Three days after their wedding in 2008 this couple loaded their aged R1100GS and set off from Estonia. With 80,000kms on the clock already it was the bike they owned and knew, so for the next three years and 170,000kms it took them round the world and became the star of hundreds of remarkable images.
You may have seen some of these on ADV Rider but now at last, the best of Margus’ photographs have been curated in one beautiful hard-back book. Kariina’s text accompanies them but does not attempt to provide a blow by blow account of the journey. So much was experienced that you feel she could have easily written a book per continent, but following a brief introduction, her writing tells the story of the trip through engaging anecdote. Being evacuated by the military in Pakistan, trapped in no-man’s land for over a week near Angola, and taken in and given succour in the middle of the night by Laotians when the shaft drive fails again, shows the breadth of their experiences.
The narrative is linear, inasmuch as it follows the route through the Americas, Australasia, SE Asia, Nepal and the ‘Stans before going through Iran and turning south to Yemen, followed by an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Africa. However, the anecdotal style means it’s easy to dip into and the inviting images make it difficult not to.
They are a resourceful and inquisitive pair – he a physicist and she a linguist and social scientist –and this combination adds immeasurably to the experience they had while on the road and to the end result for the reader.
Thankfully the English language version of the book is now available in the UK as overseas postage can be prohibitive for a glossy 320 page book, but this is one of those quality coffee-table publications you really should have, especially if you are trying to encourage your partner…
Review By Paddy Tyson
ISBN: 978-9949-81-294-3
Hardback 320pp colour images throughout (c £30)
Published by MTU Uhel Teljel Mooda Planeeti Estonia (English ed 2016)