Jupiter's Travels

`Jupiter's Travels' follows Ted Simon as he travels around the world on a Triumph motorcycle and it makes for fascinating reading. His writing style is completely engaging and he comes out with some wonderful descriptions that add real colour and depth to the various stories he recounts. The route he takes is epic in scope and takes in Africa, south and north America, Australia, Malaysia, India and a few extras for good measure. He is refreshingly candid about his experiences and by the time you are half way through the book it is no exaggeration to say that you feel as if you are living the various events along with him. The relationships he forges as he travels around are as fascinating and insightful as the places he travels through and add an element to this book often lacking from other travel books. This is the book that inspired `The Long Way Round' with Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor, but it has to be said that this seems much richer in detail and the fact that he did this alone without the support team or camara crew makes it all the more impressive. Although there is a photo plate section in the middle, most of the images are blurry and not especially relevant overall, but the language is so descriptive that the photos are really a bonus anyway. If you like travel/adventure type books then this comes highly recommended and if you were inspired by the Long way Round, prepare to be blown away by this superior account of one mans awe inspiring and impressive journey. Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

What an amazing storyteller and what an adventure!!

As an avid fan of adventure trips (be they by car, motorcycle or other motorized conveyance), Ted Simon's account of his ride around the world was somewhere on the must read list. I certaily had an interest in going through his account before plunging into Long Way Round . The countries that could be visited were more plentiful and the pioneering spirit (hardly equalling that of a century earlier) should have been stronger than in a journey 3 decades later. After reading the book it was in many ways a surprise. I did not initially realise that the book was first published several years after the journey was completed but reading it, this impression is very much confirmed. In many instances one gets the impression that it was written with some historical distance (from notes), making it somewhat more detached, and in some way a less emotional affair. On the other hand there is emotion aplenty - I would say the balance definitely tilts towards the inner journey of the author and not towards a travel account of circumnavigating the globe. Some countries are omitted altogether, mentioned in one or two sentences, occasionally months go by between paragraps with no account of what happened. If you bought this for the spirit of adventure or as a detailed travel account it might leave you disappointed. It is no Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance either, in spite of the focus being on the author's inner journey. There is no philosophy in it for a start. But some events, which disturbed the author greatly, such as his arrest in Brasil are accorded loads of space, completely out of proportion to their importance to the journey (in time or direction). What one gets as a result of this, though, is the author's feelings - filtered by the passage of time between the journey and its account in the book, but not for political correctness. One gets the impression that the idea of the journey, and the accomplishment is very much real and a source of joy to the author. At the same time one cannot say that for the people met along the road. Immersing himself in the local culture is seemingly not a goal and in many instances one gets an unmistakeable impression that Ted Simon would have prefered an Earth filled with people he feels more familiar with culturally (aka Europeans). In some ways it's the difficult to match goals of roughing it cross country on a motorbike with a cocktail reception in the evening that he seems to aspire to. His joy at arriving to the US, where people speak the language and everything is clean and ordered, for instance, is very much an indication of liking the idea and glamour of the trip more than some of the reality (not that I blame him, necessarily). Again this might put some readers off (his experience might be easier for people of his era to identify with) but to his credit, he is at least honest about describing his impressions and feelings. And in spite of what I wrote before, Simon is nothing like Henry Morton Stanley in his treatment or description of 'the natives'. But he also isn't a public school, stiff upper lip, army connections and plenty of panache, dashing aristocratic traveller one might imagine from a Wilbur Smith novel. Finally the book is a bit variable in how it reads, some passages flowing well and being page turning, others (at least for me) being more forced, and some (accounts of the landing and arrest in Brasil) truly getting me to the edge of skipping pages. It might not be quite as warm, insightful, compassionate, well written and exciting (in the travel account sense) as Doris Wiedmann's Taiga Tour: 40.000 km allein mit dem Motorrad von München durch Russland nach Korea und Japan but it's a good account of the time and the author, with a whiff of adventure more difficult to imagine and carry out today, thrown in.

A brilliant read. Starting from England to travel around the world on a Trumph . Proves it can be done.

Came fast well made and strong

A must read for anyone who has a taste for real adventure be it attempting a similar trip or merely dreaming from the armchair. Teds style is deep and analytical without being pushy with his opinions. He reveals the facts as he sees them and leaves it to the reader to make their own judgements regarding the often difficult situations, but also the uplifting fact that the world contains mostly decent people. Ted Simon is clearly a unique individual, taking life as he finds it. He navigates with his heart and writes clearly of it. His work is well researched and interesting. He reveals only limited detail of his life outside the adventure which keeps the reader wanting more of him. A truly legendary work.On a similar origional adventure theme I would recommend the following.. Alone on the Blue Nile Dreaming Of Jupiter

I found Ted's book good in places and mediocre in others. When he's not trying to write well, he's at his best. His reports about his encounters with people are much more effective than some of the purple prose in his landscape/flora/fauna descriptions. I was very aware too that much seemed to be kept hidden - especially about his Californian love affair which appears to have been deep and comparatively long lasting - in comparison with the trip length - yet I got the feel much had happened in that relationship which would have given me a far better handle on Ted and his reasons for travelling had he chosen to reveal it. I agree with those who say he seemed over-cautious at times but that is almost the habit of a man that age. This was no twenty-year-old devil-may-care, fit man, free of physical aches and pains. I found his general approach perfectly understandable. And it worked. He lived to tell the tale which is, for me, too short on personal detail and too long on descriptive 'travel writing'. But he was, and is, a brave and very determined man. I will read his follow up book with interest.

The language is a bit difficult (it was written in the 70s) so it takes time to adapt. But the story itself is fascinating and it's very interesting to deep dive, into how the world was years ago.

A must read for any motorcyclists or people into true adventures. This book is a classic of world travel by motorcycle, inspired "long way around" authors Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman.

Ted Simon is the reason many people have gone on their RTW or extended trips. This is a must read for anyone wanting to go on that long adventure.

I could stay here spending words after words, but it wouldn't be enough to explain how inspiring, insightful and well written this book is. Ted Simon is one of my idols and i truly felt like traveling with him. This is an opera that everyone should read and celebrate.

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