AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER | 111SAFETY OVERSEAS
any time and you don’t want to hit one.
And if a cow is crossing the road in front
of you, don’t try to go around the front of
it as that could incite it to run.
Go around the back of it instead.
Dogs are also problematic and will o en
charge motorbikes in packs. Don’t panic or
speed up; instead, slow down. This will fool
a dog into slowing down too and when they
get within 5m, speed off. And whatever
you do, don’t li your legs in the air to
avoid ge ing bi en. Doing so will actually
give a dog a clear target to latch onto. Be
especially wary of children in developing
countries, where parks and sports ovals
are few and far between — soccer matches
o en take place on public roads.
Wooden bridges can be very dangerous
in the wet. My brother once cracked
his knee open a er sliding off one in
Tasmania. As a rule of thumb, wipe off a
third of your speed on wet roads and half
your speed if the road is wet and it's also
raining. If you get caught in a monsoonal
shower, the kind of rain that comes down
sidewards, fi nd shelter ASAP. If you can’t
fi nd shelter, park your bike and stand
away from it. Don’t sit on it or even touch
it as it could a ract a lightning bolt.
Just as glaring sun can impede your
vision, so can the shade of trees on sunny
days as they cast black holes over the
road and hide potholes, subsidence or
rocks. Also, don’t trust railway crossings
in third-world countries. Come to a
complete stop at least 2m away, look le
and right and continue safely on your
way. In South Asia, speed bumps are o en
unsigned and can give you a big fright if
you ride over them at speed.
Finally, be aware that highways in
poorer countries have to be shared with
tractors, motorised rickshaws, horse-
and bullock-dawn carriages as well as
antiquated trucks and buses. That means
you’ll fi nd yourself needing to overtake
quite o en and exposing yourself to front-
on collisions. The risk factor jumps up 10
notches when there’s a queue of cars or
bikes stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle
on windy mountain roads, with each
driver or rider eager to get past and taking
risks in the process. When you add to that
another queue of vehicles coming the
other way, overtaking becomes a game of
Russian roule e. I have survived hundreds
of hours of riding in such conditions by
simply taking it easy. If in doubt, don’t
overtake. Pull over, take off your helmet,
take a deep breath and remember, you’re
on holiday. Enjoy it. ARRoccasion they do so, I can see it coming.
But when riding on the hyper-congested
roads of the developing world, drivers and
riders act like morons all the time and
vigilance is paramount to staying alive.
Let’s start with your line. You can never
assume your side of the road is yours to
keep. Truck and bus drivers, who can be
drunk or souped up on amphetamines,
o en overtake around blind corners.
Your best defence against them is to
choose a line about one foot away fromthe shoulder of the road. Don’t hug
the corner because you never know if
a pedestrian, cow or kid on a scooter is
coming the other way, as happened to
me once in East Timor and resulted in a
front-end collision and a ripped ligament
in my right calf when I came off my
bike. Speaking of cows, they roam the
streets of Asia and Africa with complete
immunity. If you see one standing or
walking along the shoulder of the road,
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