Living his dream

Werner Frey from Inwil gave up his position as managing director of two companies five years ago to ride round the world on his Harley Davidson. And he has no regrets.
 
Despite a reputation for such motorbikes not being that reliable, Frey’s Harley-Davidson never broke down at all on his journey round the world. In fact, he never even had as much as burst tyre, never had one accident, never fell off, never got stuck in a pothole (even in Ethiopia), not in all of the 65,000 kilometres he rode. “I thought the engine might give up at temperatures of over 50°C in Sudan, but it just kept going; the only problem I had there was burning my legs in the sun,” he said.
 
When asked about the dangers he faced, Frey said he was very well prepared, not least with three headlights. “When anyone sees that, they know a real bike is approaching,” he said.

Not that Frey is new to such long-distance challenges as he once cycled across Australia. After that, he knew he wanted to undertake a similar challenge and even thought of flying round the world like an eagle. He may not have flown, but he has at least now almost gone around the world on a Black Eagle, the name of his machine. Now he thinks he may be the first Harley-Davidson rider to have ridden across all continents.
 
As to his quitting work at 55, he said. “There was no point in waiting until a time that I might not be so fit. I asked myself if I really wanted to go on working until pensionable age and decided to call it a day.”
 
When asked if he was running away from something or was in search of something, he replied that it was neither one nor the other, but he did meet a Swiss lady in South Africa who was running a boarding house, the pair now an item. “This is why I broke off my world tour in Columbia and went to South Africa for a year. Indeed, Marlies joined him in Los Angeles as he re-started his tour and accompanied him to Seattle before she flew back to South Africa. After that, Frey continued on his way to Milwaukee, which is where Harley-Davidsons are made. Thereafter it is north to Calgary and Alaska, from where he will fly to Seoul before sailing to Vladivostok. Thence it is the Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow and on to Scandinavia before returning to Switzerland.

But surely, he must have encountered a few precarious times.
“The world is different to how it is often portrayed. There are very many good people out there. Of course, there are checkpoints such as in Egypt, Israel and South America, where guards are heavily armed. But being on a motorbike, one is very well received, petty criminals even think of you as a hero. I could well imagine falling victim to crime a victim had I been in a hired car, for example.” However, he did encounter what he thought might be ISIS fighters in five Toyota pickups with mounted machine guns on the back in North Sudan, a situation his got out of by putting his foot down.
 
While he had planned his route carefully, he had to change it a number of times, keeping to East Africa, i.e. Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania, rather than Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, where it would have been too dangerous. “Sudan was much safer than one would imagine,” he said. “What is more, the roads were very good and the people most helpful.”
 
As to accommodation, Frey spent nights in hotels and under canvas, including in Botswana where sleeping in a tent could have been very dangerous. “Anyway, I am still alive,” he said, as he also admitted that riding in heat made him very tired.
 
One experience he will not forget was when he met up with the Red Devils motorcycling club in Bogota. “We all had a great evening,” he said. “They told me I needn’t worry about my bike being stolen there, as none had ever been so far, as they explained any potential thief would worry about it belonging to one of the Red Devils themselves.” Frey mentioned how it was even all right to go about at night in the capital city and Cali.
 
When asked what was the most striking experience he had had, he said it was driving by refugees as they were on their way to Libya, travelling in the opposite direction to him and heading towards the Mediterranean coast (and Europe). “This did make me stop and think,” he admitted, “about the extreme gap there is between rich and poor. In South Africa you get these luxury restaurants, yet right next to them are people starving.”
 
As to the most difficult border he had had to cross, he mentioned the one between Egypt and Sudan, where he had to wait for 26 hours. The problem was he did not have the documentation to prove he had not had an accident there and he was told to return to Aswan. However, the payment of $15 smoothed the way.
 
And had he never wanted to give up on his journey?
“No. there were people who said you will never make it. But if you listened to them, you would never go anywhere.”
 
Frey is still en route but expects to be back in Switzerland by the end of August.
 
To stay?
“No, to return to Cape Town to set up a farm.”