Meet a son

In November, my dad approached me and asked if I would like to go on an adventure across India with him. This adventure would take us from Delhi to Ladakh on the back of a Royal Enfield. My immediate response was, “how would I pay for this?” But, after talking through the options with my dad, we concluded that I will be going and set in motion a plan for getting us there. By January, the plane tickets were paid for and the motorbike booked….it was actually happening!

Once the tickets were booked, we quickly realised that we needed some practise riding a motorbike as some of the terrain we were going to experience could not be called ‘smooth’. Also, I had never ridden a motorbike before and so definitely needed to get some sort of experience. So, we borrowed a bike, went to a friend’s farm and drove through the fields to get used to controlling a bike on the rough and bumpy terrain. I am not what you could call an expert now, but I should be ok once we get onto the rough stony roads.

So, why am I doing this?
This is a big thing for my dad to ask me to do and I feel really privileged that he asked me, and not my brother or sister to do it with him. My dad and I have never really seen eye to eye and, although I love him, I have never felt like I could be his friend or he mine. My real hope is to get to know my dad through this experience together. I will have trust him with my life and he will have to trust me with his; I hope this will build up the relationship we have already started. It may have taken 30 years to get to this point but it’s going to be great and it won't be wasted time. To be honest, we should have done something like this 10 years ago; not only because it would have been good for our relationship, but also because I was about 4 stone (50Lb) lighter than I am now and sharing a motorbike would have been a lot easier!!

I would like to add that not only am I going on a trip with my dad, but I am also leaving my wife, Nickie, and 2 children, Connor age 6 and Isabel age 1. My wife shall be 37 weeks pregnant when I leave for India on the 7th August, when I return she will only have 6 days until her due date. This is going to be a challenging time for me and my family as I leave my wife at a time that she probably needs me most. I, of course, have her blessing to go but this has put a lot of strain on us. However, it has also proven the strength we have in our relationship. I just hope the baby doesn't decide to arrive whilst I'm in India….hopefully it won’t.