You may never have heard of Mary Sievier, but she has an amazing story to tell, and she'll be sharing it with us for the first time at The Overland Event 2021.
Mary left the UK for India in October 1967 on a 175cc BSA Bantam, and after prolonged stops along the way (including two years working in Kabul) three years later, made it to Bombay. After shipping from Asia to East Africa and getting Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Belgian Congo, Zambia, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa under her belt, she travelled onwards to and around Australia and New Zealand.
Leaving Australasia in 1973, she went onwards to Singapore, and rode all over Malaysia, Thailand, and into southern Laos, before shipping the bike to Hong Kong. By 1976 on the verge of wedlock, she was encouraged to finish the trip she had been on for nearly a decade, and so Mary shipped the bike to Los Angeles and rode to Charleston to head back to the UK, where the bike "took up squatters rights" in her Mother's garage in Selsey, where it fell prey to the ravages of age and salt air.
Now, Mary is ready to share her incredible story with you as one of the first British Women to ride around the world - and her beloved BSA, in boxes for the last decade, is now being restored to its former glory ready to join its peers in this year's Overland Event Bike Show.
