Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. I’m usually out and about somewhere, giving talks about my adventures – see News and Events for upcoming dates. I f you would like to book me to speak at your event please email me at [email protected]. ABOUT MY PRESENTATIONS. I give talks to all types of organisations around the world, from businesses and schools to book festivals and bike clubs. Previous clients and events include The Royal Geographical Society, The Ministry of Defence, TEDx Patras, Bosch, Motorola, The Edinburgh Book Festival, Cheltenham Book Festival, Telegraph Outdoor Show, SOAS, The Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Dubai Traveller’s Festival, RPS Energy, The Institute of Advanced Motorists and The British Police Motoring Club. Whether you’re looking to motivate your employees with a true-life tale of achieving your dreams, or seeking an example of real-life girl power to spur on your pupils, or you’re simply after some unique after-dinner yarns, my presentations can be tailored to your specific requirements, and no group is too large or too small. My talks are informal, entertaining and honest, and feature photography and film from my journeys and a fabulous musical soundtrack! Read a review of a talk I gave at the Royal Geographical Society in London. "Inspirational and a lot of fun too!" Anne-Marie Francis, Ministry of Defence. "The way Lois delivers her presentations and holds the audience’s attention is excellent and I guarantee you could listen to her many times and never tire of it!" Simon Elkins, Institute of Advanced Motorcyclists. "Lois Pryce tells a story that will amaze and inspire. Tales of her adventures kept our students captivated throughout and gave a message that was loud and clear; don’t procrastinate, go and do what you want and you too can achieve whatever you set your mind to - the perfect message for a Sixth Form audience." Rowan Macneary, Sherborne Girls School. "Lois entertained and educated each of us with vivid and humorous descriptions that just made us listen with envy and respect." Dave Lewis, Thatcham Research Centre. Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. After much weighing up of the options, I decided to use the Yamaha XT225 Serow for my Americas ride. It is a very simple, sturdy but light trail bike with a 4 stroke, single cylinder, air cooled engine. The 31″ seat height is reassuringly low for the shorter legged rider and the fuel economy is impressive with a range of around 130 miles from the 8 litre tank. The Serow’s size, weight and nimble qualities mean it really is the go anywhere bike. You just have to get used to the fact that your top cruising speed will be around 55mph, but who wants to be in a hurry on the road? There were just a few additions and of course, a luggage system required to turn the Serow from a sprightly trail bike into the mini-expedition machine that I needed. Enlisting the invaluable experience and practical skills of twice-round-the-world motorcyclists, Austin and Gerald Vince of the Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa teams, the following luggage carrying mods were made to the Serow: For my main luggage compartment a metal army ammo box (£6 from army surplus shops) was bolted to the rear rack. Metal bars were then bolted to each side of the box to carry two soft pannier bags (borrowed from my bicycle). The end of the rear rack extends far enough behind the box to carry my tent and sleeping mat. A home made metal rack was mounted above the headlight to accommodate lightweight items such as my sleeping bag. Small pannier style bags can be attached to each side of the rack to carry items that I will need to access easily, such as camera, maps, food and water. To store my tools a small metal box (also from the army surplus shop) was bolted onto the frame using the pillion foot peg mountings to keep the weight low down. In retrospect, this luggage set-up was too heavy and the weight too high up, which caused some issues with the handling, particularly off-road. By the time I set off on my Africa trip three years later, I had perfected the art of carrying gear on a small trail bike. The most important trick is, of course, to travel light! Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. Chiapas, Mexico, where my fictitious husband saves the day… My route took me down the West Coast of the USA to California, from where I would cross into Mexico at the notorious border town of Tijuana, before striking out for Central and South America. As far as I was concerned this was a fine plan, but not everyone shared my enthusiasm – almost every American I met bombarded me with horror stories of death, drugs and violence south of the border. ‘You’ll get robbed!’ ‘Murdered!’ ‘Or worse!’ they exclaimed, horrified at my travel plans. Due to this catalogue of doom, I entered Mexico terrified, expecting gun-toting bandits and corrupt policemen to jump out from behind every cactus, but it didn’t take me long to realise that the scare stories were based on little, if no fact. Riding down Baja was a blast and the rest of Mexico was turning out to be a breeze (except for the small problem of not bring able to speak Spanish). So when the policeman flagged me down, I wasn’t too worried. I’d had a couple of brushes with the Mexican bobbies, and they hadn’t roughed me up, squeezed a bribe out of me or attempted anything that could be considered in the slightest bit improper. In fact, one member of the force had even bought me breakfast, finally putting to rest the image of the corrupt, greasy-palmed policia. This latest member of the constabulary was no different; he just wanted to impart some important information to me about the road ahead. Unfortunately, I had no idea what he was talking about. But he spoke in Spanish to me anyway, gesturing to get his message across, pointing in the direction I was heading, shaking his head and waving his gloved hands in a manner that suggested there was trouble looming. I nodded, pretending I understood, thanked him profusely and carried on. Whatever he’d been trying to tell me, I figured it couldn’t be that serious. After a while I wondered if I’d got the wrong end of the stick; there didn’t seem to be anything on this road to hinder my journey. What could he have meant? I rode for a mile or so along the empty two-lane highway, passing a few wizened old men ambling along on their donkeys and a farmer herding an unruly bunch of cows. But after a couple of miles I put the whole thing down to a case of miscommunication and forgot all about it.Mexico Landscape. That was, until I came round a bend to discover the tail-end of a lengthy traffic jam. Oh! So this is what he meant. There must be road-works going on I guessed, and with the motorcycle proving itself as the finest form of transport, I whizzed up the side of the mile-long queue to the front, where to my utmost surprise, I found not the gang of swarthy, pickaxe-swinging workmen that I had envisaged, but instead, a mob of rowdy protestors, who, using a combination of themselves, rocks, tree trunks, branches, burnt-out cars and blazing bonfires, had brought the Pan- American Highway to a grinding halt. Despite the impassioned activity of the demonstrators, the roadblock had something of a fiesta atmosphere, with a few entrepreneurial types selling barbecued corn and overpriced cans of Coke to their captive market. The protestors were chanting and shouting, some of them had linked arms, creating a human barricade across the road. The entire blockade was a family affair with everyone out in force, from granny and granddad down to babies slung on their mother’s backs. But although the atmosphere seemed reasonably good-natured, the message was coming across loud and clear: NOBODY’S GOING ANYWHERE. In typical laidback fashion, none of the drivers of the trucks and cars seemed to object to the hold up; it was just another day in Mexico. Some of the truckers were taking the opportunity to have a nap in their cabs, while others strolled up and down the queue, chatting to each other. Families sat outside their cars, enjoying an impromptu picnic, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. As I pulled up to the frontline, the noisy crowd waved their arms at me, shouting ‘NO PASAR! NO PASAR!’ and glaring angrily. From the centre of the throng, their leader appeared, a man with twinkling eyes and a face that had seen it all, brown and lined from years of outdoor toil and strenuous roadblock organisation. I had to admire his tenacity. ‘Que pasa’ I asked him. What’s happening? The jeers of the crowd fell to an excitable hum when I spoke, all eyes turning to their head honcho, as he addressed the foreign muchacha on a motorcycle. Having made my opening gambit in Spanish, the leader understandably assumed I could speak his lingo and launched into what I guessed to be a stirring, rebel-rousing piece of agitprop, if the raised fists and whooping cries of his supporters were anything to go by. I thought it best to put him straight. ‘I only speak a little Spanish’ I explained apologetically in his language. This was one phrase I had learnt pretty quickly. Undeterred, he continued to bombard me with more unintelligible propaganda. After I’d listened and nodded for long enough not to be considered rude, I popped the million-peso question. ‘Es possible…?’ I asked him, motioning my request to continue my journey. He beamed a kindly smile which seemed at odds with the vigorous shaking of his head. ‘No. No pasar’ he replied firmly. I surveyed the hostile crowd. But curiosity had got the better of them and having dropped the offensive they were now edging towards me, pointing and nudging each other excitedly. The protestors at the front gathered around me, gingerly touching the bike and staring at my map of Mexico. I pointed to our location, and seeing the name of their hometown, they gaped in astonishment, beckoning their fellow campaigners to take a look. I smiled at one of the women and when she smiled back shyly, I realised that this was the moment. I had them in the palm of my hand and if I was going to get through this blockade, it was time to start playing the crowd. With a big smile I addressed the leader and his followers again in my faltering Spanish, ‘What’s happening?’ I cried, ‘Please may I go through?’ The murmur of the rabble rose to an excited chatter and they stood transfixed as the twinkly-eyed man once again refused my request. The crowd, deferring to his command, began to ebb away, moving back to their positions. Damn! I was losing my audience. It was now or never, and I had an idea… With an exaggerated flourish I whipped out my Spanish dictionary from my luggage and displayed it to the demonstrators, prompting peals of laughter and a hearty cheer. They stared at me engrossed, murmuring to each other, as I quickly flicked through to the ‘H’ section where I found the translation for the magic word. OK, this was it, time for a bit of method acting. Clutching the dictionary to my heart, I imagined myself as the leading lady in a Shakespearean tragedy (not that I’d ever seen any but it didn’t matter at this moment). I stood up on the foot pegs and in what I hoped to be an anguished tone, I delivered my plea to the crowd in their language. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please may I go through? My HUSBAND…he waits for me in the next town!’ For added effect I pulled off my left glove and raised my bare hand to the protestors, pointing to my fake wedding ring that glinted convincingly under the late afternoon sun. A gasp went up from the female members of the crowd. I turned to them, dewy eyed and pleading. But all eyes were on their leader, as they stood still and silent, awaiting his response. In the hush I could hear the whirring of insects in the trees and the shriek of exotic birdcall high above me. The leader looked at his people, then back at me. Our eyes met and I smiled wanly, still in character. A dog was yapping somewhere in the queue of stationary vehicles. A tinny car radio played a wailing Spanish ballad. The man turned again to his followers. They hadn’t moved or uttered a sound, still waiting for his decision. I stared at him, steeling myself for the worst, imagining the forthcoming night, or days or weeks even, camped out at the roadblock, hundreds of us drawing straws for the last piece of barbecued corn, starving and thirsty, forced to drink the water from the car radiators… But just as I was getting carried away with my survivalist nightmare, I was yanked back into reality by an almost imperceptible nod from the leader. A deafening roar erupted from the crowd! The magic sign had been given! I was free to go! The demonstrators leapt into action, cheering and clapping as they hurriedly cleared me a rough path through the debris, waving me on, patting me on the back as I bounced and bumped my way over the remaining rubble. Oh! The roar of the crowd, the smell of the… er…grease. My Oscar winning performance had done the trick! ‘Muchas gracias! Muchas gracias!’ I shouted jubilantly, not daring to look back in case they changed their minds. I gunned it down a deserted southbound Pan American Highway, hoping to make it to the Guatemalan border before it shut for the night. My heart quickened as signs for la frontera appeared and once again, I felt that stomach-churning excitement of a new country to discover and the thrill of the unknown ahead. Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. TEDx Talk: In Praise of Vulnerable Travel. A fun interview with UK/Iranian channel, Manoto TV. Fun fun fun! Lois on the Loose promo. Revolutionary Ride book promo. I Love To Take You Away With Me: 1965 Fiat 500 around Italy. Radio. You can catch me on the airwaves as the regular travel correspondent on BBC Radio 5’s Up All Night show. I also contribute on travel-related topics to other BBC programmes as well as on many independent, local and international stations. Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. It’s hard to say how it all started, but it probably had something to do with a bicycling holiday I took at the tender age of thirteen… It seems unthinkable these days but in 1986 I set off with three school friends on a week’s ride around Cornwall… WITH NO GROWN-UPS! We wobbled our way around the country lanes, slept in farmers’ barns and lived in fear of nothing except the spiders that crawled out of the hay bales. The following year we repeated the experience in France, although my hazy memory recalls that we had discovered alcohol by then and that our enthusiasm for Malibu & Coke combined with the seductive efficiency of the SNCF made for an altogether less wholesome holiday… Fast-forward fifteen years and I found myself working in the music department of the BBC in London. I had spent the intervening years as typical music-obsessed yoof, collecting literally tons of vinyl and working in record shops and at independent labels. Somehow I ended up as Product Manager at the BBC’s record label but I spent most of my time wondering how I had washed up in this jargon-infested cubicle hell. OK, sometimes it was fun – rifling through the Radio One archives and producing weird and wonderful CDs – but when it came to topping the charts with the Bob the Builder single, I knew it was time to go… 2003… Lois on the Loose! Alaska to Argentina… I was 29, with itchy feet, a newly-minted motorcycle licence and an office job – a potentially explosive combination! I knew I wanted to get out there, hit the road, have an adventure… but I didn’t know where to start. At this stage my motorcycling experience was limited to my vintage British bikes that I used for nipping around London but I had never even ventured outside the M25. I didn’t know anyone who had ridden a motorcycle around the world but my initial investigations led me to Chris Scott’s legendary Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, and after that, there was no going back. Here was the proof – normal people could do this stuff. And if they could do it, I could too. I sold my BSA, bought a small trail bike – a Yamaha XT225, jacked in my job and set off to ride 20,000 miles from Alaska to Ushuaia – the southernmost town in the world, at the tip of Argentina. 2006… Red Tape & White Knuckles – Africa beckons… When I returned from Argentina, my friends and family predicted I would never want to sit on a bike again. In fact, the opposite was true, As anyone who has returned from a long-distance ride will tell you, the first thing you do is to get out the map and start planning the next one. For me, it had to be Africa, a continent that has always represented the greatest motorcycle adventure available on this earth. I took the advice of all those well-meaning BMW riders I kept meeting, and opted for a bigger, more powerful machine for this trip – the Yamaha TTR250. Oh yes, those extra 25cc make all the difference… No, really, I couldn’t have asked for a better, more reliable bike for what turned out to be a truly challenging ride, crossing the Sahara and tackling the punishing terrain of the Congo and Angola. Four months and ten-thousand miles later, I rolled into Cape Town, just about in one piece and with the most incredible adventure behind me. 2013… Go East, young lady! In 2013 and 2014 I made two tours of Iran, which turned out to be a truly transformative experience, and I began an enduring love affair with this most fascinating and misunderstood country. My Iranian adventures are the subject of my third book, Revolutionary Ride which is published in January 2017 in the UK, and February in the USA. What next? The best thing that came out of my journeys was that I discovered what I wanted to be when I grew up – a writer. At last, I had found my calling. I have written three books about my trips which have been published around the world. I have since scripted and presented a DVD guide to adventure motorcycling for women and I now work as a freelance journalist, and speaker, contributing to various motorcycle and travel publications in the UK and the US, and giving presentations to all sorts of organisations across the globe – from blue chip businesses to schools, charities, motorcycle clubs, and even the Ministry of Defence! And in 2012 I teamed up with leading tour company, Compass Expeditions to host an all-women motorcycle trip in Brazil. Oh yes, I also married fellow motorcycle adventurer and film-maker, Austin Vince, and together we launched The Adventure Travel Film Festival in the UK, USA and Australia. Lois on the Loose. Young and beautiful, Lois Pryce was a rising star at the BBC. Unbeknownst to her co-workers, Lois lived a parallel life as a biker babe with an overwhelming sense of wanderlust. So she packed in her career to ride her motorcycle on her own from the northernmost tip of Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America. About the Author: Lois Pryce is a British travel author, freelance journalist, speaker and presenter. She is also a cofounder/curator of the Adventure Travel Film Festival. Torn between the career paths of two illustrious relatives, Max Born, the Nobel Prize Winner in Physics and his granddaughter, Olivia Newton-John, Lois abandoned her interest in Quantum Theory and at the age of sixteen left school and spent the next couple of years as a carrot- picker, painter & decorator and failing an audition as a kiss-o-gram before finding her home in rock 'n' roll. After various jobs in record shops and record labels she ended up as a product manager for the BBC. But by 2003, Lois had grown weary of the daily grind in jargon-infested London media-land, so she jacked in her job at the Beeb to ride 20,000 miles from Alaska to the tip of South America astride her 225cc Yamaha trail bike. Upon her return she wrote the book of this trip, Lois on the Loose, which was published in the USA and the UK and translated into several languages. Itchy wheels struck again and it wasn't long before she was plotting another adventure. In October 2006 she set off once more, this time to ride the length of Africa from London to Cape Town, crossing the Sahara through Algeria and Niger and continuing down the west coast through the Congo and Angola to South Africa. Four months and ten thousand miles later she rolled into Cape Town just about in one piece, having tackled Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers and Angolan minefields along the way. Her book of this awesome adventure, Red Tape & White Knuckles was published in 2008. Since returning from Africa she has written and presented 'Ladies on the Loose', a DVD guide to worldwide motorcycle travel from the female perspective, featuring an impressive cast of women adventure riders from around the globe. She is also a contributing editor to Overland Journal, a columnist for Outrider Journal and a co-founder of The Adventure Travel Film Festival which takes place in the USA and the UK each year. When she's not on the road she lives on a Dutch barge in London with her motorcycle adventurer husband, Austin Vince with whom she has just returned from a coast-to-coast ride across the USA in a Ural sidecar outfit. The rest of her hours are spent pickin' 'n' grinning as the banjo player in all-girl London bluegrass band, The Jolenes. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. WorldofBooks.com fully embraces the AbeBooks terms and conditions and we will do what we can to resolve any issues. Orders ship within 2 business days. Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.