Siobhan a vet from New South Wales in Australia, it's always good to travel with someone who knows one end of a scalpel from another even if it's usually animals she operates on. Siobhan chose to join me for an extreme ride into the icy Arctic, the great ride up to Dead Horse, Alaska, the northernmost settlement that can be reached by road in the Americas. It was a long, cold ride, through snow and ice. dodging bears and moose, camping on frozen tundra - unable to even hammer the tent pegs into the ground.

Janet "La  Muñequita" from Tiburon, California, a sixty five year old grandmother is probably the bravest of those who have travelled on Thelma; as she had zero experience of motorbikes- except for a 20 minute whisk around San Francisco with me. I had been staying with her and her family near SF when she made a spontaneous decision to head south in search of adventure. It proved to be an endurance test as we headed through Death Valley, Las Vegas, Arizona and the length of Mexico all in the gruelling heat of August, and without any breaks as I had an appointment in Guatemala to make.

Becky (from Colchester in Essex) was my co-rider on the original trip which went from London to India and onto Australia. Her greatest achievement on Thelma was completing a hellish off-road ride along a dried-up river bed to reach an oasis for swimming in.

Maggie in a typical thoughtful moment. Originally from Galway in Ireland, Maggie has ridden across Africa and into the Middle East with me, followed by Central America, Spain and Norway. She is particularly good in her role as the one- woman mobile Diplomatic Corps and her favourite moment...she rode Thelma across Botswana in one day.