Mullingar man biking to Istanbul

 

 

Eilís Ryan

A 30-year-old Mullingar man has set off on a mammoth motorcycle journey that is taking him across Europe and to Asia and back.

Adam Gaine, who now lives in Greystones, set off two week from a spot on Europe’s western coast, Cleggan in County Galway, and when he has reached the half-way point on his expedition, he will be on the continent’s eastern frontier, beyond Istanbul.
“Istanbul is the only city in the world divided between two continents,” says Adam, explaining the thinking behind the trip.
He loves the quirky quality of the fact that the dividing line between the two continents is on a road.
“I’ve driven from one country to the next, but I’ve never driven across a continent before,” he said.
Once he has reached his destination, he will then turn around and take a different route home.

Since this story appeared in the print edition of The Westmeath Examiner, Adam had a setback when he suffered a major mechanical problem with his bike, but happily he is back on the road.

 

“Over the last 10 years I’ve probably spent two years of my life [in Africa] – if not three – so I’ve seen Africa; I’ve seen America, and so I was like: Europe is my home, a continent I’ve never seen. So this whole ‘Asia and Back’ thing is nothing to do with Asia: it’s all about Europe,” explains Adam, who is giving himself seven weeks to complete the journey.
Daily, he posts a highly compelling video showing some of his experiences and the people he encounters along the way.
His Day Two blog is based largely in Mullingar and includes a very touching and emotional visit to St Colman’s NS, where he received his primary education, and then to St Paul’s church, where he was Baptised and made his Communion and Confirmation.
Since then, there have been blogs from Liverpool, Leamington Spa, Brixton, Belgium, and Adam devotes a considerable time each day editing the footage from his two cameras to create the vlogs, which have a strangely poignant air to them.
This is Adam’s second big motorcycle trip.
“I love travelling,” he says, recalling that in 2014, he did a six-week trip across the United States.
For this trip he will use the same Honda Shadow 750 American Classic edition that he bought in Los Angeles for his cross-America trip.
On that American trip, people kept asking Adam if he was doing it for charity – something that hadn’t occurred to him.
“So I decided: ‘the next big trip, I’ll do it for charity’,” he says.
This ‘To Asia and Back’ odyssey is that next big trip and so he is using it to raise funds for two charities close to his heart – the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Pieta House.
For around five years out of the last six, Adam has been looking after a man with Motor Neuron Disease, which is how he has come to feel so strongly about that charity.
Similarly, with Pieta House, it is personal experience that has made him want to help fund its work in suicide prevention.
“At a young age I lost my uncle, and more recently I lost a school friend due to suicide,” says Adam.
He stresses that he is funding the trip himself, so any donations made go directly to the two charities.
Adam’s route isn’t direct. Some of it is intended to allow him call – and stay overnight – with friends in various places along the way; in some places he will stay in hostels; some locations will see him stay with couch-surfing hosts – and he has also brought a hammock with him for those places where he has no “real” bed options.
Altogether, he will stay in 44 different locations during the seven weeks of his journey.

 

See his blog at:https://www.asiaandback.com/