Around The World On 1200CC’s

A former Bermuda financial services employee decided to invest his redundancy package in seeing the world — and has now driven his 1200 cc motorcycle through 83 countries on five continents.

Canadian David Radford, 40, was working for a Bermuda finance company at the onset of the global recession in 2008.

Accepting his firm’s redundancy payment, Mr. Radford placed his belongings in storage and decided to use his new-found freedom from the workplace to travel North America and Europe on a 2009 BMW R1200 GS Adventure motorcycle [pictured above during a stop at California's Death Valley].

Although he’d only ever driven smaller bikes in Bermuda before embarking on his odyssey, Mr. Radford soon fell in love with the road. His initial plan developed since he set off in 2009 and he has now driven his bike around the east and west coasts of Africa and South America and throughout the Middle East.

Currently in New Zealand for that country’s summerwith plans to head to Australia in the New Year, Mr. Radford noted on his blog this week that the North Island is experiencing some unseasonably bad weather — “making it more like Shetland than Bermuda.”

So far he has visited Canada, USA, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech, Poland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Monaco, Andorra, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Portugal, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, New Zealand.

David Radford taking a break during his Global Odyssey:

Although he has returned to Bermuda on sidetrips since setting out on his journey, the island isn’t included on the official tally of countries he has visited.

“The reason Bermuda isn’t on the list is because I haven’t been there on this trip with my bike,” he blogged. “Unlike other countries I’ve been to that don’t appear, I have ridden in Bermuda, but my list of countries visited only includes ones on this trip with this bike.

“You never know — with any luck, Bermuda might appear — [although] that 150cc limit would make bringing in a 1200 a bit tough!”

Although he has travelled through war zones and been challenged by both the elements and wild animals, Mr. Radford said his experiences on Bermuda’s roads had prepared him for one of the most taxing experiences on his round-the-world trip — British roundabouts.

“Once we got to Gatwick and were reunited, bike and I hit the road … and were immediately thankful for the years of riding in Bermuda.,” he blogged. “The UK seems to have an obsession, or more likely a fetish, for roundabouts.

“They hide everywhere; small country roads, grocery store parking lots, and even major freeways. While normally found alone, they occasionally group together to form a cluster that have you swinging round and round until you finally get thrown free- to continue along in the same direction as you were previously. Add to this the fact that the larger ones have traffic lights [the very thing I thought a roundabout was supposed to eliminate] and you can see that this goes far beyond a mere traffic management policy!

“So, thank you Bermuda for introducing me to the left hand turn roundabout.”

#Africa #Asia #Australia #BermudaBusiness #BusinessExecutives #Europe #MiddleEast #NewZealand #Offbeat #WorldNews

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