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Exchanging Travel Stories With Jan & Paul

Paul & Jan in an Autorickshaw, Agra, India

Paul & Jan in an Autorickshaw, Agra, India

Heidi met Paul Dwyer in Ruanda in summer 2011. Paul, together with his wife Jan, had been riding their motorbikes through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. After a few contacts through the Lonely Planet ThornTree, they met in Kigali and Heidi decided to join them and travel on Paul’s motorbike. An experience of a lifetime for her!

A few weeks later, we both met Paul in the tiny fisher village of Butiaba in Uganda, on the shores of Lake Albert. Paul was then travelling alone down south from Gulu and Kitgum, where he had made a documentary about a child soldier. We were going north to Murchison Falls National Park.

With Paul, Butiaba, Lake Albert, Uganda

With Paul, Butiaba, Lake Albert, Uganda

With Paul, Butiaba, Lake Albert, Uganda

With Paul, Butiaba, Lake Albert, Uganda

A small world? A few weeks after we decided to travel to Rajasthan, Paul & Jan posted on facebook that they were biking through Nepal & planned to be in Rajasthan / India around Easter. So we met in Agra and spent the next nine days together, visiting and above all exchanging travel stories or dwelling on topics large and small…

Jan and Paul’s itinerary is quite an ambitious one: to travel around the world on a motorbike, step by step! They keep taking breaks though and go back to look after their many businesses or family. In July, they will be back in Uganda and then ride down to South Africa, where Jan’s family is from. Then they will ship the bikes to South America and travel this continent. Of course, we already discussed the possibility to meet in Equator during Summer 2013, one of the last countries in South America that we haven’t visited yet…

Jan at Itimad-ud-Daulah, better known as the "Baby Taj", Agra, India

Jan at Itimad-ud-Daulah, better known as the “Baby Taj”, Agra, India

Paul at Itimad-ud-Daulah, better known as the "Baby Taj", Agra, India

Paul at Itimad-ud-Daulah, better known as the “Baby Taj”, Agra, India

No need to say that we are both full of envy to be able to do such a thing… Gilles was again motivated to start a business that would allow us to do exactly that. Ideas we have, but to do it is a much different thing… As Paul mentioned once, you just have to take the step, and if you don’t you shall not complain 10 years later that you haven’t done it… How true!

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