Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19206 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 500 pages

Motorcycle Sport & Leisure, August 2006
"Adventure motorcycling as it should be."

TBM, July 2006
This fantastically entertaining globetrotting tale is a must for anyone who has ever dreamed of having a go themselves.

Synopsis
This is the motorbike expedition that has inspired hundreds of others. Ewan McGregor certainly learnt from watching the "Mondo Enduro DVD". The classic Discovery Television series "Mondo Enduro" is at last published as a paperback. Here, you can experience first hand the joys and agonies of riding the longest land route around the world, 44,000 miles, in the shortest possible time. Completely unsponsored and without backup, "Mondo Enduro" learnt their mistakes the hard way, because they had no idea what they were doing. Any of the three parts of "Mondo Enduro" would make an exciting book in its own right, but here they are published together for the first time: London to Magadan (Siberia); Alaska to Chile; and South Africa back home to London. Sleeping in mud huts or under the stars; avoiding bandits from the Caucasus to Central America, this is adventure motorcycling as it's meant to be - raw, super low budget and above all - fun.

Customer Reviews

Mondo A -Go -Go
In 1994, seven pals decide down the pub (where else?) to motorcycle around the world by the longest route possible. Before departure, not one of them has ever repaired a punctured tyre. They fail to get sponsorship, travel insurance, and most of their travel visas. Even a cursory glance at the map suggests that in Eastern Siberia the road is blocked by 400 miles of impassable swamp. When they ask a BBC journalist about Georgia, they are told - categorically - 'they will not last five minutes'.

Over the next year and a bit the bikers log their daily observations, gleefully recounting in classic British tradition every small discomfort, crash and humiliation to befall their fellow travellers. With little money to spare, wit and improvisation are the order of the day: lost bike documents are forged in Istanbul, gambling debts paid with fake watches, Russian traffic cops placated with a drunken shooting competition. They are attacked by skin eating insects, harried by border guards, swept away by floods, and in once case, nearly killed by an African lorry. Sleeping in barns or under the stars, the shocking state of personal hygiene scuppers (almost) every encounter with the opposite sex.

The triumphs more than make up for this. The former Soviet Union, South America and Africa come across like an infinite, awe inspiring biker's playground. They didn't know it at the time, but one of the lads actually meets his future wife on the road. While fear has become the national psychosis in today's post 9/11 world, these unassuming journeymen prove that if you greet the world with a joke and a smile, the world in the shape of Serbian farmers, Saudi businessmen and Kalahari bushmen almost always respond with humbling kindness and hospitality. Largely written for their own amusement, Mondo Enduro is nevertheless one of the cheeriest, most bracing celebrations of cultural difference, friendship, and the open road I think I have ever read. Brilliant.

Even better than the DVD
Whether you are planning a journey yourself or if you have never ridden a motorcycle and have yet to venture out of your home town, this book is a must read. Mondo Enduro prove that all you need is a 'get up and go' attitude to turn every day into the adventure of a lifetime; and all without the need for back-up teams, mechanics or sponsors.
WARNING: This book may be inspired to quit your job, sell your home and live under a poncho for a year.

Mondo Stupendo What A Tale
A Stunning true life account by real people about real people One of the few books that have made me laugh aloud and feel for the guys of Mondo Enduro Every night I put the book down I felt that I was thinking about real people so far from home & almsot as if I knew them. If you have ever thought about any kind of motorcycle touring this book is a must. Just reading this book has got me off of my behind and riding across spain and back now the rest of the world here I come. This is the true long way round No Money No support Just an ordinary bunch of guys proving that the world is a small but ever so friendly place