Author Biography

Seven years, twenty countries, no plan. How it started . . . In 1998, after bringing up a family and enjoying a lifetime career as a nurse and health visitor in the UK, I set out on a year's journey, on my own for the first time ever, having always been someone's daughter, little sister, or wife. I started backpacking in Thailand and explored many South East Asian countries armed only with wide-open eyes and a guide book. Six months into the trip and feeling quite the adventurous explorer, I went to Pakistan and then to Rajasthan, India, where I met a Dutchman who was travelling on an Enfield Bullet motorbike. He fired my imagination with tales of the open road. I returned to the UK, but I found it hard to settle down, as I really liked travelling, and although at my age I really should have known better, I set off again, this time combining my love of travel with my other passion . . . motorcycling. I'd owned various Japanese motorbikes over the years since Exchanging guide books for road maps, for my fiftieth birthday I bought a brand new 500cc Enfield Bullet in India and rode it, initially alongside the Dutchman who had suggested the idea. He was seventeen years younger than me, and I thought the adventure might last six months, at most. None of it was planned. I would not have dreamed I'd be having this chance of a lifetime when I should have been saving for my retirement. But life's too short not to take a chance.

Table of Contents

About the Author v 1 Sikkim, India, 2000 1 2 Nepal, India Again, and Theo 21 3 Pakistan 33 4 Syria 47 5 Backpacking in Burma 63 6 Laughter in Thailand, Cambodia, and Thailand Again 79 7 Malaise in Malaysia 95 8 Men Who Scare on Boats upon the Vasty Deep 111 9 Indonesia 129 10 Australia 147 11 Papua New Guinea to Australia 161 12 Home for Christmas and Japan 179 13 Australia to New Zealand 187 14 New Zealand 211 15 Home and New Zealand 241 16 Ecuador with Abby 251 17 To Colombia 26318 Colombia to Mexico via Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala 281 19 Mexico Onwards, the USA and Canada 303 20 Coming Home 315 Epilogue 323

Review

I'd already heard about some Jacqui Furneaux's adventures with her globe-dawdling 500cc Enfield. There have been a couple of magazine articles, not least in Overland Magazine, and some guest appearances at bike shows. Now, having read the full story of her personal odyssey in 'Hit The Road Jac', I find myself drawn further in to her outlook on life, ideas that have been quietly inspiring me for a while now. There's something very attractive about her style of travel; unhurried, optimistic, spontaneous. This is the often surprising story of an already highly capable person, whose typically conventional life is upended in an equally conventional manner but who responds to her change in circumstances in ways that many find surprising in someone of her age and background. By remaining open to what the world can be like, Jacqui Furneaux has developed a capacity for self-reliance, based on a kind of soft-strength rather than the sort of mobile siege-mentality that some travellers feel they need to adopt. An independent spirit responding to the people she meets with a happy-go-lucky openness to the kindness of strangers, based on her growing self-awareness rather than simple naivety. Told with understated, matter-of-fact candour, Jacqui's heart-warming story is one of self-discovery at a time when the world is in flux just as much as she is. Through her account of romance on the road, fending-off amorous sea-dogs, dodging pirate attacks, facing adversity with courage, we begin to see how Jacqui's upbringing prepared her to grow in confidence when faced with the unexpected. I'm trying to avoid using the word 'memoirs'; it seems such an outdated term to use, suggesting the reader can expect the rambling reminiscences of past-glory and dry facts gone musty with age. But the best of memoirs are anything but that and, if it seems a somehow inappropriate word to use when reviewing a motorcycle travel book, just consider how many great memories we all have as the result of a willingness to go places on two-wheels. Published by Shuvvy Press [UK Edition], September 2017 Paperback ISBN 978-0-9564305-6-4 [UK Edition] Review by Nich Brown--Nich Brown, Told with understated, matter-of-fact candour, Jacqui's heart-warming story is one of self-discovery at a time when the world is in flux just as much as she is. "Overland Magazine, August 2017"
Lifestyle People November 9, 2017 Globe Rider "I was always wandering off as a child and had to be put in reins," says British biker, writer and adventurer Jacqui Furneaux. "My brother and I were allowed to wander freely in the woodland and beaches in our home-town in Somerset. I was lucky to have parents who never said things like, 'Be careful, you'll hurt yourself if you fall'. I hear that all the time now and it makes me sad for the children whose freedom is being curtailed by well-meaning parents who are making them afraid to push boundaries." Jacqui certainly knows a thing or two about pushing boundaries having spent seven years circumnavigating the globe by motorcycle, something, she adds, that was partly inspired by her elderly mother who told her, "Do my travelling for me." "She blamed Hitler for her having to cancel a trip to Paris in 1939 as if that was his worst crime," says Jacqui. "My daughters tell me that they always thought I was slightly mad but were not too surprised, and my late father had always encouraged me to, 'Travel, my dear'." A trained nurse, Jacqui was a mother and wife from the age of 24. "We had family holidays, and we always thought that when we retired and our daughters had left home, my husband and I would travel more extensively together," she says. "However, our marriage came to an end and I found myself travelling alone." In 1998, after "48 years of fitting round everyone else's requirements" Jacqui was "free to do as I pleased", but admits it was tough going at first: "I also think my experiences as a community nurse helped me have the right attitude for travelling." After nine months backpacking around Asia, Jacqui met a Dutchman in India riding a Royal Enfield motorcycle. "I already had my motorcycle licence and was quite taken with this way of getting around," she says. "We spent some time together but then went our different ways as is the way of travellers." After a year backpacking she returned to the UK to live with her mother and figure out what to do next. The Dutchman "turned up on the doorstep one day" and asked Jacqui if she'd consider returning to India to buy her own Royal Enfield and travel with him: "He was much younger than I was, very handsome and lots of fun. I thought about it for a few minutes and said, 'Yes!'" The purchase coincided with Jacqui's 50th birthday. "For the first year or so, I was happy to go where my Dutch boyfriend wanted to go," she says. "When we parted in Malaysia, I saw on my mini atlas that Australia, which I had always wanted to see, was close. If I travelled through Indonesia and East Timor, I'd be there. By that time, I seemed to be going eastwards so I just kept going." Jacqui met a skipper of catamaran who was heading for Australia and needed crew. "The voyage was beset with disaster from picking up castaways floating in the Strait of Malacca, to pirates stealing our food and fuel to storms and disagreements," she reveals. "I was so frightened I slept with a knife under my pillow and never had my back to him as he threatened to cut me up into little pieces and throw me overboard. Then I did a similar thing with another sailor going from Colombia to Panama!" But the motorcyclist stresses that the joyful experiences far outweighed the terrifying ones. "I learned to trust my instincts and I learned to trust others," she says. "Most people are kind, generous and keen to be helpful. I learned not to be afraid of this wonderful world. We are often told only the bad things which is why I have written my book, to show people that things work out pretty well if you make yourself vulnerable sometimes and approach things without fear." Cambodia had one of the most significant impacts on the intrepid biker. Due its violent history, Jacqui expected the citizens to be "weary and downtrodden", but she "found them openly cheerful and ready to start again -- it is a Buddhist country and I learned from them to not dwell on the past". Jacqui also fell in love with New Zealand where she fell in love with a dairy farmer and worked for a while as a community hospice nurse in Rotorua: "But it was a different end of the life-span to what I was used to as a health visitor looking after young families and wasn't for me. Also, the relationship wasn't working so I packed up and went to South America." I suggest that she must now view her trusty bike almost as a friend or guardian. "Oh yes! It is my only means of transport and I love it now more than ever. I ride it all over the UK and look at it fondly and incredulously. Is this the same bike I rode between volcanoes in Guatemala? I couldn't part with it now." Her bike aside, Jacqui tells me her most vital possessions were a toolkit, duct tape, and a sarong ("that has multiple uses -- a curtain, a pillowcase, a towel, clothing!"), and that the thing she most missed were her daughters. She recently rode to the south of France and will likely explore Ireland next. The joy she discovered through travelling she still harbours, along with her minimalist life philosophy -- she even lived on a boat for three years upon her return to the UK. "Riding my motorbike always made me smile and still does," Jacqui says. "Seven years on the road taught me to be grateful for everything I have." -- Words: Jamie Christian Desplaces Jacqui's book, Hit the Road, Jac! is available from Amazon.--Jamie Christian Desplaces, 5the motorcyclist stresses that the joyful experiences far outweighed the terrifying ones "Verve, November 2017"

Review Quote

I'd already heard about some Jacqui Furneaux's adventures with her globe-dawdling 500cc Enfield. There have been a couple of magazine articles, not least in Overland Magazine, and some guest appearances at bike shows.Now, having read the full story of her personal odyssey in 'Hit The Road Jac', I find myself drawn further in to her outlook on life, ideas that have been quietly inspiring me for a while now. There's something very attractive about her style of travel; unhurried, optimistic, spontaneous.This is the often surprising story of an already highly capable person, whose typically conventional life is upended in an equally conventional manner but who responds to her change in circumstances in ways that many find surprising in someone of her age and background.By remaining open to what the world can be like, Jacqui Furneaux has developed a capacity for self-reliance, based on a kind of soft-strength rather than the sort of mobile siege-mentality that some travellers feel they need to adopt.An independent spirit responding to the people she meets with a happy-go-lucky openness to the kindness of strangers, based on her growing self-awareness rather than simple naivety.Told with understated, matter-of-fact candour, Jacqui's heart-warming story is one of self-discovery at a time when the world is in flux just as much as she is.Through her account of romance on the road, fending-off amorous sea-dogs, dodging pirate attacks, facing adversity with courage, we begin to see how Jacqui's upbringing prepared her to grow in confidence when faced with the unexpected.I'm trying to avoid using the word 'memoirs'; it seems such an outdated term to use, suggesting the reader can expect the rambling reminiscences of past-glory and dry facts gone musty with age. But the best of memoirs are anything but that and, if it seems a somehow inappropriate word to use when reviewing a motorcycle travel book, just consider how many great memories we all have as the result of a willingness to go places on two-wheels. Published by Shuvvy Press [UK Edition], September 2017PaperbackISBN 978-0-9564305-6-4 [UK Edition]Review by Nich Brown

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