About The Ted Simon Foundation

Our world is in ferment as never before. While whole societies struggle to shrug off the dead weight of corrupt dictators new conflicts are inevitable. Environmental degradation threatens our future, and food insecurity is an immediate danger. Widespread ignorance nurtures the extreme ideologies and prejudices which tear us apart and prevent us from making rational choices for the benefit of humanity and the planet.

All of this is challenging but fertile ground for those of us who seek to understand the beauties, the mysteries and the tragedies of our world, and no traveller, in our experience, ever came home with a message of hate.

We believe that individuals of good will, moving among foreign cultures and making themselves vulnerable to the beliefs and customs of strangers, have great importance in promoting world understanding, and even more so when they can distill the essence of their experiences into a form that can be absorbed by many.

It was this belief that gave rise to the Ted Simon Foundation. The books written by Ted Simon following his solo motorcycle journeys continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure.

The purpose of the Foundation is to encourage and assist travellers in making an extra effort to develop their observations and insights into something of value for the rest of the world to share, whatever their medium of expression might be.

To those who are setting out we will offer advice, contacts and, where possible, practical help. To those on the road or returning, we will offer assistance in transforming the raw material of adventure into something stunning for the rest of the world to appreciate. We will not be timid in our assessments and we will strive for high standards.

The words we live by are Exploration, Comprehension and Communication

Our tendency will be to favour those who travel alone, since this removes barriers to communication, but there are always notable exceptions. Otherwise our doors are open to travellers of all kinds, and not exclusively motorcyclists.

The work of the Foundation will be supported by:

Ted Simon explains more about the purpose and aims of the Foundation In this short film by Helge Pedersen: