"An inspirational account of the monumental transformations that can happen when you take the wheel (or in this case, the handlebars) to recalibrate your life."
Part inspirational memoir, part travelogue, Free Ride showcases how You Tube sensation Noraly Schoenmaker traversed the globe, from the Netherlands to Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, through Oman, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and beyond, to discover her true self while also discovering the kindness of strangers, and what it really means to feel free.
Though Schoenmaker had always had an independent streak (“While my peers were sneaking out to secret barn parties and experimenting with makeup, boyfriends, and alcohol, my kind of fun was cycling 10 miles through the countryside on my own”), it wasn’t until she was in her thirties that this tendency truly began to bloom. In the wake of finding out that her long-term life partner had been having a long-term affair, she quit her job to explore India, which saw her fall in love with her new bike, named Basanti after the resilient heroine from an Indian film, and fall for the joys of travelling more adventurously: “the unpaved road had become my new obsession”.
Throughout, Schoenmaker’s account of her remarkable voyage of discovery is infectiously energetic. The writing is colourful, characterful and lively, and traverses genres to meld the post-break-up life transformations of Eat, Pray, Love with the edgy open-road spirit of The Motorcycle Diaries. As such, Free Ride has huge appeal for readers who adore adventure-driven travelogues, and those who love emotionally impactful memoirs.
By the YouTube sensation with more than two million followers, the inspiring account of a woman in her thirties who, in a moment of personal crisis, embarked on an epic, transcontinental motorcycle ride and along the way found a new sense of purpose.
Noraly Schoenmaker was a thirty-something geologist living in the Netherlands when she learned that her live-in partner had been having a long-term affair. Suddenly without a place to stay, she decided to quit her job and jet off to India in search of a new beginning. Her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, she felt alive and free nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.
She first rode toward the Pacific, through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, then into Malaysia. Rather than satisfy her appetite for the open road, this ride only piqued it. She shipped her bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and embarked on a journey through Iran, across Turkmenistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. She covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territory; broke down on impossibly steep mountains; and pushed too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty of the world - the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, as well as her own inner strength.
In spirit of The Motorcycle Diaries and Wild, this is an inspiring story of self-discovery and renewal. Filled with unforgettable figures, hilarious disasters and powerful human connections, it shows you what happens when you open your heart and let the world in.
Free Ride features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Motoring, Travel, Travel writing, Autobiography: adventurers and explorers, Motorcycles: general interest, Travel guides: road travel / road trips, Memoirs, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Biography: general, Biography: adventurers and explorers, Autobiography: adventurers and explorers, Memoirs, Road and motor vehicles: general interest, Motorcycles: general interest, Travel and holiday guides, Travel guides: road travel / road trips, Travel writing
Free Ride is available in Paperback, Hardback
Free Ride was written by Noraly Schoenmaker and published by August Books an imprint of Canelo
Free Ride has 224 pages
£18.00
