Hello and welcome to my blog-site, which focuses on my hobbies of motorcycling, hiking and travelling!
My name is Craig. I was born in the UK but moved to Bermuda in 1984 and lived there for the next 33 years. It was a beautiful place to call home and was an excellent launching pad for international travel.
In 2011, I began making plans for a big trip to celebrate my retirement in 2014. Having decided that the trip would be an overland adventure in a Land Rover, I coined the name Bermuda Rover and began this blog to document the preparation and the trip itself.
Prior to starting this adventure, I had travelled to 29 countries during my lifetime. Those travels included a 6 1/2 week around-the-world trip (by air) and a one-month ‘overlander’ trip in southern Africa.
My 2014 adventure was my most significant trip by far. I drove my Land Rover over 22,000 miles and visited 23 countries over a period of 5.5 months. Six of those countries were repeat visits, so the trip added 17 new countries to my travel map.
With the big trip completed, I continued to use this blog to document my ongoing travels and my motorcycling experiences.
Between December 2015 and February 2016, I took a six week solo trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam that included two motorcycle tours. It was a wonderful trip that exposed me to some wonderful Asian street food. Now I’m hooked on street food!
Another Asian trip in 2016 took me to Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan and Cambodia.
I took early retirement and in 2017 we left Bermuda and moved to Europe. For six months, we visited Portugal, France, Germany and Spain, trying to decide where would be the best place to retire.
In January 2018, we settled in Porto, Portugal, to enjoy our retirement. We love it here! Motorcycles have become a large part of my retirement, and I ride as often as possible – both on and off-road.
Whilst we visited Morocco in 2018, most of our recent travel has been focussed on exploring Portugal and Spain. We have also taken up hiking, which provides another means of exploring this beautiful country that we now call home.
I’ll continue to share my adventures through this blog, whether they are in Portugal or farther afield. I hope that you enjoy the experiences and photographs that I post, and that my blog inspires you to get out and enjoy the world around you.
Here is a list of the 61 countries that I have visited to date:
ASIA (15)
Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.
AFRICA (8)
Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (4)
Barbados, Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Rico
EUROPE (29)
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
MIDDLE EAST (1)
Uzbekistan
NORTH AMERICA (3)
Canada, Mexico, United Sates of America
SOUTH AMERICA (1)
Peru
PACIFIC
None
Craig,
Looks like we are doing similar things again only I am doing it by boat.Get in touch.
Our website is
http://www.cygnus3.com/
Mark
Hi Craig, nice trip buddy!
regards from leo and Rachel from Brazil..
Soon we will debut our website and send it you!!
Wow I am in Bermuda and love land rovers! Why have I not heard about this before. All the best on your adventure
Thanks James. We’ll be putting out info to the media nearer to the expedition in 2014. We still have to get the Defender modified and take it on a shake-down trip this year.
Hi Craig, we are very glad that you loved our service at Wagner Asia Automotive. Our colleagues at Guava, official distributor of LR in Britain, wanted your contacts from us. Can you please send me an email to tanan@wagnerasia.com? Thanks.
Hello Craig. Great photos and write-up on Coimbra. We also thoroughly enjoyed the city and especially the university. We were quite surprised to hear that bats live in the library and take care of bugs etc at night. Another great place to visit is the palace in Mafra. Off the beaten track and very few tours go there. The drive along the Duoro on N222 is also spectacular. At the end of the month they will hold the Contraband Festival in Alcoutim which is on the Guadiana River. They will set up the floating bridge for all to cross over to Spain. Checki it out. Keep up the great travels and blog. We are leaving for Portugal this Sunday.
I am about to set up my own blog … as an FYI what theme are you using in WordPress. Cheers.
Thanks Bill. I ride along the N222 fairly regularly, but I’ll check out your other recommendations. I’m currently using the Owari theme on WordPress.
Sorry. Meant the end of March for the Contraband Festival …. another ? What camera and lens do you use. Cheers.
Whilst I have a Canon EOS 80D DSLR with a couple of different lenses, the majority of my photos are taken with my trusty Sony RX100 Mk4 mirrorless compact. It’s much easier to carry around with me, particularly when I’m out riding the motorcycle, and it has some nice features for a compact.
Dear Craig, I’m the editor of JazzTimes magazine in the U.S. and I noticed a photo on your site that I’d love to use in our next issue. If this interests you, please drop me a line at mrandall@madavor.com. Thanks! Mac Randall
Craig,
been a long time – contact me on my email – would love to pick your brains about a few things.
Russ Matthews