“But I have the books she signed for me, and better than that, the inspiration she lit long ago in me … to go off travelling alone; to have adventures, to be curious, and to try our best to be as fearless and singular as she was.” (Journalist who interviewed Murphy before she passed, 2022)
Murphy left Ireland alone on a bicycle in 1963 and headed to India. Imagine that! No GPS, no credit card, no mobile phone and worse, no e-bike! Just a study bicycle with bags strapped to it and the need to have an adventure. That is the vibe I am getting as I read her book Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle. I am only less than a quarter way through her book and already she had had misadventures with her visa, a policeman who robbed her, was sunburnt till it blistered, narrowly avoided being raped twice, drank dirty water, and I can’t wait to see what happens at Tehran.
Strangely, according to an interview, her most harrowing experience was tripping over her cats at home!
Murphy set off from her home without much planning. She basically relied on her own judgement, experience and intuition. Well, when you go on adventures, you cannot foresee every untoward circumstance. Like all adventurers, we are prepared for the worst – death. And I guess, once you accept that, everything else becomes rather trivial. Often, we would face an unimaginable situation and when that happens, we have no choice but to go with the flow. Like the time I was stuck in Cambodia during COVID-19 and all flights were cancelled.
Anyway, I digress. I hope my life would also inspire others to take a chance at an adventure; go visit the place you dream of, do that thing you fantasise about, stand on that cliff overlooking the Atlantic that you read about when you were a child; DO IT! It may cost you an arm and a leg but it will be worth it.
Pepper's World. Notes to myself. 