7 years, 20 countries, a motorcycle and no plan

Jacqui Furneaux picked up a brand-new, 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet in India as a 50^th birthday present to herself before embarking on a completely unplanned, seven year adventure that would take her to 20 countries across the globe.

Jacqui has documented the entirety of the trip which started in 2007 in a new book that’s now available on Amazon. In it she recalls sleeping by rivers and orchards, broken bones and dicing with death.

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“None of it was planned. I would not have dreamed I’d be having this chance of a lifetime when I should have been saving for my retirement. But life’s too short not to take a chance,” Jacqui states on her website.

“For seven years I lived on £300 per month which covered all my expenses and even allowed me to save a little for a couple of visits back to England for important family events. I lived very frugally, staying in the cheapest accommodation or free-camping and eating delicious food from street stalls.”

Travelling the world isn’t without its problems though: “Twice I thought I was going to die whilst on small yachts with the bike: once when travelling from Malaysia to Indonesia, and then in transit from Colombia to Panama; I slept with a knife under my pillow when not on watch! In the Straits of Malacca the boat was robbed by pirates at sea not long after the five Indonesian castaways we’d rescued had been landed in Malaysia.” 

It’s the second book in recent months to be released by a female rider, as Elspeth Beard recently released her book Lone Rider, which tells the tale of how she became the first British woman to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle.

The book is available now and costs £9.99 from Amazon.

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