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ARROW
WHY WE RIDE AROUND THE WORLD
featuring the journey and photographs of THOMAS WYSSENBACH

“Even when you think you are alone, there is
always someone about. On the other hand,
this was still a country where I found
good accommodation for three dollars a night”

LEAVING
An end and a beginning

Tom has ridden a massive 1200cc motorbike from Switzerland to Nepal and on to the Middle East. Over the past year he has drowned his bike in Pakistan, been arrested in Egypt, suffered altitude sickness in India, been invited by a prince to Saudi Arabia and ridden through Roman ruins in Libya. But this evening, in a little house in the fishing village of Qantab, he props his feet up on a chair and sits down to ice cream. It is time to talk about why he is riding around the world.

Instead of heroism, manliness, grease and horsepower, though, this story starts with a girl. Tom had been living together for seven years with his girlfriend, ever since he was 18. They shared a love of technicalities – Tom was studying electronics and she mechanics – but, above all, they were fanatical about bikes. They had ridden from their home in Switzerland through England, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, Germany and France a number of times and made plans to travel around the world once they had finished their studies. By then, she’d have a bachelor degree in administration and organisation and he an electronics engineering degree and then an MBA. Life was “intensive, active and good.” They would go through Eastern Europe, cross over to Russia and ride along its entire length all the way to Siberia. From there, they’d hop over to Alaska and then ride down the Americas to the southern tip of the continent, the end of the world.
By now, Tom is halfway through a tub of Tiramisu and doesn’t look so good. “It’s now been two and a half years since she passed away,” he says. “She died of an epileptic seizure. No one expects anything like that.”

“Something had to change. Either I’d have to quit everything, or I had to come up with a idea to exit properly after finishing my degree and leaving my job.” Tom started making plans.

PLAN B
In search of a new life

“Planning a bike journey around the world – this time alone – was really the light at the end of the tunnel for me. As time passed, I sold almost everything I had, bought the 1200GS Adventure and looked out for sponsors who could provide the high quality gear I needed to complete my journey.”

Tom reined in companies and left with at least 450 items packed on the BMW. “And so, on one rainy day – February 27, 2007 – I set off from my hometown. That’s Gempenach, with about 503 people, 800 cows, lots of farming and mountains in the distance. The Swiss national radio broadcast my impending departure, and more
than 100 people from the neighbouring countryside showed up as I left.”“I spent my first night near the Roman bridge of Pont du Gard in France, and hit Spain the next day: Bilbao, down the coast through San Sebastián, Oporto in Portugal, down to Gibraltar and then up to Spain again, where I left Alicante on a ferry to Oram in Algeria.

AFRICA
Blowing hot and cold

“I should have looked at a climate table that February. I had this vision of north Africa which involved a lot of the Sahara. What I had not expected was snow and rain through the first week in Algeria, and altitudes that peaked at 1,800m over the Atlas Mountains.” The irony is that Tom had packed all his warm clothing when he’d left Spain and sent it back to Switzerland.

Algeria led to Tunisia, down the south past the salt lake, and on to Libya: the capital Tripoli and the fantastic Roman ruins of Leptis Magna along the Mediterranean. “You can walk for days exploring the ruins,” says Tom, “and not see a single tourist. Who goes to Libya?” Tom found a largely untrodden landscape, a country bypassed by most of the world and a lone road sign in English, the only one he would ever pass in Libya.

He crossed the border at Bengasi, riding into Egypt along the northern coast and then down to the capital. “I got to Cairo just four weeks after leaving home. I realised then that I had rushed through the trip without really seeing anything. I needed to slow down.” Such thoughts led to six weeks in the city, where Tom’s bike was such an attraction even the men offering camel rides to tourists at the pyramids would trade their ride for a few minutes on his.

Egypt also marked the end of Africa, and the point where all his visas, which so far had been organised from Switzerland, would have to be applied for while on the road.

MIDDLE EAST
Saudi princes and police escorts

Egypt led to Jordan, where he rode up north to Umm Quais and then south to Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba and St Catherine’s monastery. There’s this picture of Tom on the Golan Heights, looking down on all the territory you hear of in the news, making dinner for a couple of Royal Jordanian policemen.

Tom headed back to Egypt, where he waited weeks for permission to enter Saudi Arabia. He filled the time by riding past the Nile, visiting Aswan, Luxor and Abu Simbel, camping in the desert when he stopped for the night. He eventually got royal treatment – quite literally – when he was invited by a prince and given diplomatic status, with a visa from the ministry of sports in the kingdom.

After five hours of riding from Cairo, Tom crossed over by ferry from Hurghada in Egypt to Duba in Saudi Arabia. The country itself is a bit of a blurred memory, especially when he talks of driving at 180kmph through the desert, with a full police escort, flashing lights and all, ahead and behind him. They whizzed through Medina, Jeddah, Riyadh and Hofuf, and Tom then rode on to Abu Dhabi in the Emirates. He had ridden 25,000km when he got to Dubai, and the bike got its first service.

Crossing over at Hatta, Tom went down the spine of Oman straight to Dhofar, where for the first time in his travels he found life in the desert: the stray butterfly and the occasional donkey. “I was still riding too fast, though. My original plan had been to reach Siberia by September, before the winter set in. But I realised it was a waste not to spend enough time in the countries to learn about their cultures.” Such thoughts, and the people he met in the sultanate, made him stay on longer than he has in any other country along the way. Not without a bit of detour in between, of course.

Tom rode back northeast through gravel plains to Ras al Hadd, and then on to Musandam and Dubai, where he caught a ferry to Bandar Abbas in Iran. After Bam and Sahedan came Pakistan, where he followed the Afghan border till Quetta, down to Sukhr, up to Lahore and then to India, past Amritsar, Delhi, Agra and its Taj Mahal and then south along the western edge to Pune, just outside Mumbai and then Goa.

“Everyone had told me about the gorgeous beaches of Goa,” he says, “but, as usual, I hadn’t bothered looking up the weather. I arrived at the coast in the middle of the monsoon, with grey seas, massive waves and thundershowers. I rode through two and a half weeks of rain. My clothes were soaked after a few hours, and after a couple of days, all my gear too.”

Tom continued south, down to Kerala through Kochi and Munnar and then on to the eastern coast and up it, passing Chennai and Pondicherry and heading north to Nepal, from Manama to Kathmandu to Jiri on its northern border, where he managed to get his front wheel into China.

“Getting petrol in Nepal was a nightmare, because there was only diesel on the open market. I got friendly with the receptionist at the hotel, and her uncle was a truck driver who was just coming in from India. So I rode over and met him along the way, bought 80 litres on the black market, and stored them in my hotel. I used that supply through my travels across Nepal, and it was just enough to get back into India after.”

Back in India, Tom rode through the Himalayas, over the highest roads in the world at Khardung La, pegged at 6,230m. His ride took him through what he describes as “The most beautiful place on Earth,” beyond Manali and across the cold, mountainous deserts of Ladakh.

LIFE
Why we ride

“I tried to avoid civilisation as much as possible, but this was impossibly tough in India. The irony was, I was most at ease in the remotest of areas, but these were also the places where I stood out like an alien. People living there had never seen a bike like mine, or a rider with the gear I had, from my helmet-mounted camera to my GPS to the mountain of material loaded on the BMW. You know how it is in India. Even when you think you are alone, there is always someone about. On the other hand, this was still a country where I found good accommodation for three dollars a night.”

Somewhere along the way, between the deserts, mountains, spare tires and falls, Tom overcame the pain. “I left my old life and am looking for my new one. And that’s what this trip is about – discovering life. That’s why I ride.”