Ted Simon

Ted Simon ( born 1931 ) is a journalist and adventurer. He was born the son of a German communist and a Romanian Jews in Germany.

Career

As a journalist, he worked for the Daily Mail, The Observer and The Times.

His motorcycle rides

In 1973, he broke a four- year-long trip around the world on his motorcycle Triumph Tiger 100. During this time he went through 45 countries and thereby lay back more than 125,000 kilometers.

Jupiter's ride, his book of 1979 on these experiences, became an international bestseller with more than 400,000 copies and made Ted Simon cult figure. With the book Riding High, the second part of his journey, he closed some gaps of the first book.

At 70, he rounded on his rebuilt 2001 BMW R 80 GS once again the globe, crossed Europe, traveled from Tunis to the Cape of Good Hope, continued to Brazil over and went through North America. He explored New Zealand and Australia and returned after two and a half years on the road over the Asian continent to Europe. He put 95,000 km back in 48 countries. The experiences of this second journey he describes in his book Jupiter's dreams.

He also wrote the book The Gypsy in Me, which is about the search for the roots of his parents in Eastern Europe; In 2007 he released his latest work on his motorcycle trips Jupiters dreams.

His book Jupiter's journey inspired the actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their Long Way Round trip from London to New York City on motorcycles, on which she met Ted in Mongolia.

Ted Simon now lives in London and in northern California, where he grows up on a farm biological products.

Quote

"Despite the wars and tourism and satellite images, the world is still as great as it ever was. I am awestruck when I consider how much of it I'll never see. These days it is not an affair to travel the world, because if you pay a lot of money, you can fly around them in less than forty-eight hours without a stay, but get to know them, to smell them and feel between the toes, you have to crawl. There is no other way. Neither fly nor float on the water. One must stay on the ground and swallow the insects while moving. Then the world of immense size. "