When people hear about my trips the #1 most frequent question is, “Aren’t you scared?“
“Well…yeah,” I reply. “But it’s the kind of fear that you get when you go away to college, or get married…or divorced, or interview for a new job. You know you have to do it, want to do it, and will be better for it.”
The Fear Factor will be a discussion and a collection of stories of travelers who overcame their fear, whether it was a fear of going on the trip in the first place, or a fear of passing through a certain country, or a fear of getting back on a bike after a crash.
If you have a story that relates to travel and fear, share it in the Comments section below, or send me an email. I look forward to hearing about your experiences!
Well, want to talk about fear… that’s what motorcycling is all about, conquering fear. If you don’t have it, you’ll not last long.
I’m currently planning a motorcycle trip from Paris to Cape Town, the long way (Marocco-Algeria,Tunis,Libya,Egypte and then down).
Fear ?? Yeah, you bet. Going through Alergia, Sudan, Mozambique is going to be fun. I’m not that scared for wrecking the bike in the middle of the Sahara, or being eaten alive by lions. It’s the human animals that’s going to be scary… We’ve taken precautions for Alergia, but you never know (remember those 50 off roaders that were taken hostage in Marocco..).
We were supposed to take off now (this december), but my friend broke his ankle during training earlier this year, so that put us off one year. We’d join up with the Paris-Dakar circus for the initial part, and then off on our own.
One off road school we took in Wales, was more geared at winning over our fear than the technical portions on how to do it. Well worth the investment.
Mike
A little fear is good, but not to the point of being polarized by it. Over confidence in one’s own abilitity has been the undoing of many a rider. A healthy dose of fear mixed with an ounce of respect for abilities, conditions and machinery will go a long way towards keeping one up and running on 2 wheels.