The world on wheels (From Stroud News and Journal)

The world on wheels

A COUPLE from Brimscombe are finally back on British soil after motorcycling 30,000 miles around the world.

John Wilce, 56 and Marcia Thompson, 37, of Burleigh Lane, Brimscombe set on a Triumph Tiger for a year-long adventure, riding, camping and backpacking across the globe.

Their budget of £14,000 included the ferry across the English Channel and the cost of having the bike airlifted from Nepal to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur to Perth.

John, who has been riding a motorbike for eight years, got the idea for the trip after cycling around India and Vietnam. He closed his car repair shop for a year and his partner Marcia took a sabbatical from her job as a mortgage underwriter.

"We discovered we were a bit too heavily laden when we did a trial run," said John. "We went down the road and the bike fell over. Marcia couldn't work out how to get off, and I thought, 'this is a good start.'"

Having streamlined their luggage to a tent, a petrol stove, a couple of Billycans, a few changes of clothes and basic food rations, they left England on September, 20, 2004.

Amazingly, they never ran out of petrol. "We came really close in Australia, where you can go for miles and miles without seeing a town," said John. "But in Asia, there was always someone to sell us fuel from a lemonade bottle or something."

In contrast to spiralling UK petrol prices, fuel was as cheap as five cents a litre in places like Iran. "Iran was such a surprise," said John. "It sounded a bit formidable so we thought we'd just ride through, but we found friendly people and beautiful sights and we stayed for a month."

The only time they feared for their lives was when they crashed, after hitting diesel on the road at 40mph.

"It happened so quickly," said Marcia. "It was quite frightening. It skidded uphill and I knew I was going to do a somersault but I couldn't do anything to stop it. Luckily, nothing was coming. People helped us pick up the bike, which went 60 metres down the road."

Other highlights of the trip included Nepal, where they took a month out to go trekking, the beaches of Thailand and Malaysia, and the amazing hospitality they were shown by locals in Australia.

"The people we met in Australia made our trip because they were just so friendly," said Marcia. "Lots of people put us up. It just made the trip perfect for me."

They also visited Stroud in Australia, which they describe as a lovely place "It really reminded me of Stroud in England," said John.

"There was all this lovely scenery and occasionally you would come across a little post office and think, this wouldn't look out of place in our Stroud."

Having arrived back in England in August, the couple have quickly settled back into their old routine. However, they say their trip has given them a new perspective on life.

"You travel all over the world and meet all kinds of people. Some of the people are so poor but they are happy. It just reinforces that there are so many good people in the world.

"I think we forget that, living here. You tend to keep yourself to yourself. But throughout this whole trip there have been so many people who have been so good to us."