Road Tripby Robin Wheeler I have
spent the last three evenings watching “Long Way Round”, a seven
episode TV
series on DVD about a road trip around the world. Actors Ewan McGregor
and
Charley Boorman rode from London to New York on motorbikes, and did so
by
travelling east, through Europe, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska,
Canada
and the States, the long way round. And, of course, they filmed it. Well,
what a trip! For me on the couch, I mean. A multi-layered odyssey. I
shared in
all they went through, which swung from one extreme to another as they
ventured
deeper into the story. And I also relived the journeys I’ve travelled
in my
life, particularly the backpacking I did around Europe, and ultimately
wrote a
book about. Road trips are that big: They can inspire books and TV
shows. I was lent the “Long Way Round” DVD by my lifelong friend Adrian, who a few years back rode up Africa on a touring bike, on his own. We were listening to music and talking about life one Saturday afternoon, and the conversation took us to that urge to head out again, that compulsion that keeps stalking you. What got us onto that topic was the latest Bruce Springsteen album Devils & Dust, and the feeling in it of being out on the road, in the wilderness, literally and figuratively. That led us to looking through a book called “10 Years on 2 Wheels”, written and photographed by the Norwegian biker Helge Pedersen, which details his spectacular trips through practically every place on earth. And that led to the DVD. A road trip is both literal and metaphorical, physical and spiritual. You travel it on the ground, so to speak, facing and discovering physical wonder, hardship and triumph, and you travel it on an internal level. And there you encounter and learn just as much. It cleanses you as it fills you with experience. It teaches you about the world and yourself by making you forget the inconsequential, by overwhelming you so much you surrender to the moment. You don’t
have to circumnavigate the planet to have a good road trip, you can do
anything
with symbolic meaning. You can revisit a nostalgic spot from your
youth, walk a
route your ancestors once took, or go and see your favourite artist in
concert
in a significant city somewhere. I set out for London once, to see
Bruce
Springsteen, without a ticket, and wrote a book about that, too.
Anything wild
and meaningful should do the trick. Taking
the “Long Way Round” was transformational. The two spoilt and
irritating
actors, whom you had to tolerate for the first episode, and watch
setting off
arrogantly on the streets of London, soon began to drop their
self-importance.
They became more genuine, until, a few episodes in, they were
profoundly real,
unburdened by the pretentiousness they carried around and subjected
others to
in their routine lives. And I remember having the insight when I was travelling Europe, staying in communes and youth hostels and on trains, that for the first time I was just Robin. I didn’t have a surname, I hadn’t gone to this school or that university, didn’t live in this suburb or drive that car, or anything like that. I had no personal history or social baggage, I was just me, the real me. Which was hard but so good to find. The two actors in “Long Way Round” faced severe hardships, Adrian has told me about some of his struggles in Africa, and, believe me, I have faced some of my own. The price is high, sometimes it costs everything you have, but it’s worth it. What you find is worth it. Which has me wondering. Does all this talk of road trips suggest that I’m contemplating another one? Is there a new adventure beckoning? More than likely. It’s a metaphor I just can’t seem to get away from. An announcement from Adrian sometime soon wouldn’t surprise me either. If one
is tugging at
you, I say take the trip.
It’s the modern metaphor, it always has been the metaphor, and always
will be. |
