Ted Simon – Interview with Genevieve Helsby https://naxosaudiobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ted_Simon_interview.mp3 Everything in this picture I took with me, except the tires. They were sent on. And the umbrella? That was the photographer's, but eventually I did get one of my own, and it was remarkably useful. I strapped it alongside, under the saddle and over a box on my right. On the left side I carried a sword, but that's another story...”

He went on to tell us, “One of the aims of The Ted Simon Foundation is to encourage overlanders to travel with the ambition to learn about the places they are travelling through. There is no better way to get to know people and their culture than to live and perhaps even work with them for a while. Most overlanders stumble across opportunities, but I want to encourage them to travel with intent.” He rounded that comment off with this, “The dumbest question I get asked is ‘why did you do your four year journey’? Why would you not want to know what’s going on in the world?” Having fallen out of love with journalism, Ted moved to France and began restoring a ruined 13th-century gatehouse in the South of France while writing freelance celebrity stories for newspapers when actors filmed on the continent. However, it was while watching television on a visit to England that the idea of travelling around the world first came to him.Some books that have meant the most to me, though not necessarily the best, are Catch 22, All the King’s Men, The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Sun Also Rises, and Ford Madox Ford’s WWI trilogy, Parade’s End. I strongly suspect Ted Simon, who’s now in his late eighties, is too much of a gentleman to brag about his achievements, so I shall do it for him. Forty years after Jupiter’s Travels was first published, it has been read by millions. It remains one of the most important and influential books ever written about motorcycle travel, inspiring generations to go forth and explore. Jupiter Travels has steadily grown over the years and it has become premier travel service provider in India. Jupiter Travels with years of experience in the travel industry has been complemented by goodwill with the customers that they have created. Some of the Important routes of Jupiter Travels include Chennai to Rameswaram and Rameswaram to Chennai. The fun adventures of a serious British man driving his motorcycle all around the 1970s. (Honestly it's strange that a book published in 1979 can feel so completely like a thing from another age. What was originally a window onto the whole world is now a window onto a little patch of a foreign past.)

With the aim of discovering how the world had changed in the intervening 28 years, on 27th January 2001, aged 69, Ted embarked on a second journey. This time he rode a BMW R80 GS over 59,000 miles through 47 countries. Simon's life since has been framed by that journey. So there is almost an inevitability that, in his late sixties, we find him once more getting astride a motorbike - this time a huge, comfortable BMW - and heading off into the unknown: 'To see if I could recapture, in some way, the person I was then - this man who became for some an almost mythical figure. There are thousands who dream of doing what Jupiter did. Why shouldn't I?' His books and long distance riding inspired the actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in their 2004 journey from London to New York on motorcycles ( Long Way Round), during which they arranged to meet Simon in Mongolia. These shots have been languishing in dark corners for four decades, never expecting to see the light of day. What a waste that would have been. There are some simply stunning pictures that any highly trained photographer would be proud of. I think my favourite is of the Turkana women in Kenya. When you hunt out a copy, you’ll see what I mean. However, this is just the visual side of things, what about the words to go with the images? Jupiter’s Travels – America (excerpt 1) https://naxosaudiobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Jupiter_America_extract1.mp3I read this pretty slowly, and found it enjoyable. I may not have enjoyed it so much if I had read it constantly and at my normal pace. Ewen McGregor: Hi I'm multi award winning Actor about town Ewan McGregor. I've got a totally original idea for a TV show. No, that’s alright. I can’t begrudge the time. You know, the book has been important to me too. Obviously, it’s been not only a great source of income, but it has kind of validated my life in a way almost nothing else has.”