TRAVEL
Left: We're guessing this was a posed picture for the press Top: The seasoned traveller – 1973 in NZ Above: 1976 and back home, 40,000+ miles after setting off
Mary Motorcycle
Below: Afghan stable hand
Rediscovered Round the world on a BSA Bantam, from 1967, aged 26
Y
ou know how some people achieve overnight fame? Or, having done something extraordinary early in life, get rediscovered by a new generation? That is Mary Sievier all over. Her story sounds like something out of a novel. Back in 1967, aged 26, she decided to travel to Russia on a motorcycle (despite the fact she couldn't ride one). Buys a Bantam, gets rejected by the Soviets so sets off for India instead, with just £80 in her pocket. Works for six months in Istanbul to raise travelling funds before riding through Iran to Afghanistan, where she works for another two years. Back on the Bantam, Mary makes it to India, ships the bike to Mombasa and rides down to South Africa, then around Australia, NZ and south-east Asia. Finally (prior to deciding to get married in Hong Kong) she rides across the USA, and eventually makes it back to her mother's house near Chichester in 1976, eight years after leaving. The Bantam is rolled into a shed and isn't touched for 45 years. “The thing is,” says Mary, now a very upright eighty, “the press at the time always had the same questions. How often was my money and passport stolen? And how often was I raped? None 20
Motorcycle R I D E R
of that happened to me. Yes, there were situations, but I handled them. Having a posh English accent and being six-foot tall helped – men don't like being looked down on!” After that first flurry of press attention, Mary faded into obscurity. Ted Simon finished his big trip and wrote an acclaimed book about it, while countless other overlanders followed in his footsteps, but no one appeared to have heard of Mary Sievier. That's all changed this year. A chance encounter on Facebook saw her invited to speak at the Overland Travel Festival and the Bantam was restored – once again, she was 'Mary Motorcycle.'
Wobbly Start
“I was in my early 20s and worked as a court shorthand reporter. I had to cover a lot of the domestic abuse cases so I heard the four letter word a lot, but had never seen it on paper. The Chief Clerk asked me to come into his office one day. 'Miss Sievier,' he said, 'we don't spell the four letter word with a 'ph'!' “The Daily Telegraph was running a holiday competition where you had to write about a trip. I'd already hitchhiked across Europe and through Tunisia and Libya but didn't want to do that again, www.britishmotorcyclists.co.uk
