If you’re yearning for a two-wheeled adventure, the Overland Event in Oxford is the place to be later this summer. With 30 inspirational presenters, you’ll be able to get all the real-life travel info you’ll ever need.
Amongst those 30 this year is German round-the-world scooterist, Markus Meyer. Markus covered 16,847 miles across 18 countries in 80 days on his Vespa. He could have finished in 79 but attended Spain’s first national Vespa Rally in 30 years during the trip.
Free to go
Markus will be amongst good company, Esa Aldegheri will be presenting for the first time at Overland. A multilingual writer, poet and academic, Esa set off from Orkney on an 18-month round-the-world ride with her husband. Her resulting book, ‘Free to Go’, examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on motorbikes and in relationships.
Another guest speaker, Irish policeman turned adventurer, Ken McGreevy headed east on his Kawasaki GT550 twelve years ago and ended up wrecking the bike in the Kazakstan desert – of course, it didn’t put him off.
Where and when?
The Overland Event is into its ninth year and is popular with high-mileage riders looking for advice, inspiration or just to be surrounded by fellow travellers. Aside from the talks, there are workshops covering everything from first aid to photography, test rides on some of the latest bikes, an intro to off-road skills, live entertainment in the evenings and plenty more. An all-access four-day ‘Passport’ for the event is £108 and you can find out the full details here.
Overland is held at Hill End, Oxford, OX2 9NJ.
