In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, host Marc Bautis is joined by Chris Donaldson, a world traveler and the author of the book Going the Wrong Way, a coming-of-age, self-help book about a road trip like no other. This year, 42 years after his first journey, Chris is setting out on another adventure across the world. Today we will talk about the power of travel and reasons to journey around the world in retirement.
In this episode, you will learn:
- The story behind Chris Donaldson’s Going the Wrong Way.
- Why Chris Donaldson is hitting the road again for a second motorcycle road trip, and how this trip differs from the first one, 42 years ago.
- Compelling reasons to travel solo.
- Reasons to journey and explore in retirement.
- And more!
Resources:
Going the Wrong Way | chrisdonaldson.world | Schedule an Introductory Call | Bautis Financial: 7 N Mountain Ave Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000
Disclosure: The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity and content. It is not a direct transcription of the full conversation, which can be listened to above.
Welcome back to The Agent of Wealth Podcast, this is your host Marc Bautis. On today’s show, I brought on a special guest, Chris Donaldson. Chris is a world traveler and the author of the book, Going the Wrong Way, a coming-of-age, self-help book about a road trip like no other. This year, 42 years after his first journey, Chris is setting out on another adventure across the world. Chris, welcome to the show.
Thanks Marc, it’s nice to be here.
Let’s talk about your first journey 42 years ago. What made you want to ride around the world back then?
The Story Behind Chris Donaldson’s Going the Wrong Way
Well, when you’re young, you think you can do anything and that nothing is impossible. And the stupider an idea is, the better it sounds. So the trip made sense to me.
I grew up in Belfast in the ’60’s and ’70’s, during the time of The Troubles. I went to school in the center of Belfast, and we would see bombs going off through the lunchtime break windows.
So, it was a very peculiar time to grow up for a kid. At the start, it felt normal because I didn’t know anything else, so I just thought the bombing and the conflict were normal. But once you realize that the rest of the world doesn’t live like that, I suppose it becomes a reason to leave.
I decided to ride a motorbike to Australia. It took me a couple years to plan my route and where I wanted to go, but I planned to ride to India, take a boat from India to Australia, stay there for a couple months, then go to The United States or stay in Australia.
But the book is called Going the Wrong Way because I got to London from Belfast, which isn’t very far, and the Ayatollah mainly decided to take over the American Embassy in November of ’79. That basically closed the door to the east, so I was stuck. But I couldn’t go back home, so I decided to go south the following summer. I went down to Greece over to Israel, thinking you could get from Israel into Egypt. But of course I couldn’t at that stage. I ended up going back through Syria, across the Sahara, down through Uganda.
Africa was a pretty dodgy spot at the time. Uganda, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe and even Kenya had a civil war. The border was closed, and there was a lot of trouble and strife going on. So it was quite a hairy trip down to South Africa, which of course, was in the middle of apartheid.
I went from having a carefully planned, three month road trip to Australia, to a completely chaotic journey down Africa. At one stage, I actually drove off the edge of my map, not knowing what was on the other side.
In South Africa, I managed to hitch a ride on a yacht back to Europe. Then I got the bike sent to Los Angeles and began a six-month journey across North America – touring up to Canada, across and down the U.S to Florida, then down to South America.
All in all, the trip took about a year and a half and it was quite a coming of age trip. I was 21 years old and it was the first time I was truly away from home. It was a baptism of fire, seeing how the world was run and what happens elsewhere.
One thing I learned, by traveling to all of those countries, was that The Troubles in Northern Ireland were not quite as bad as I thought they were. There were a lot worse places in the world.
After that trip, did you return to Northern Ireland?
Yeah, I did. I ran out of money, the bike was in bits and I got sick – I caught hepatitis in South America. So I flew home and got a job in a family business. I spent the next 40 years working in the family business, eventually taking it over.
The business was prospering until the credit crunch about 10-15 years ago. Then, we had a bit of financial trouble, and the banks took over the business.
I spent three years doing self litigation to get them back. It was at that stage that I realized that one thing that traveling taught me – fighting my way through various dictatorships and troubles – was if you want something well enough, you can achieve it.
It certainly made me realize that what I’d learned on that journey had actually forged the person I developed myself into. It made me the man I was.
That trip, did you travel alone?
Reasons to Travel Solo
Yes I traveled alone. I find traveling by yourself is much more beneficial, because if you’re with somebody else, you are less inclined to actually meet people along the way. To me, the whole idea of traveling is not just to see the sites, it’s also to meet the people and learn new cultures.
And generally, you’ll find that people around the world are more likely to strike up a conversation with you if you are alone. Perhaps you’re less threatening, especially if you’re riding on a motorbike.
When you were planning the trip, did you take finances into account? Did you work at all, along the way?
Well, I left with about 1,000 pounds, which is probably about $4,000-5,000 U.S. dollars now. It’s not really an awful lot to live on for three or four months, but I thought that would get me to Australia, because that trip would have only taken three or four months.
Then, the plan was to sell my bike in Australia, get a job and possibly stay there. I would’ve been open for anything at that stage. At 21-years-old.
My problem was that the route I ended up taking took a year and a half of travel. I did work along the way a wee bit, but the shortage of money was always quite dramatic. I just tried to live like locals, couch surf, things like that.
Okay, makes sense. So when did you decide to put your journey into words and write a book?
When I was about 60-years-old. All of my friends were retiring, and I was winding my business down, trying to take more time to myself. But when I looked around at my friends and peers who took an early retirement, I really didn’t like what I saw. It seemed that everyone traded working for 30-40 years to do absolutely nothing, all day long. Just veg out in front of the TV, play golf a couple of times a week, work in the garden.
I really didn’t find that to be attractive. So one of the things I decided to do was learn how to write a book. I set that challenge for myself.
Now, I never did very well in school, so I had a lot to learn. Having the story is only a part of it, the hardest part is getting the story down into words that people enjoy reading.
Did you journal during the trip? Or did you write the book based on recollection?
I did journal the trip as it went along, and I journaled when I got back. I had actually started to put the story into a manuscript when I got back home, but after about six months of working on it, a book Ted Simon had written called Jupiter’s Travels was brought to my attention. He’d practically done the same journey I had, only he’d gone farther. He was a writer, and he’d written a very good book about the travels. So I thought I’ll never be able to replicate that, and I gave up at that stage.
It was very interesting pulling my journal and notes outside again, 40 odd years later. But the interesting thing was the things I thought I’d forgotten come back to you as you start writing about them. The journal and photographs I took really helped jog my memory.
In those 40 years since, have you ever been back to any of the countries you went to?
Well, I’ve been back to America and South Africa a couple of times, but that’s about it. I don’t love the concept of visiting the same place twice, because I think you’re generally not going to enjoy it as much as you did the first time.
So you said you’re thinking about doing another adventure? This time, are you trying to get to Australia?
Returning to Road Tripping: Journey to Australia (Part Two)
Yeah. So, a couple of years ago, one of my mates read my book and he said, “It’s a great book, I really enjoyed it. But you never actually got to Australia, what about having another go at it?” I thought, ‘I can’t really do that…’ I’ve got a wife, a 15-year-old daughter, a business – how can I just disappear for three months? I can’t.
But, I decided it would be doable if I broke the journey down into two week stages at a time.
So I’ve started the second journey, taking the same motorbike I traveled on 40 years ago. This time, I’m traveling with my friend Liam Lavery.
First, we drove down to Greece…
How long does it take to get from Ireland to Greece?
It’s about 2,000 miles. You can do it in a week quite nicely.
Okay, that’s pretty close.
Yeah, it’s not too far. So we rode to Greece and parked up there, leaving our bikes at a local motorbike dealer. We then came back, hitting the road again last November, where we took the bikes to Israel with the intention of going to Jordan and then to Dubai. But when we got to Israel, they wouldn’t let us across the border into Jordan.
Talk about going back to the same place twice: When I went to Israel 40 odd years ago, I tried to get to Egypt, Israel or Jordan and they wouldn’t let me over the border. When I came back, practically the same thing had happened. But we made it into a lovely experience…
During my first trip to Israel, I stayed with a gentleman in Tel Aviv for three or four days, and we got on very well. But being a kid, I never kept his address. I did have his name, but I’d never been in touch with him. But, with the wonders of Facebook, one of my readers in Israel was able to track him down. So I was able to meet up with him, Alex, in an Irish bar in Tel Aviv – 43 years after meeting, which was pretty cool.
Eventually, Liam and I went back to Greece and left the bikes there again. At that point, Liam decided that he didn’t want to go on – he decided to go home – which put me in a bit of a quandary. I’m not as young as I used to be, neither is the bike, and I didn’t know if I had the wherewithal to cross third-world countries in places like Iran on my own.
I had to do a bit of soul searching there, but I eventually decided I would give it a go and see how I got on.
So I went down to Athens and drove across to Turkey, which was quite interesting because it was freezing. There was six inches of snow on the ground – freak weather due to global warming. Anyway, I went through Turkey into Iran, which I was nervous about with what’s going on at the minute. It’s difficult for the people who live there, most importantly, but also for travelers.
But Iran ended up being one of the friendliest countries I’ve ever been to. Every time I’d stop to ask directions, people would invite you into their homes, invite you to stay. There were a couple of times when I was filling up with petrol that guys beside me insisted on paying for my petrol. I’m not sure whether it’s because they’ve been isolated for so long, or because they wanted to make up for their government, but Iran was certainly one of the friendliest countries I’ve ever been to.
After that, I drove down to the south of Iran and over to Dubai, where I left the bike again. In my 50s, I lived for eight years in Dubai while running a little IT business. I actually lived in a boat back then, because I couldn’t afford to pay for housing over there. After Dubai, I came back for another few months.
I just finished the next leg, where I went from Dubai back to Iran and into Pakistan. Pakistan was actually the hairiest place along the trip, because I had to travel by police escort the whole way across. It was pretty hectic because they’d either be going 18 miles an hour or 80 miles an hour, neither of which particularly suited me.
But the people were lovely. They have their problems that spill over from Afghanistan, which have caused a lot of trouble over the last 20 years. Still, very nice people. So I was on the fifth leg in Pakistan, then crossed to India and into Nepal, where I left the bike. Soon after, it was flown to Australia, where it is now. So, the bike has finally made it to Australia after 43 years, and I’ll be flying out in the new year to finally complete that part of the journey.
It’s been a trial: for me, for the bike, and simply engineering it. But I kept going.
Why Journey in Retirement
I’m not the fittest person… I was actually diagnosed with Parkinson’s a couple years ago, which is probably one of the reasons I wanted to challenge myself as well. I wasn’t going to let myself go down the slippery slope. I want to fight back as best as I can – mentally and physically.
As they say in fitness, if you don’t use it, you lose it. If you don’t use your body, you’ll deteriorate as you get older. I think that’s true with your mind as well, with your memory and with your ability to think and work things out.
But also mentally, I think it’s important to have a challenge and learn something new. As you get older and you get tired, everything requires more of an effort. I think it’s easy to fall into the habit of doing easy things or only doing things you know. The trouble with that is you lose the inspiration and interest in learning something new or trying something different. At 64, I feel it is vital to keep your interest alive, which will keep your brain alive.
Yeah… Obviously finances are a big focus in retirement, because you stop working. But because you’re not working, it’s important to fill that time with things you like to do. Hobbies, like you mentioned. But I think that’s a challenge for people in retirement – especially in the early years. It can be hard to find your passions.
Yeah, I feel that myself. There are days that you can’t really be bothered doing too much because you haven’t got the energy. But I think it’s vital to your physical and mental health to keep interests and do things that you enjoy, or things that you find challenging. Because, by pushing yourself that extra bit to do that very difficult thing, you’re going to stretch your brain power and remain healthy.
Do you plan on writing a book after you finish this trip?
Yes, I probably will. But it’ll probably be more of a memoir. I think it’ll be a story of my whole life and the different things that have happened along the way. I’ve made so many mistakes and I’ve learned a few things in the last 60 years. I will say, I haven’t made quite as many mistakes as I made when I was 21… There will be no girls involved in a second book… It will be a different angle, obviously.
Yeah, that sounds great. Well, we’re just about out of time. Chris, I want to thank you for being on The Agent of Wealth Podcast today. Your journey is very inspirational, you’ve really made the most of your time traveling. It was really interesting hearing some of your stories. How can my listeners get a copy of the book?
The book is available on Amazon, Going the Wrong Way by Chris Donaldson. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from readers, there’s about 900 reviews so far. Your listeners can also go to my website, chrisdonaldson.world.
Great, we’ll link to that in the show notes. Thanks again Chris. And thank you to everyone who tuned into today’s episode. Don’t forget to follow The Agent of Wealth on the platform you listen from and leave us a review of the show. We are currently accepting new clients, if you’d like to schedule a 1-on-1 consultation with our advisors, please do so below.
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