Lost On... Steve Crombie

Review about Lost On Earth from @driftingkiwi's blog - Whats Dave Doing

'A friend of mine wandered up to me a few weeks ago, handed me a book without a word and walked away.

To be fair it wasn’t a total surprise – a day or two earlier she’d told me about this story written by someone who had shipped his motorbike from Australia to Chile and proceeded to ride the length and breadth of the Americas.  “I think you’ll like it”, she said.

She couldn’t have been more right.

Steve Crombie is an interesting guy.  And yes, that is rather an understatement.  He’s done all manner of things in his life, from landscape gardening and software design to floating down the Amazon in a home-made canoe and running away to join the circus (yes, seriously).

In search of an even bigger adventure he came up with something epic – circumnavigating the globe by boat and motorbike, visiting all seven wonders of the world along the way.  He never quite got there, but the nearly two years he spent working his way from the bottom of Argentina to Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay have provided him a greater wealth of emotions and experiences than most people manage their entire lives.

The story started, like many good stories do, with a few guys and a half-assed idea.  With a bike called Wolverine and a couple of mates in tow, the trip began much as it was often to continue – badly.  Gunshots in the night, an accident and a dislocated finger being slammed back into place on the side of the road - and that’s just the first 24 hours.

Within a matter of days there was a more serious accident, and within a few months there had been jail time, a robbery or two and Steve was travelling solo, having lost one mate to lack of money and the other to a girl.  Certainly not the first travel tale that features those last two ingredients…

Some people would have given up right there.  I found myself wondering whether I would have carried on had I been in the same situation – and realised that I really didn’t know.  You never do, I guess, until you find yourself in the moment.

Fortunately for both him and the story, Steve did carry on.  For another 18 months, in fact, as he worked his way on a rapidly self-destructing Honda up as far as Salvador in Brazil before crossing over to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.  From there the adventures continued on a boat down the Amazon (with a girl and his bike in tow, of course), then the road totally less travelled – overland into French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama.

And that’s just the South American leg – although to be fair, it does take up well over half of the book.

The adventure continued all the way up through every country in Central America and then, with money getting tight and Wolverine attempting to blow herself to pieces, a mad dash to make it to the Arctic circle before either one gave out entirely.

The hardships of the journey are numerous, and the story doesn’t shy away from them – lack of food, chronic stomach problems, a bike that was continually breaking down, not enough money to fix it properly when it did, extreme weather, local wildlife, a broken heart and pretty much anything else you can name.  None of it gets in the way of the ultimate goal, and with a mix of laconic humour, straight talking and occasional flowery prose a tale of guts and bloody-minded determination spills out across the pages.

In between the difficulties, though, were incredible, life changing experiences.  The kindness and friendliness of the people that he met shines through, and if you ever needed inspiration to learn a language before travelling somewhere the depth of local interactions in this book will provide it.  The scenery, wildlife and landscapes of the Americas unfold as Steve slowly heads north, and the sheer unabashed joy of the ride can’t help but stir your own wanderlust. 

This is freedom, pure and simple.

I’m not a motorbike rider – occasional misadventures aside – but extended bike trips are something I’ve long talked about regardless.  After finishing Lost on Earth, there was nothing I wanted to do more than buy a motorbike, throw a few things in a bag and hit the road.  I seriously admire Steve Crombie, a man whose bare-faced enjoyment of the good times allowed him to keep going through the worst of the bad times.

The quote at the start of the book says it all:

Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. – Helen Keller

For Steve, nothing at all is not even an option.

You can buy the Kindle edition of Lost On Earth from Amazon and the print version from Steve’s site.

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