Chasing Nothing

Christmas came late... So I’m back in Sydney and going through all the photos from the Silk Road trip ... it’ll take a while and for the next few weeks I’ll be revisiting all the shots you guys haven’t seen yet - so stay tuned for that. At the same time, I have several something’s in the works with all the photos and video from that trip ... coming ... soon.  Cryptic, I know but that’s all you get for now. Meanwhile, we’re on to the next thing.  This bad boy arrived in the mail last weekend - it’s a dive housing for my OMD, which will come in handy for my next few projects.  Photo was snapped with a new lens as well - a Zuiko 45mm.

2017. What's next for Chasing Nothing and myself?

4 years ago I decided that I needed a bit more excitement in my life. Though I didn't know it, this was the first step on a path that would lead to Chasing Nothing and the journey you've all been watching.

At first I just wanted to travel the Silk Road on a motorbike. The plan for that bike got out of hand, was designed and built from scratch over 2 years and then lost before being replaced by a machine that was forced across two continents by sheer willpower over a 7 month period. Meanwhile a desire to document and share the inevitable shenanigans that seem to happen every time I leave my front door, was combined with a budding passion for photography that I was busy learning in the surf for the last 3 years.

This too would morph into something wholly bigger than anticipated. An alliance was formed with the gentlemen over at Sydney Stockholm, without whom the scope and intent of this trip would have been a lot smaller. Together we came up with a plan to 'do this thing properly'.

This has resulted in 2016 being an absolute mad-house of a year for myself and all the people putting up with my shit. I put my all into one, all out solo sojourn. I was rewarded with what must be the hardest and most gruelling 8 months of my life to date.  Body and motorbike, mind and spirit were all pushed to the absolute limit. Yet in spite of all this trip threw at me and everyone supporting me, I made it through to the end. To those people, I can't thank you enough and I wouldn't have made it without you all.

So where does this leave us? Well could never have predicted how this last year would have gone for me. I've been getting so much love from you all for the photos and more than that – I think I've found a true passion in finding and capturing those little moments from 'the Wild'. This is most definitely not the end for Chasing Nothing, but rather the start of I hope will be big.

There will plenty more adventures and not just motorbike ones. I want this passion project of mine to go bigger and better than just this trip - last year was nothing if not a learning curve. Watch this space.

In the meantime, I've still got a tonne of stuff from the last few months on the road - conditions were tough and time limited so the stuff shared so far is just a tease. I'll be going back through it all in the coming weeks and sharing those moments I missed before, with all of you. Thanks again.

Snapshot from my last flight. Now I'm back in Australia.

Job done, mission complete. We did it; 8 months of trekking, riding motorbikes, riding horses, a couple of ferries, a couple of planes, the odd lift on a truck and few hairy situations later I made it across the finish line in Europe. I flew back from London straight away, leaving the motorbike to sell in Belgium.

I apologise for the discontinuity and radio silence the last few weeks. The priority became getting the bike over the line within the time and resources available. For example, I drove from Istanbul through Greece, Italy and France in a week – making Nice, South France to Belgium (1,100km) in a single day long run.

Florence

Greece