COVID-era Bitcoin education, online writing, and motorcycle camping were the three vehicles that made leaving for Africa possible. Motorcycle camping made a long trip possible on a small budget. Paid writing turned research into work I could take on the road. Bitcoin pointed that work at Africa. Together they unlocked a soul contract I had been waiting to “make good on”.
If you landed on Wandering w/ Purpose mid-journey, this is the origin story you missed. It is not a memoir of every camp and crossing, and it is not a complete map of my years on the road. It is the through-line that made the journey possible, written for readers who recently joined the adventure.
COVID was a time that was hard for some and liberating for others, and I found my vehicles for adventure and liberation in the wake of it.
The freedom motorcycle camping can provide
It was in the wake of COVID that I discovered the freedom motorcycle camping can provide. Fuel is economical, and a good choice of motorcycle can be nearly bomb-proof. If anything breaks, the parts are cheap and nearly universally accessible, so a long trip stays possible on a small budget.
Motorcycles are more than transportation; they are an excellent vehicle to liberate the soul, and I mean that literally. Between 2020 - 2022, camping by motorcycle expanded my horizon all the way from Vancouver Island to Canada’s East coast. That was vehicle one, and it got me to Halifax (and Newfoundland) where I would meet the next vehicle that would compound with motorcycle life.
Another vehicle: online writing
Motorcycle camping then brought another vehicle into my life upon reaching the East-coast: online writing. I have been journaling for many years, but it was in Halifax that I was introduced to the world of online writing. The bike had carried me that far across the country before the page became paid work.
I happened to be deep into crypto research during the market manias that followed COVID. That became the general topic I would be paid to explain as a subject matter expert. I was getting paid to write, and that was great, but it was where the writing would take me that changed everything.
You see, one of the reasons I love writing is that it accelerates your reflection and learning on any given topic. After writing volumes of crypto content, I soon learned I wanted nothing to do with crypto, with one exception: Bitcoin.
Nothing to do with crypto, except Bitcoin
This is hard to describe to anyone who has not gone down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. Bitcoin is a tool. It is programmable money. It is an extremely fault-tolerant universal ledger grounded in thermodynamics. It is a lens that reveals how flawed and manipulated “money” is in modern society.
Writing and learning about Bitcoin is where everything changed, and I now refer to it as “money-as-a-tool” and as a tool for financial literacy. I definitively do not consider Bitcoin as “crypto”. This is not a price story. The post-COVID market manias paid the bills while I was still riding crypto, and writing ended that hype as I switched to sustainable fundamentals with Bitcoin.
El Salvador, then Africa’s parallels
I traveled to El Salvador the year they declared Bitcoin legal tender, the first country to do so. I started writing about what I was seeing on the ground, and I researched where else in the world Bitcoin was making a difference.
It dawned on me, after that research, that Bitcoin is extremely relevant for many of Africa’s issues. This is the first time I saw how Africa could be relevant for my work. I could go to Africa to research Bitcoin’s development and write about it on the road.
How would I do that research? By motorcycle, of course. Same vehicle, new continent, and skin in the game instead of safari glamour and a tight itinerary.
A soul contract, if you will
I do not quite remember the moment I decided to switch continents, but it felt more necessary than it felt intentional. I would soon be reaching my 31st birthday, and I did not want to waste another moment of my 30s not being in Africa. I already knew I could be there in a productive capacity, not only as a visitor on vacation.
Spending a good chunk of my youth in Africa has been a life requirement for as long as I can remember. Call it a soul contract, if you will. I was born on the continent and had traveled there plenty on vacation with my family, but I’ve always craved an African education on my own two legs (in this case, wheels).
I needed a true African education: a good ten years on the ground, unshielded by the glamour of safaris and tight itineraries. Something like that. The pain of postponing that contract was a call to growth, and I finally had vehicles that could carry me.
Three vehicles, one equation
I packed up my life in Canada, went home to see my parents, and booked my ticket. The pieces had finally lined up for me to make good on that soul contract.
Online writing + Bitcoin + motorcycle = Africa.
Each one is a vehicle: writing funds the days and accelerates learning on whatever you are willing to face. Bitcoin is the storyline, the game-changer, and the instrument that pointed the work at Africa. The motorcycle is how I actually show up on the ground.
Taking on Africa’s teachings is the rest of the story. Together, these three vehicles unlocked a lifelong dream.
Wandering w/ Purpose — Ww/P, if you met it mid-stream — is the publication I write under from the road. If you arrived mid-journey, you now have the origin: three vehicles, one continent, and skin in the game.
Motorcycles, online work, and Bitcoin can be liberating, and they were for me. They turned a soul contract into something I could finally pack a bag and leave with.
Gerrit Pieter
Thanks for sharing your story. Looking forward to following along.