Sam Manicom was born and brought up in the Congo, West Africa. He completed his education in the UK when his parents returned.

Age 21 he set off to hitchhike Europe, with a couple of hundred pounds in his pocket and a ridiculously overloaded backpack. This trip turned into a three-year seat of the pants adventure reaching as far away as Australia. He returned to settle back into what he calls the challenge of ‘real life’.

Some years later he looked for a new challenge and set off to ride a motorcycle the length of Africa, starting from Jersey in the Channel Islands. He had to learn to ride a bike first and did so over just a couple of months. This one year adventure evolved into a 55-country, eight-year journey over 5 continents.

In 1996, whilst still on the road, he began to work as a freelance journalist for various newspapers and motorcycle magazines around the world. In the UK he has written for Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, Motorcycle Voyager, the BMW Bikes magazine, BMW Club journal, and the GS Club.

He is now based in the UK and continues to write. He says, “The call of the road is strong; this world of ours is special and it took travel to make me really see that. I write to share the fun.”

Sam has recently published a book about the first year of his bike trip. ‘Into Africa’ happily spills the beans on motorcycle travel through this amazing continent. He says, “This book has helped me to share the adventure with those who dream but can’t make a trip like this a reality. It also gives me the chance to be a bit of a bad influence – if I can do this amazing trip then so can many others. Africa demands respect, but isn’t such a daunting place that it should be feared. Far from being the ‘dark continent’, it’s the land of the sun.” www.sam-manicom.com

With sharing the fun in mind he talks and shows slides at rallies and clubs around the UK.