Elias Vrohidis | Mad Nomad | Traveling The World On A Motorcycle

Elias Vrohidis | Mad Nomad | Traveling The World On A Motorcycle

In Southern Ethiopia, there are tribes that live with their own principles a way of life that has barely changed throughout the centuries.

Elias Vrohidis is a traveller, motorcyclist and writer.

He was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2013 he set out to explore the African continent and the Middle East on his small, old motorcycle. In West and Central Africa, he was accompanied by Christina Pefani, who was traveling on her own motorcycle.

He returned to Greece in 2016, having visited 39 countries and having covered 96,000 kilometers / 59,653 miles (more than twice the circumference of the earth). But let’s listen to the man himself.

You are the author of three books. Tell us a few words about your writing activity.

Elias Vrohidis | mad nomad | Traveling The World On A Motorcycle

My first book, “27 full moons in the East”, is about my 27-month road trip through 14 Asian countries on my little, old motorcycle, a Honda XR 250. I started this trip at the age of 23, with very little money saved up, so I was working while traveling. In my books, as my adventures unfold, I always try to familiarize the reader with the culture, history, religion and problems of the societies I visit, so that s/he may understand and experience more vividly these foreign lands.

On numerous occasions, the motorbikes had to be loaded on pirogues, in order to cross rivers.

The same trip to was also documented in a coffe-table book titled “27 full moons in the East: colors & images”. It is a 266-page photo album that describes my adventures in Asia through 417 photos and short stories that accompany each image. These two books on my Asian trip are out of stock in bookstores, so should you wish to purchase them, you can order them through my website: http://madnomad.gr

The third book I published is titled “I Travel Therefore I Am”. It is about my most recent three-year journey through Africa and the Middle East. I visited 39 countries and covered 96,000 km / 59,653 miles (more than twice the circumference of the earth) on my motorcycle! It is a 496-page book, including a photo album with 80 fascinating photographs. “I Travel Therefore I Am” is published by iWrite Publications and can be obtained both through my website and from bookstores or the publishing house.

You’ve been around Africa. Tell us a few words about this experience. Was there a country and/or place that you particularly liked?

Africa for me is the continent of adventure that I had been longing for since my early childhood. It is home to remote, primitive and pure places.

Crossing the Sahara in Mauritania with Christina Pefani.

It is certainly not easy to explore these remote corners of the world. However, this is one of the rare occasions offered nowadays to experience the ways in which humans have lived harmoniously with nature, when they did not try to tame it, because they knew that was impossible.

Such remote places are hidden, for example, in the savannah of Guinea-Bissau and Guinea. For six days we wandered on dirt roads and trails, to cross from one country to the other, together with Christina Pefani, who traveled with me for ten months on her own motorcycle.

Guinea became our favorite country in West Africa, since we met very friendly people there, who stole our hearts.

The African route

Safari in Uganda on two wheels!

The route to Africa according to Elias’ map on his page includes:

Leaving Thessaloniki behind, the wandering began in the Balkan countries. From Italy the couple took the boat to Morocco, where the long and difficult journey through West and Central Africa began. In Zambia, it was time for Christina to fly back to Greece, while Elias continued wandering alone towards South Africa, which marked the midpoint of his journey.

From there, he began to head North again through East Africa. In Egypt he left the African continent to go to the Middle East. After exploring Jordan, Palestine and Israel, he flew back to Greece, as the wars did not allow him to complete the last part of his mission by road. The motorcycle arrived by boat to Lavrio, marking the completion of “mad about Africa”.

Map of Africa with the countries visited by Elias Vrohidis

The African countries visited by Elias Vrohidis:

Egypt, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, Kenya, Cameroon, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

You have also toured Asia. I would also like you to tell me a few things about this continent, as well as about the countries and landscapes that you particularly liked.

At the age of 23 I was blessed to travel on my motorcycle to the depths of the East and to see places like the enchanting Esfahan in Iran!

Asia is, after all, the continent that has stolen my heart and that is because of its people. Those who have traveled the world agree that Iranians are the most hospitable people they have met. I experienced the same.

Pakistanis helped me free my motorbike from the mud and left before I could even thank them!

People who don’t even know your name and don’t even know how to greet you in English, open the door of their home and their heart with a warm smile and let you in. The history and culture of these places are rooted in antiquity and this is something that fascinates today’s traveler to the East.

Since I personally love nature and especially mountains, the places I most longed to visit and those I still remember with the most vivid memories are high up in the Himalayas. I spent four months going up and down this legendary mountain range in the various countries where it stretches, either on foot or on my motorcycle.

I will never forget the wild beauty of the mountains in Pakistan, the lush, dense forests of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, my twenty-day trek in the Annapurna region of Nepal …

The route in Asia

At 5,416m, during my twenty-day trek in the Annapurna region of Nepal

The map of the route from Thessaloniki to India.

The route to Asia according to Elias’ map on his page includes:

From Thessaloniki, and then

Turkey: Istanbul, Izmir, Karvali.
Iran: Taurida, Esfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Bam.
Pakistan: Quetta, Islamabad, Gilgit, Lachori.

…. continued from Pakistan

From Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, with a population of over 8 million to:

India: Leh, New Delhi (capital of India), Agra, Khajuraho, Varanasi, Konark, Chennai, Kanyakumari, Mysore, Mumbai, Ellora, Diu, Jodhpur.
Nepal: Kathmandu (Nepal’s capital and largest city).

Map of Asia with the countries visited by Elias Vrohidis

The Asian countries visited by Elias Vrohidis:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

Have you ever felt any danger in your travels?

Enjoying the exotic shores of Zanzibar

In the company of the friendly Guineans!

No, never. Of course, I have faced countless and enormous difficulties. I got lost for three days in the muddy dirt roads of the Kazakh steppe, got robbed in Kyrgyzstan, had to deal with damage to my motorbike, caught malaria in Senegal…

But my life was never in danger. I never had to go to a hospital. I was not injured nor was I ever more seriously ill than I was when in Greece. Even malaria was dealt with easily by an early visit to a Senegalese doctor and by taking the pills I was, anyway, carrying with me.

The most dangerous moment was probably when Israeli soldiers pointed guns at me at the Palestinian border and screamed in unintelligible Hebrew. But it was a simple misunderstanding. They thought I was Palestinian. When it became clear that I was lucky enough not to be born in those lands, I was immediately allowed to cross the border.

Future plans for a new book and documentaries

Cooking trachanas in a Lesotho shepherd

The books and the documentaries I make always accompany my travels around the world. I have published on YouTube various documentaries lasting more than ten hours totally, which can be found through my website: http://madnomad.gr

My future plans include crossing the American continent from Alaska to Patagonia. Surely this is a huge continent with extremely interesting aspects in every corner! It will probably take me even longer than my journey around Africa, in order to get under the skin of these societies and to get to know these places thoroughly.

Here are some videos at the bottom of Elias’ page from his travels.