Mullingar man is Gaine-ing speed across Europe!
A 30-year-old Mullingar man who set off on a mammoth motorcycle journey that is taking him across Europe and to Asia and back is 31 days into his trip and has arrived in Romania.
Setbacks to date have seen Adam Gaine grapple with engine trouble and a documentation problem that made it difficult to get in to Bosnia. But, he has surmounted all these and proceeding apace with his plan to make it to Istanbul.
He is documenting his travels in a series of mesmerising video diaries which he publishes on YouTube. This his his latest:
Adam, whose dad is local doc Kieran Gaine, explained the thinking behind his trip: "“Istanbul is the only city in the world divided between two continents.
“I’ve driven from one country to the next, but I’ve never driven across a continent before,” he said.
Previously, Greystones-based Adam, a nurse, has crossed the USA by bike.
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.