Love, courage and motorcycles

When we were working on the new edition of Under Asian Skies I came across this photo and it started me thinking about Ian and Caroline. I met them at the Delhi Tourist Camp, which used to be the vehicle overlanders Oasis. Sadly no longer. But what happened to these two – an intrepid duo for sure!

This is what I wrote about them – if anyone has come across them or knows of them I’d love to know.

‘Ian was from Australia and Caroline was from Dorset in England. They’d met on the road and romance had blossomed, but as that happened, Caroline’s plans had taken a dramatic turn. Ian was intending to buy a second-hand 350cc Enfield to ride across to Europe, but neither of them liked the idea of being two-up on his bike for those sorts of distances. The only solution was for Caroline to buy a Bullet for herself, and then learn to ride it.
The two of them headed off into the Karol Bagh area of Delhi on a shopping expedition, and found just the bikes they needed.

Caroline’s first ride was an embarrassing wobble around the Tourist Camp, but she didn’t fall off and over the next days she became quite competent at forty-metre wobbles.

Then she had to face her first real ride, and Delhi traffic wasn’t the place I’d have chosen for such an event. So much could have gone wrong, and a nasty experience could so easily have laid their plans to rest. I admired her tremendously as she wobbled uncertainly out into the fumy rush of everyday Delhi streets. She had booked herself to take her bike test with the Indian authorities and had no choice but to break her road duck, but the test itself turned out to be amazingly simple. Could she ride one hundred metres and then turn a corner without falling off?

She could, just. And days later, the two of them set off on the long ride to Europe.’

Under Asian Skies – Lands of Adventure