Title: Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World
Author: Elspeth Beard
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Memoirs, Travel
Pace: Slow
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2017

This is one of those books that is very easy to put down and walk away from. Yet, it isn’t boring or easy to stop thinking about. It just doesn’t have you totally gripping the edge of your seat and wondering what exactly is going to happen next. The perfect memoir to read before bed – it’s actually safe to pick up because you can read just that one chapter and then walk away for a little bit. Not something that I necessarily experience with all of my books and can make being responsible and catching up on sleep somewhat difficult.

Beard is a great writer who takes you along with her on her epic journey. For me, someone born in the early 90’s, it is impossible to imagine much of the world that Beard travelled through almost a decade before my birth. Yet, she is able to write about her adventures in such a way that I can’t help but picture them. Particularly the hardships she experienced as a solitary woman travelling around the world. I can’t imagine trying to do that now. Doing that in an age before phones and in a time way before now… yup, that’s completely unfathomable to me.

The ending to this journey is probably one of the most sad that I’ve read in a long time. Especially in a memoir. The fact that this is a travel memoir meant that I really wasn’t expecting the way that Beard rounds out her phenomenal story. There is a lot of love in her final chapters that highlights her journey and how difficult some of it was for her. Particularly the journey that she takes to find herself when she returns home. I can’t even fathom going on such an epic multi-year adventure. But the returning home and figuring out who you are and what to do next? Unimaginable.

This was a fantastic adventure. One that I will probably reread in the future – there are so many moments throughout this that took me completely by surprise and swept me away in a whirlwind adventure. Some of the locations throughout Australia were so familiar and made me feel a comfortable welcoming home. Many others were totally unexpected. Moments and places that I will probably only ever dream of visiting…

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Image source: Booktopia