Adventure before Dementia
When Chris Donaldson left Belfast in 1979 his original plan was to ride to Australia, but he never made it, ending up in Argentina nearly 2 years later. He was definitely ‘Going the Wrong Way’.
He rode across the Sahara, travelled through Africa to Cape Town, hitched a ride on a yacht race back to Europe and then went to North America and rode from Canada south to Buenos Aires. The book of his story, aptly entitled 'Going the Wrong Way,' was launched last year. www.chrisdonaldson.world
Now he has decided to finally complete the journey, so 40 years after returning from Argentina he’s going to take the same old Moto Guzzi Le Mans to Australia, setting off from The Overland Event 2021.
This time he will be riding with an old friend, Liam Lavery, and they plan to complete the journey in stages, due to commitments at home. Liam will be riding a new Moto Guzzi V85, so it’ll be interesting to see how reliability has improved in 40 years.
They will travel across Europe to the Middle East, aiming to cross Iran, Pakistan and India, before making their way to the Far East and Australia. Along with the usual political and geographical challenges, they will be dealing with the vagaries of Covid 19.
The guys plan to be working with the British Heart foundation, to raise money and health awareness, especially amongst the motorcycle community, of whom many are reaching advancing years and need to look after their health, but they also want to remind the older generation that they should not stop their adventures just because of retirement.
