Continuing the wonderfully internationalist theme for 2025, we are absolutely delighted to be able to announce that David and Emy Woodburn from Georgia will be joining us too!
Originally from Australia and Philippines respectively, David and Emy now run a shop restoring and repairing vintage BMWs and raising some livestock. However, they have some really remarkable stories and to put them and their overlanding history in context, have a little read of this:
In 1977, a young David watched his outfit be loaded into the hold of the Kota Singapura at Freemantle docks, Western Australia. Five days later, he watched the derrick deposit the outfit onto the dock in Singapore. Four score months on the road later (that's 80 months if you're a young'un) the bike and rider embarked a freighter in New York for the voyage down to Panama, through the Canal and across the Pacific.
The journey east from Perth to Sydney is only three thousand miles but that was just too easy for this curious Antipodean Scot.
In 1990, with his wife, Emy, and their wee bairn, Mattea, the causeway from Singapore to Malaysia was crossed on another 'R Series' outfit. At the tail end of the decade, the family caught a plane from Johannesburg to Maimi, the battered outfit on a separate cargo flight.
By this time Asia had been crossed three times, Europe multiple times and other climes visited before they set out from Gibraltar, hoping to reach South Africa. Two years were spent on that continent.
Of their many adventures, notable was crossing the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) during the protracted civil war. Arrested twice by the military, once by the rebels; daily they dug, they built, they pushed, they repaired ... constantly dealing with soldiery and corrupt bureaucracy. The family motto became, "If we can only make it to Rwanda, we'll be alright." Snake bite, malaria, blood poisoning, exhaustion, interrogations, searches, even a beating, there were adventures within the adventure.
Oh, and the mud, the endless mud, but also the butterflies and occasionally great kindness. Kindness they could not repay.
It's undecided as to exactly what they'll talk about at The Overland Event 2025, but you can also read the story of the incredible trip with their daughter. We hope copies will be available at The Event, but if you need one NOW! you can email barnsleymotorwerks@currently.com
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