Jupiter's Travels

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Ever since my original journey I have been learning more about its significance. The idea that I might be making it for others, as well as myself… It seems that when you raise yourself up to achieve something beyond what is needed just to live day by day, the energy you generate has an effect on those around you.” I’ll certainly pass Jupiter’s Travels on to my children just as my dad did to me so that, in my family, and in plenty of others I’m sure, Jupiter and the story of his travels will continue to live on, teach and guide future generations for many years to come. It took me a year to write it”, he says. “There was no other way to write it except by writing about myself. That was the only way I could think of going because it was really about my experience. Inevitably, it was about the effect those experiences had on me, so that’s just how it all came out. And, fortunately, I didn’t feel inhibited about doing it, whereas I think, for many people, it would have been very inhibiting. The journey had little to do with motorcycles, which was really just a conduit for the narrative – a unique way of getting around that hadn’t, to my knowledge, been done before. As a method of travelling, motorcycles are very physically demanding; you’re completely exposed to the elements. Over the years, motorcycle travel has become something of a trademark of mine, and I’ve written several books about my two-wheeled journeys.

Ted’s books about his journeys, Jupiter’s Travels, Riding High and Dreaming of Jupiter, continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure. In 2001, I decided to retrace my route from Jupiter’s Travels. I’d been told I would be mad to do it at 70, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Memories of people and places were floating through my mind, and I wanted to see how things had changed. The story of that second journey became the basis of my sixth book, Dreaming of Jupiter.

ONE LAST QUESTION

There is more to this man's journey than riding a motorcycle. This guy is a man of the mind. While riding atop his Triumph, he thinks a lot about the subconscious mind. On his journey on a ship through the Atlantic, from Africa, to Brazil, he mentions he read a book by Jung and his thinking got even more complex and dark as he rode through South and Central America. He shares his thoughts with his readers and takes them through the glories and turmoils of his own mind. I thought this book was good, he allowed me to get into his head and I thought about this book frequently when I wasn't reading it. I thought that would be a very exciting way to do it. It would be bloody dangerous I would probably get killed, but it would be worth the effort and it would make a good book. So that’s really how it all began. It took six months to get it going.” Fortunately, I had the book to write, so that kind of saved me in a way because I had to focus on the book, so it was a steadying influence, but in every other respect I was quite wild. And then the book suddenly became very successful and that also kind of threw me off a bit. But I don’t know that I can say anything very quotable about it.” I asked him what he was going to do with the money he earns from the books. His pension plan? “Not likely!” He replied, and so the other reason for the twinkle in his eyes came to light. The next project he has in hand is The Ted Simon Foundation. When I asked him to explain what it’s all about he pointedly replied, “It’s a way of saving journalism from journalists.” It's all in the timing. Something can be profound in a certain instance of life, and banal the next. The view, you see, changes from where you are standing. 'Jupiter' was profound for me, and worthy merely for the sheer scope of his travels. However, it was elevated to something more than that for me because I had been there. In so many of the places he described, I had a vision of my own time there. And generally they lined up. He traveled like the traveler I wished to be. Viewed life in the way I wished to view it.

In the end, while I appreciate the fact that traveling in the physical world means also undergoing an inner journey, I would have appreciated a little less navel-gazing, and a little more effort towards showing both positive and negative sides of each place. The writing was better than I anticipated - some beautiful metaphors along the meaningful philosophical thoughts transformed parts of it into quality literature. I didn’t have any problem thinking that I could ride a motorcycle because millions of people, including presumably millions of idiots, were doing it, so I didn’t see why I should have trouble. But, of course, I had no idea what it would be like to ride a bike in bad conditions. And, I had absolutely no idea what those bad conditions would be except that I knew there would be desert somewhere. I had no idea how to do that and I never had time to find out before I started. It would have been useful to have someone to tell me how to ride across sand, but I never had time to learn, or mud, or any of those things.”As an author, Ted Simon is an honest as they get. Jupiter’s Travels isn’t a tale of macho bravado but is instead an insight into what happens when a man opens himself up to the world – the loneliness, the friendships, the breakdowns, the loves and the losses. Putting your vulnerabilities down on paper for the world to scrutinise isn’t an easy task. I ask Ted how he dealt with this challenge during such a tumultuous time in his life. But at some point descriptions of dresses that held "breasts up for [his] inspection" and calling a woman a "silly cow" really spoiled my enjoyment of the book. The most bizarre fact about Ted Simon’s four-year mid-1970s motorbike journey round the world is that he was 42 when he undertook it; even more remarkable is that he repeated his journey, aged 70, eight years ago. Listening to his upfront and personal account of his first trip, I’d assumed he was in his early twenties. He is engagingly honest about his own shortcomings as he is unseated time and again on Africa’s all but non-existent roads, panics during two weeks of being held by Brazilian police, falls in love in California (to which he returned as an organic farmer in later years), and learns just a little wisdom among Indian gurus. All praise to Rupert Degas for making this over-egoistic but fascinating tale compulsive listening.

Gone were the interesting anecdotes and interesting people, in its place we get introspection and self analysis and almost self pity. Interesting it was not. They met Ted Simon, and enjoyed an afternoon of story-swapping; my dad said this book made him want to take off across the world again. Knowing my own taste for travel and the edgy, dangerous, or uncomfortable experience, my dad lent me his signed copy of this book as a way of sharing something he cares about.

A Lifetime of Journeys and Interruptions

Reason for this review is I find some description of the places and people a little offensive and disrespectful, stereotyping a culture and objectifying women. Like do we really need to know he can see the breasts under the robe? Is that all he sees when he sees women? I mean the description of the women at one point was ‘they cover their mouths and he could see breasts’. We are not always kind to our foreigners and it is a sobering experience to have the tables turned." p. 50 His first book, The Chequered Year, or "Grand Prix Year" (U.S. 1972), was an account of the 1970 Formula One season.