Megumi Takemoto is a brave young woman. The 22 year old university graduate from Niigata, 300 kilometres north of Tokyo has already achieved national celebrity status in Japan by being the first female pitcher in the Tokyo University Baseball Team. That’s quite a claim to fame in baseball mad Japan, but Megumi knew she had something inside her that wanted more.

It was while she was still studying at Niigata High School that the thought of travelling around the world by motorcycle came to her. Megumi wanted to know more about the world and loved motorcycles so the notion seemed sensible, however she claims there is no particular reason for undertaking the mammoth trip.

“Australia seemed the best place to start… it’s safe and easy for the bike and for me. I bought a map and was scared at first as the country is so much bigger than Japan, but as the trip got closer my fear became excitement and when I collected my bike from Kawasaki in Sydney I couldn’t wait to get going. I’d spoken to many people who had ridden around your huge country and felt ready to go.

"The bike itself is a Kawasaki Super Sherpa, a 250cc trail bike which is small and easy to handle. I thought it was the best bike for the trip and brought it out from Japan to Australia in June. Apart from a front rack and rear pannier frames, it’s just as it came from the showroom. I used soft panniers and carried 10 litres of spare fuel plus a small tent, spare clothes and a few spare motorcycle bits. I also carried an Emergency Locator Transmitter in case I injured myself miles from anywhere, plus a little bit of food just in case. I’ve written a diary of the trip which says where I went each day and a little about the special things that happened to me.

"“Now I’ve finished the trip it was just great. I like Australia very much and want to come back once I’ve finished the rest of my trip. I’ll get a one year working visa and stay for a while as it’s such a beautiful country. However I have the rest of the trip to get through so after spending most of the summer and autumn in Japan, I’ll be setting off for Vancouver in Canada. I then plan to ride a big Kawasaki KLR650 down to Los Angeles and then across the USA on Route 66 to New York.

“After that I’ll be heading south to Mexico, Central America, South America and down to Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of Argentina. Then up the east coast to Rio or Sao Paulo in Brazil before flying across to South Africa. I plan to ride right through Africa and into Europe. I really want to visit every European country and then ride through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and down into India. After riding right around the coast of India, I’ll cross into Bangladesh then down into South East Asia, I’m really looking forward to visiting Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. After Asia I plan to be back in Japan after three years and about 200,000 kilometres of riding. Phew!”

As previously stated, this is a big trip. On your own with just a single cylinder motorcycle for company it’ll be even bigger. However after spending just 53 days riding around Australia and covering 19131 kilometres you can be sure that Megumi Takemoto has a big, brave heart and will do exactly what she plans to do. Good luck Megumi!

Below is a rough timeline of Megumi's Australian adventure