When I was fourteen with my bicycle, I discovered Friuli rummaging in every corner of this land, from the sea to the mountains. I returned the night exhausted and scorched by the sun or dripping with rain. Then I looked up and down the peaks, falling in love with shady valleys and hidden mountains. They were my Julian and Carnic Alps, harmonious and rough, not anthropized, not raped by mass tourism. Border Alps between Slovenia, Austria and Italy.
Then she came ... the motorcycle. Mechanical Eros: stink, rumble, kilometers on the roads of India. The peaks of Kashmir, dead in the night at four thousand meters of altitude on uneven road passes accustomed to Yak's dung.
I made a return trip from Friuli to Afghanistan on a motorcycle that began June 27, 2017. The stories, day by day, can be found on the Facebook page " Back to Frico - Mongol Rally 2018 " (the name is of the next trip) and on the website www.backtofrico.it
Why Afghanistan and why on a motorcycle?
I called my Back to Frico trip because, when I thought about it, I decided to go back to Italy after two years in Bombay for work and the best idea was to get back on a motorcycle. In my mind I wanted to surprise a girl by going through all the space that separated us. The motorcycle is for me, especially the Royal Enfield, one of the few modern vehicles that allow travel not only in space but also in time. An essential motorcycle without frills or electronics, incredibly easy to repair and with an unforgettable look from Lawrence of Arabia, especially in the Desert Storm coloring.
Everything was ready for departure from Bombay, but the denial of the Pakistani visa, being a resident of India, made this dream impossible. But now it was impossible to cancel this trip from my head because too long and too detailed I had studied the places and the history of the places I would go to visit. Fortunately I also found in Italy the same bike produced in India to face the adventure, this time I went back from Friuli to the Pakistani border of Taftan, the border crossing from which I would have to enter Iran if I had arrived from Pakistan.
The stage in Afghanistan was improvised, chosen on the spot when I discovered that in Mashhad, the holiest city in Iran, the Afghan consulate issued visas with exceptional simplicity. The temptation to see the minaret of Jam one of the two UNESCO sites of Afghanistan at that point was irresistible.
How long have you put us, tell us a little about the journey
85 days, 23370km, 1320 liters of petrol, 6 oil changes, 1 tire and 2 air chambers, 1 chain replaced, 63 degrees reached in the desert, 13 countries crossed, 2 five thousand meters reached (Ararat and Kazbeg), thousands of people met. These numbers can express more than we can describe the adventures that have been placed daily along the way. The bike proved to be great, and especially in Iran, where since after the Revolution there is a law that prevents the detention of motorcycles of more than 150cc for Iranian civilians, it turned out to be a "passport" to enter into sympathy with anyone.
How is the situation really in Afghanistan?
In Afghanistan there were only three days left but at the same time they proved to be exceptional to understand a reality unknown to many: the Afghans, if not more than the Iranians, are an extremely polite population. An overwhelming kindness that imposes on the traveler the duty to accept it. The only big city I went through was Herat, home of an Italian military base (which I was very far from, being the military installations and checkpoints the most dangerous places) and all those who recognized me as a traveler they offered me hospitality as well as food and drink. This should make us reflect on how we, far more affluent than these people, deal sufficiently with what we consider "different".
In spite of everything, however, the traces of war and an unstable political situation are everywhere. Checkpoints along the roads, cars and trucks abandoned to their sides riddled with blows or the holes and bombs in some mosques.
How has the traveler changed who wants to visit this country from the 70s to today?
The western traveler who wishes to travel to Afghanistan or some areas of Pakistan can experience this kind of adventure in only two ways: the first is prudently and this consists in moving only by means protected by armed stocks in armored trucks. Especially those who work in industries and travel to Afghanistan for work choose this option. From my point of view, however, it is extremely dangerous, since it is precisely due to the nature of transport and the number of people who are informed of it that one can be subject to waiting or worse to abductions.
The second is to accept the environment in which we live, to document the risk areas by reading the newspapers especially in English, asking information on the local road conditions and their safety, without ever giving precise information about their destination.
From this point of view, although the atmosphere has completely changed since the 70s when thousands of hippies crossed it, crazy travelers with hair on the stomach will almost always manage to cross unscathed even Afghanistan not attracting attention. Because this is the best "trick": dress and eat like them, do not use public transportation or extravagant private vehicles like brand new cars or colorful Hippietrails style. After all, my Royal Enfield, with a pair of used rugs recovered in Iran and my turban seemed the winning solution.
What were the difficulties of having crossed those lands in motion?
I must be honest, the only difficulties encountered in the motorcycle trip through, above all, Iran and Afghanistan were the furious heat and the bumps to reduce speed. Very high, sudden that forced me to change the vines many times, shearing them with the blows, of my self-built metal boxes. I can not guarantee that other riders can find the same condition. My bike, for its design can use petrol at very low octane and I used engine oil than the specific bike. Distributors are frequent everywhere (Iran produces 11% of global oil) but its quality is not very high.
Have you ever been afraid?
Absolutely yes, in 5 situations I will remember all my life.
In Antioch of Syria, 130km from Aleppo, in the night they started shooting in the street near where I slept.
Outside Kobane, the city famous for being the epicenter of resistance to ISIS, from the Turkish side, I approached the border in an area forbidden to anyone. If the police or the Turkish army had found me there, he would have arrested me without a second thought. But the desire to see the hill on which a few months ago waved the flag of ISIS and fortunately replaced by that of Kurdi fighters was too strong.
When I returned from the ascent alone on the Ararat, when the water was over I was about to collapse due to dehydration. I knew that no one could help me down the country downstream since the official ascent to the highest peak of Turkey was closed.
When near the Iraq border in Iran, the place I had reached to see the Ziggurat of Choqua Zambil and the Roman water system in Shushtar temperatures reached 63 degrees in the shade and traveling by motorcycle turned out to be a hell . Perhaps the only time I really wanted to die.
In Chechnya, on the way back when I was stopped several times by the police and the Russian army because I was trying to cross an area (which I did not know) was banned. At the third checkpoint a soldier handed me over the phone and an agent from the FSB (the former KGB) told me to run wide before he picked me up. Fortunately, the same soldier accompanied me a few kilometers further in and had to cross an area that I had to travel 300km to get around.
The meeting that marked you the most?
The last big meeting was perhaps the most important. A Ukrainian family picked me up while I was hitchhiking in the middle of the Ukrainian countryside because the battery of the bike had decided that it had to leave me at 3000km from home. They were very kind, for 5 hours they helped me, wandering with me in remote villages in search of a battery that I could use. An unexpected kindness especially for the fact that we use Google Translate to communicate from English to Russian. The solution was two batteries of scooters connected in parallel attached with the tape. Fortunately, the Royal Enfield owns the starter pedal, element without which I would still be wandering through the Ukrainian steppes not having enough initial starting points.
What did you learn about yourself?
I became fully aware of the fact that I am a deeply disturbed person and that I have a profound need for this kind of very strong, real experiences, done with little, in unique places in the world. There will be time to visit Europe and the cities of art when I'm older. Now is the time to cross the deserts, the mountains, the steppes. Speaking of Steppe, the next adventure could only be the Mongol Rally done with a WWII Jeep Willys that I'm restoring alone.
Seriously, what I learned was the need to always look beyond stereotypes and look, especially people with a smile. A smiling face opens endless doors even in the most unexpected places. Of course, bad experiences can always happen, but the hypothesis that they present will never push you to undertake any adventure.
Who would you recommend this trip to?
To all those who have 3 months of time and who are passionate about humanity. Obviously an exceptionally high spirit of adventure is required. Sleeping every night in a tent or with a hammock on the side of the road may be too much for someone. But I recommend that it be a motorcycle like a Royal Enfield, pieces for BMW are not even sold by selling the soul.
Spirit of adventure and a tool kit finally pulled me out of any solution.