Graham Styles is currently on a mammoth 18-month motorcycle journey through every single country in North and South America. Reporter DAN KEEL spoke to him about his trip which has featured road accidents, deadly spiders and sacrificial rituals.
LIFE as an IT consultant was simply not enough for this 38-year-old man from Lewisham.
In May 2008 Graham Styles, of Granville Park, decided to leave his keyboard and mouse in London before jetting off across the Atlantic with his motorbike for the journey of a lifetime.
Since touching down on US soil, his motorbike travels have taken him through no less than 11 US states and 11 countries across North, central and South America, with 12 more countries still to see.
Speaking from an internet cafe in Manizales, Colombia, he said: "Life back at home felt too static.
"When travelling you meet new people and have new experiences practically everyday. My life at home had become predictable.
"All my friends were married and were multiplying like rabbits.
"I certainly never felt any animosity or resentment towards my friends but my personal situation was different.
"I could either sit at home and wait for my life to change or I could actively go and seek new challenges and embrace the unknown."
On a journey of such an epic scale, highlights are hard to pin down but Mr Styles, who used to live in Grosvenor Road, Petts Wood, says Guatemala will always have a special place in his heart after he was invited to a ceremony at a Mayan temple.
He said: "A man appeared with a walking stick and a badly swollen ankle. He set light to a cross and then began a series of rituals with a string of garlic, limes and eggs.
"For the climax a chicken was produced, waved around the man's ankle and with a clinical flick of a blade it was decapitated and thrown into the flames."
Mr Styles says he wants to encourage others to follow their dreams, smile, and above all to appreciate what they have - a lesson he learned during his South American travels.
He said: "In Guatemala a hernia can prevent someone from working and supporting their family, and gall stones can lead to death.
"We are privileged to have such good education and medical systems in Britain.
"I ended up acting as a dispatch rider between two hospitals occasionally transporting drugs and equipment. I was glad that I could be of some assistance."
On a day-to-day basis Mr Styles has been sleeping in hostels, motels and, where possible, in campsites.
Finding a black widow spider inside his bike helmet while camping has not stopped Mr Styles from continuing his travels, neither has the price of fuel and food, nor the occasional road accident.
"I get about 200 miles for £8 worth of petrol, and food is so cheap," he said.
"Street food is of course one delight of travelling and the freshness of food, especially in Mexico, has helped me lose a couple of inches from my waste and a couple of chins from my bloated face.
"I haven't had a major crash but all my accidents have been at low speed, are very embarrassing, and are usually caused by losing balance when the bike is fully loaded."
He plans to return in January next year.
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