This is not a story about motorbikes. Nor is it a story about exploring a beautiful and remote part of the world. It’s a story about friendship underpinned by the love of motorbikes that has spanned decades, crossed continents, seen dizzying heights and survived demoralising lows.
I first met Nazario Salvador, a Spanish copper, in East Timor in 2009. He was at the tail end of a seven-year mission as an anticorruption investigator with the Australian Federal Police, whereas I had flown to East Timor on a whim after losing my job as a news reporter in Sydney in a bid to kickstart a new career as a freelance moto and travel writer.
Naz and I were introduced by a mutual friend from Australia and hit it off instantaneously. He had a big old KTM 640 Adventure and was a fountain of knowledge about adventure riding in East Timor. He told me it was not possible to hire a motorbike there, but after hearing about my mission he offered to lend me his second bike, a beat-up Kwaka 650 KLR, and took me on a three-day tour of the war-torn half-island state. My ride report on East Timor, “Danger Zone”, was later published in Australian Road Rider.
Fast-forward five years, to 2014. My career was back on track and then some. I was staying at a luxury clifftop villa in Bali (a perk of the job) when I discovered