends are back in the UK (and they were all the ones I thought they were).