Going Postal - Sydney to London on a Dorothy

In 2009, British Motoring Journalist Nathan Millward rode across the world on an old Australian mail bike called Dorothy. The pair began their journey in Sydney and ended it in London, covering a total distance of 23,000 miles, through 18 countries and all at a top speed of 40 miles per hour.

It took them nine months, setting off after just two days of planning and passing through such countries as Pakistan, India, East Timor and China. They crossed the Himalayas three times, were made honorary members of an Indonesian bike gang called the BigZoners, slept under machine guard in Islamabad and rode the long and lonely steppe of Kazakhstan until finally they reached the English Channel where finally they had to stop, at journey’s end.

Now the pair heads back to Australia – though this time by aeroplane – to celebrate the release of their book.

Published by HarperCollins Australia, Going Postal is a travel memoir examining the heart of such an adventure; the ‘why’s’ and the ‘wherefore’s’, the reasons we do such things, what we aim to achieve from them, why we cannot quit once we’ve started and how, ultimately, they can be done by one man and his trusty red machine, in Converse boots and wearing only one sock. Though at what cost?

Soon to be on sale through high street retailers in Australia, Going Postal can be ordered internationally though thepostman.org.uk.