Itchy Boots

Well, it IS all about the risk and the reward.
We have similar conversations about STs and people riding with a failed SMC, about riding gear and ATGATT, about riding in the cold, or snowy roads, and more.
None of us can completely control our lives, and that sense of power over ourselves or our future is to some degree... The Grand Illusion.
(With apologies to Styx.)
How many of us have been told not to ride motorbikes because "they're dangerous"...?
 
MaxPete said:
Now - as for Noraly...I must say that from my experiences in West Africa, she was incredibly unwise to have gone there. There has been a marked upswing in street violence and a huge rise in outright terrorism in Nigeria since the 1980-90s. As people may be aware, the Boko Haram Islamic terror group has kidnapped several thousand young women over the last decade or more for sex-slavery and they have murdered upwards of 50,000 people since the early 2000s when the outfit was founded.

So IMO, as an attractive European woman, she was in no small amount of peril - and there is no-way she would have been able to bluff her way through the way that I did 40+ years ago - if she had encountered the wrong crowd. I really believe there is a difference between courage and foolishness - and, based on my experiences there, I'm afraid that she has crossed that line.
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My sentiments exactly... amazing what folks will do for a couple of (YouTube) clicks...
 
Having just watched today’s episode, the roads or what is considered a road are more problematic than the people. The people for the most part are fine and she’s probably safer there instead of the developed countries….apparently Jane and Finch area in Toronto isn’t a place one wants to venture in Toronto. ;). Back in the 70’s when I was attending the University of Windsor, going across the bridge to Detroit wasn’t necessarily a good idea. Our own backyards? ……..
We know she had issues in Mexico, she made sure she was safe…..I think she takes precautions and knows full well what dangers that she may encounter and plans accordingly.
 
ST1100Y said:
My sentiments exactly... amazing what folks will do for a couple of (YouTube) clicks...
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I will disagree. Noraly is known to be a wanderer, and a traveler off on her own, literally since she was a little girl.
YouTube and "clicks" is merely a serendipity, and it allows her to fund more travel. She came across her online celebrity status and success as a lucrative by-product of doing what she was already doing anyway, not as her primary goal.
I've listened to her as a guest on rider podcasts, and watched videos when she speaks at, for example, the ABR last year. She has given a number of accounts explaining why she does what she does, and it didn't start with an audience.
Her blue-eyed smile is genuine, and she has made several references to her current itinerary and why she elected to not dawdle in Nigeria, due to rebel activity.
There are legitimate (?) attention whores in our celebrity culture, but I don't count Noraly among them.
 
MaxPete said:
Now - as for Noraly...I must say that from my experiences in West Africa, she was incredibly unwise to have gone there. There has been a marked upswing in street violence and a huge rise in outright terrorism in Nigeria since the 1980-90s. As people may be aware, the Boko Haram Islamic terror group has kidnapped several thousand young women over the last decade or more for sex-slavery and they have murdered upwards of 50,000 people since the early 2000s when the outfit was founded.

So IMO, as an attractive European woman, she was in no small amount of peril - and there is no-way she would have been able to bluff her way through the way that I did 40+ years ago - if she had encountered the wrong crowd. I really believe there is a difference between courage and foolishness - and, based on my experiences there, I'm afraid that she has crossed that line.

Pete
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Agreed. Nigeria is supposedly a "Christian" country by population. But the Boko Haram muslims simply march in and butcher entire villages.

Chris
 
Daboo said:
Agreed. Nigeria is supposedly a "Christian" country by population. But the Boko Haram muslims simply march in and butcher entire villages.
Chris
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I grew up in Nigeria from 1956 to 1961. The country is divided into three major tribal areas. The Housa in the north have always been Muslim. The Yoruba to the west and Igbo in the Niger delta were converted to Christianity. The Hausa (Muslim) are actually the largest group making up 25% of Nigeria's 218m people.
 
kiltman said:
Having just watched today’s episode, the roads or what is considered a road are more problematic than the people. The people for the most part are fine and she’s probably safer there instead of the developed countries….apparently Jane and Finch area in Toronto isn’t a place one wants to venture in Toronto. ;). Back in the 70’s when I was attending the University of Windsor, going across the bridge to Detroit wasn’t necessarily a good idea. Our own backyards? ……..
We know she had issues in Mexico, she made sure she was safe…..I think she takes precautions and knows full well what dangers that she may encounter and plans accordingly.
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Sorry Robert - but I have lived there and consequently, I believe that you are incorrect.

The key difference between the "wilder" parts of developed countries (yes, like Jane and Finch etc.) and places like where Noraly is now - is that in developed countries, the police are basically an ally of law abiding citizens and can be relied upon, except under the most exceptional circumstances, to "serve and protect" (notwithstanding the many incidents of racial-based police violence in many countries over the last decades). Granted, they aren't perfect by any means and there are rotten apples in the police barrel - but they are the exception, not the rule.

In places like Nigeria however, the police ARE a key part of the problem and so in addition to a large, widespread, extremely violent and aggressive criminal element, you have the police actually contributing to the chaos - not doing anything to reduce it. Essentially, law-abiding citizens and tourists like Noraly - are simply sitting ducks and they are very much on their own. If 10-15 big strong well-armed thugs decide that she is going down - then she IS going to go down and the police will do little, if anything to stop that from happening.

Sorry - but there is a vast difference between there and the Jane and Finch neighbourhood in Toronto or over the river in Detroit.

Pete
 
MaxPete said:
the police ARE a key part of the problem
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In the mid to late seventies my Father in-law worked in Nigeria for several years on the building of a hydro-electric damn project. He went back and forth between Canada and Nigeria several times a year. Every time that he came back to Canada he would go to the store and buy 15 or 20 cheap watches of all kinds in preparation for returning to Nigeria. These were needed for bribes of various airport, immigration, customs, and security officials in the airport just to get out of the airport and to the safety of the company employee housing camp.
It doesn't sound like there is any less corruption now.
 
Would it be improper to note, that at least the bribery and corruption there is obvious, known, and out in the open?
Pretty obvious it's much larger, and much worse, in the halls of congress here in the US of A. Only they won't own up to it.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
In the mid to late seventies my Father in-law worked in Nigeria for several years on the building of a hydro-electric damn project. He went back and forth between Canada and Nigeria several times a year. Every time that he came back to Canada he would go to the store and buy 15 or 20 cheap watches of all kinds in preparation for returning to Nigeria. These were needed for bribes of various airport, immigration, customs, and security officials in the airport just to get out of the airport and to the safety of the company employee housing camp.
It doesn't sound like there is any less corruption now.
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Yup - in my day we used ballpoint pens for this purpose...or cheap cigarette lighters (strictly prohibited on airline flights nowadays) - but the key thing was to have something to give them.

If you didn't have some little "dash" to give out, you were not getting through the "police checkpoint" or customs station and they would start rifling through your stuff until they found something they liked - and they'd just pocket that item.

If we had to drive near nighttime, the practice was to always have a case of beer in the trunk of the car....refreshments for the police.
 
Splish, splash I was taking a bath...
Boom! Alaska overboard!
Did I spoil it for ya? Then you're not keeping up, are ya?
Episode 80 after all this time, she finally fell out of the canoe. As many of you likely are, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now. It looks so sketchy, but Noraly has crossed more than a few rivers before this one.
Another spoiler alert: No one was hurt.
 
Sadlsor said:
Splish, splash I was taking a bath...
Boom! Alaska overboard!
Did I spoil it for ya? Then you're not keeping up, are ya?
Episode 80 after all this time, she finally fell out of the canoe. As many of you likely are, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now. It looks so sketchy, but Noraly has crossed more than a few rivers before this one.
Another spoiler alert: No one was hurt.
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Know why she didn't film it? It didn't happen. ;)

Episode titles are also getting clickbate-ish.
 
Obo said:
Know why she didn't film it? It didn't happen. ;)

Episode titles are also getting clickbate-ish.
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GoPros can't see in the dark. I know this from personal experience.
Titles don't matter to me, I'm engaged and snared. As long as the production quality is maintained, I'm in for every episode.
At the same time, I have also noticed the episode titles are appearing more and more dramatic.
No matter.
I only buy them for the pictures.
 
Sadlsor said:
GoPros can't see in the dark. I know this from personal experience.
Titles don't matter to me, I'm engaged and snared. As long as the production quality is maintained, I'm in for every episode.
At the same time, I have also noticed the episode titles are appearing more and more dramatic.
No matter.
I only buy them for the pictures.
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The titles are indeed dramatic. I've never once heard her complain about her boots ACTUALLY being itchy.
I have heard you complain about your saddle being sore....
 
scootac said:
Guessing you haven't even watched the video?
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No, I have not. I unhooked myself from the three times a week and only watch occasionally now. The sensationalist titles bothered me - they did not deliver, and for me, she is too much of the same tour guide. Rick Steves is the same...I can only listen to his programs now and then, despite the first class travel info.
 
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