I've been riding bikes since I was 12 when my Dad finally gave in and bought me an NSU Quickly for £15.  I quickly wrecked it by trying to use it as a motorcross bike and moved onto a couple of TS250's and a YZ250 motocrosser.  Since then I've had about 30 bikes, ranging from KE100's, Dominator's, XR600's and DR350 trail bikes, to 350LC's, ZX9R's, Firestorm's, Fireblade's, GSXR's and Blackbird's.  But I still maintain that the most fun that can be had on a bike, or indeed with your clothes on, is on the dirt!

I've always been fascinated by the Dakar Rally, and since as long as I can remember wanted to do it.  And a few years ago, and well before 'The Long Way Round', a group of eight friends started out around the  world on Suzuki DR350's - completely unsupported.  Not all of them made it, and it took about a year and covering 40,000 miles!!.  A video diary of the trip was kept and made into the TV programme 'Mondo Enduro'.   The DVD (and book) is still available, and well worth watching if you haven't seen it. 'The Long Way Round' (20,000 miles), which is good to watch, is nowhere near matching the achievements of 'Mondo'.

A  recent 'change in my personal circumstances' gave me the opportunity to do something that these things had been inspiring me to do.   And when I bought a random copy of Bike Magazine in early 2006, it had a pull out 'BIKE Guide To The World' inside.  There in the middle was the Trans America Trail and an Englishman called Russell Fisher completing it in 2000.     

After a bit of thought, internet research, reading rider reports by a few people who have done it and talking to friends and family - who thought I was either mad or insane.  But mainly insane .......... I e-mailed Sam Corerro.

Since doing this website I've been contacted by Jon.  He saw the same story in Bike mazine and is setting off to do the trail about a week after me.  Russell Fisher, the man who inspired me to do this, has also been in touch after stumbling across my wesite while browsing the web.  He's given me some good advice, the best of which was to keep a daily diary so as to remember the small things that are usually forgotton.