These are the days that must happen to you - Dan Walsh.
Dan Walsh was a writer for Bike magazine and decided to ride the length of Africa.... okay so far so good...then got another bike and tried it for the length of the Americas. He got a wage while doing it as he sent back regular columns , that were mildly entertaining ... he manages to write in a New Journalist/Gonzo style, as he states himself ,that he never quite gets right; he himself agrees his style is part Hunter S Thompson, part early Mark Williams, and part Nick Cohn , and a big dollop of Tom Wolfe.
Essentially like many long distance riders there is a sub plot and with Walsh it is constant battle with not becoming a statistic like many of his friends back in Manchester , or the Manc scally drug mules he visits in a Central American prison. Realising he needs to grow up as mainly alcohol,occasionaly recreational drugs and constantly travelling starts out to first destroy his relationships then his health... then the bike dies... he tries to obtain a balance in his life.
As the book is actually, as stated earlier, a collection of columns that he wrote for Bike it feels as such. Each chapter becoming a fully formed item, and there are some sections that you know he wrote purely to meet a deadline and others have a great deal more craft lovingly applied to them.
It made me mutter "Twat" a lot while reading, but not always in the negative and some sections made me laugh out loud. At time things shine through, the sheer joy of riding , the essence of the pose factor , the sheer rebellion of riding in todays sanitised car based societies.There is some incitful writing that makes you nod in agreement , but a book needs to be taken as a whole entity and as such it is not a classic, but as a bit of entertainment I would recommend it.
Be a good one for being stuck waiting on a flight , or like I was. on a train to London and back.
