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THE NEWS FROM JUPITER My old ride While I'm over here in England researching a new book I naturally visited my old bike, in Coventry and somebody snapped me. I will be showing my film and talking there on August 5th. So if you've missed it before and want to see me this is a good opportunity. It's at the Transport Museum. You could call Damien Kimberley at 02476 234 289 to find out when and how to get there, or go to www.transport-museum.co.uk July 2010 Revisiting myself People keep asking me how I can be riding around on an iTune, and I have to explain that Piaggio, for some mysterious reason, called their weird new scooter with two wheels in front an MP3. It didn't take long to get used to it. At first I was worried about leaning over with two wheels in front of me, but they lean like a charm, and I've got to say this little machine is a great way to run around the leafy lanes of Britain. It feels more like sitting on a horse, and I can lean back like a married country gentleman and survey my heritage. Funnily enough, though, although I still haven't seen another one like it on the road, nobody seems very interested. Have the British lost their sense of curiosity? Here I am at the harbour in Mevagissey - you can see how beautiful it is. It's in the far south-west of England, and I thought it would be overwhelmed by tourist trash but somehow it has managed to keep it's character as a working port for fishermen. I had a hell of a time getting a room, but after dozens of calls I found the Mandalay B&B and was received with a lovely cup of tea and an even lovelier Cornish acent. This is as far west as I can go. Tomorrow I'll be going north-east towards my date at the museum. April 2010 Getting knotted This news is long overdue, but there is so much to tell that I haven't known where or when to begin. The most unlikely, delightful and, in a sense, preposterous item is that I am going to marry. A Ukrainian beauty, no less, so I hasten to add that I did not acquire her through the internet. We have known each other for seventeen years, and you may remember seeing her More March 2010 My other life Why was I able, in my forties, to take four years off to ride around the world? Because I had found a way to lead a life that cost very little to maintain. At the time I lived in an More January 2010 Down Under I've been on a two-week motorcycle tour of New Zealand, and the first thing to say is that riding with groups is not something I do. Normally I ride alone, I figure out the More August 2009 Anatomy of an accident We all have accidents of one kind or another from time to time and I'm not claiming that there is anything particularly riveting about this one, other than that it happened in Ukraine. The road to the border town of Krakovets, in Ukraine, is neither good nor bad. The surface is rough but there are few potholes, and it is wide enough for two big trucks to pass each other with plenty of room. Most of the way the road runs through forest, with a grass More

Thirty-five bikers joined me on the final lap, and escorted me back to my starting point at CWMotorcycles in Dorchester, which I left two and a half years earlier. So, how does it feel? Well, I can hardly believe it's over. I have ridden 54,000 miles on this BMW, and at least 5000 more miles on two other bikes.

I've been through 48 different countries, survived two bone-breaking accidents, fallen in love again, and seen what astonishing changes have taken place in the world since I was there last


My first ride around the world ended in 1977. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be setting off on that same journey 24 years later.

Then I was already 46 years old. To do it at the age of 70 would have seemed impossible, but that is just what I've been doing.

This new adventure began in January of 2001. It took me the length of Africa, around the Americas, through New Zealand and Australia, and across Asia to Europe.

Why follow the same route that I took before? Because after 25 years I was still haunted by the memories of exotic places and wonderful people I might never see again, but most of all because it was a rare opportunity to see, close up, how the world has changed in a quarter of a century.

What I did not count on, of course, was how much the world would change while I was on the road.

As you follow my journey you will find out what nine-eleven looked like from Brazil, and you will get a different slant on how the new waves of war and terrorism affect the world.

All in all, it has been a stunning experience: always intriguing, not always comfortable, but charged with all manner of insights that have given me, I think, a privileged view of where we are all heading.

For three years I recorded my adventure, in pictures and words, on my web site. Now I have put the whole thing on a CD, and expanded it with a good deal of extra material.

Following it on the web undoubtedly gave it the virtue of immediacy but it is so much easier to read and enjoy on a CD. You will find a wealth of detail that you would have missed.

I think I can safely say that nothing as comprehensive as this has ever been attempted before.

Here are a few sample pages to whet your appetite:

From Colombia | From Egypt | From Kenya From Sudan | From Australia | From Bali
Travel the World with Jupiter, Again! To find out a lot more about the route I took, or about the bike I chose and the equipment I took with me, or how the idea of this adventure evolved, please click on this picture.

Read the Books : Buy the CD : View the film

Here at last is part three of the Jupiter trilogy. Above, the hard back edition published in England in 2007 by Little, Brown. This is available now from the author for $35, plus shipping and handling. Please send an email to tsimon@mcn.org so that we can tell you what it will cost to get a signed, dedicated copy sent to you.

Also out now in the USA is the soft-cover edition of Dreaming of Jupiter, in the stores priced at $24.95. We've changed the cover, for the fun of it really. It is in the same format as Jupiter's Travels and Riding High, but it also includes 16 pages of color. You can get it from your favourite book shop, but it will also be available directly from the author, signed and dedicated. Just send an email.

Finally, the film, now available as a DVD. Ted writes: "Normally I would have rejected the idea of filming the journey, because the process is too intrusive, but Manfred Waffender has been a friend for twenty years and I knew he would be sensitive to the spirit of the adventure. This beautiful film covers six episodes of the first leg through Africa. The theme is Memory. It is not like any 'biker movie' you may have seen." You can get it directly from Manfred by following this link. Click here

First of all there was Jupiter's Travels	Then came Riding High	Jupiter Returns on CD (auch auf Deutsch)	Gypsy is on hold!
For 25 years this book has been a favourite for travellers of all kinds, but in the world of motorcycle travel it has been a true phenomenon. This illustrated edition is available at book shops in the USA for $24.95. You can also buy a copy directly from the author, signed and dedicated to you. Click on the cover for more.	The Jupiter journey lasted four years. There were far too many stories for just one book. Riding High tells the rest of the story, and also why it was so difficult, afterwards, to come home. Click on the cover for more. When you've read Jupiter's Travels you'll want to follow it up with Riding High. $16.95 in the USA, also available directly from the author.	Ted Simon repeated the journey, 25 years later (see above). The web site he maintained throughout that 3-year journey is here, on this CD. There are 350 pages, plus close to a thousand pictures which you will never see in print. It works just like a web site, except that on your own computer you can move around at lightning speed. Enjoy it for itself, or as a brilliant accompaniment to the third Jupiter book, Dreaming of Jupiter, which is now available in hard back. Click on the disc for more. Only from Ted Simon, in English and German.	Sadly we have finally run dry of copies, but Ted is reluctant to take it off the page. It's a beautiful cover and one of his favourite books. Maybe, if enough people ask for it, he might find a way to re-publish it. This is the startling, hilarious and sometimes painful account of Ted's 1,500 mile tramp through Eastern Europe, at the time of the war in Bosnia, looking for the influences that shaped his early life, and finding poignant traces of his lost father. Click on the cover picture for more about this much-admired memoir.

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