Etikett: vehicle

historium:

The first English woman to ride a motorcycle around the world, Elspeth Beard 1980s

Beard learned to ride a motorcycle on Salisbury Plain at the age of 16. She began her round the world journey in 1982, after the third year of her architect training course, using a BMW R60/6 motorcycle. She began her journey in New York City, having shipped the bike from the United Kingdom. From there, she motorcycled to Canada, Mexico, and Los Angeles before shipping her bike to Sydney. In Sydney, she spent eleven months working as an architect, before motorcycling across Australia. In Townsville, Queensland, she had an accident which left her hospitalized for two weeks. After Australia, she traveled to Singapore, after which she traveled into Asia. In Thailand, she collided with a dog, and recuperated staying with a local family; the family fed her the remains of the dog that she had crashed into. Beard forged the necessary permit to get out of the Punjab region, and traveled into Pakistan, before riding back into Europe via Turkey. She arrived back in the United Kingdom in 1984, having traveled 35,000 miles (56,000 km); in doing so, she became the first Englishwoman to motorcycle around the world.