On 6 October 1973 Ted Simon packed his bags, loaded up his 500cc Triumph Tiger and set off on a four-year, 64,000-mile journey around the world. Fast forward to the present day and that trip has inspired many others (including the likes of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman) to take a similar journey of their own.
As many of you will know, that tale was documented in Jupiter’s Travels, a book that is widely credited with bringing adventure motorcycling into the mainstream. Well now, all of Simon’s extraordinary experiences are being brought to life even further thanks to an audio version of the book. Read by versatile narrator Rupert Degas, the audiobook delivers almost 17 hours of inspiring and enthralling experiences as it follows Simon’s journey through Africa, the Americas, Australia and then from Singapore back to the UK.

The most bizarre fact about Ted Simon’s four-year mid-1970s motorbike journey round the world is that he was 42 when he undertook it; even more remarkable is that he repeated his journey, aged 70, eight years ago. Listening to his upfront and personal account of his first trip, I’d assumed he was in his early twenties. He is engagingly honest about his own shortcomings as he is unseated time and again on Africa’s all but non-existent roads, panics during two weeks of being held by Brazilian police, falls in love in California (to which he returned as an organic farmer in later years), and learns just a little wisdom among Indian gurus. All praise to Rupert Degas for making this over-egoistic but fascinating tale compulsive listening.

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award
In 1973, Ted Simon embarked upon an epic journey that would take him 64,000 miles around the world on a Triumph Tiger motorcycle. Four years later, he would return to London a changed man with many a colourful tale, recounted here. Simon himself provides the introduction for his epic motorcycle journey, and hearing his voice sets a good tone for the rest of the audiobook; in fact, he quips, ‘Rupert Degas […] sounds much more like me than I do’. Narrator Rupert Degas then takes over for the remainder, with delightful results. His British-accented diction is clear, and his speech follows natural patterns, appropriate for a memoir. Degas’s accents for the various people Simon encounters add an extra dimension to the work, creating a vivid listening experience.