A college lecturer from Kesh is putting the final preparations in place before he embarks on the trip of a life-time when he will make his way around the world on the back of his trusty motorbike.
Patrick Tyson (39), a political tutor, is leaving behind the College lecture theatres of Somerset to take to the open road and see the world. Having spent 10 years as a dispatch rider Patrick firmly believes he has the right combination of skills to make the mammoth trip.
Leaving Ireland on Tuesday 17 June, Patrick's first port of call is Nova Scotia, before slowly, in an up and down way, moving across to Alaska, then it's into the United States where he intents to travel around America meeting up with friends, and he explains this will take him across the continent a number of times.
From there Patrick will enter Mexico where he intends to study a Spanish language course to help him make the most of his trip. Then he heads south to the very bottom of Mexico to Puerto Del Fagioli. Patrick envisages it will take him the most of a year to make this part of the trip. And this is as far as he has really planned.
From here the road forward is wide open: "Fate will play a big hand," he explains. "It will either be back to Buenos Aries and across to Capetown and I will ride home from there. Or else it will be back to Chile across to Australia, then to India and overland back home. I just haven't decided."
Having travelled all his life, Patrick identifies his mother Pauline for giving him the travelling bug: "She took me on my first road trip, also across the states, in 1976 when I was seven, along with my big sister who was ten. That was using public transport to get across America. It was a huge thing to do, but it definitely gave me the bug.
"And she also worked in Carefree Travel in the late 70's so I was always reading travel journals and brochures."
He also points to his younger days watching Blue Peter as inspiration: "I remember the programme followed, with regular video reports, the journey of three Mini cars around the globe in aid of charity.
One month they would be stuck in Amazonian rain forest, the next in desert or mountains and the whole thing seemed like an incredible adventure, getting the same machinery to tackle so many different types of landscape."
And so from he left school, Patrick has been determined to see as much of the world as possible: "I have been travelling since I left Portora in 1987. First I went to Canada and worked there, then after University I made my first contential European trip in 1991 and I've been doing it ever since. I did take a year out in 2004 and rode around New Zealand, Australia and ended up in the Philippines, but this is the big one," he admits
Clearly addicted to the freedom provided both by the bike and travelling on his own Patrick explains: "I absolutely love it. I love the freedom of choosing any day wherever I feel like going, or things changing depending on who you meet. Plans can completely alter and you may end up somewhere you never thought of."
So with such a choice of destinations, where is Patrick most looking forward to visiting: " I think it will be the Andes. I love mountains, particularly when I'm riding a motorbike."
