The stories start at 5:15. My writing will not capture what happened in Guatape, Colombia. We departed on a 3-day motorbike touring adventure, through the Colombian hillsides – out into some extremely remote “towns”. Before jumping on the bikes though, James (the rental owner) spent an hour teaching Kaleb how to ride a motorbike.

Within the first 2 hours of the ride, the unexpected happened… I got in a motorcycle accident. Coming around a blind corner, at a reasonable speed (nothing crazy) there was a small landslide that left think dust across the road.

As I attempted to brake, my foot slipped… applied to much back brake and the bike started the swerve. Then BANG down the bike went, as I slide the bike around another blind corner.

Kaleb stopped immediately, ran back with panic in his eyes. I stumbled off the road leaving the bike in the middle of the road. Scared oncoming traffic might hit me laying on the road, I only had time for a breathe before Kaleb jumped out on the road, bringing it back to his bike.

Once we were “safe” – he immediately started taking pictures of my wounds – in complete disbelief, this happened. After the initial moment of safety, we ripped my shirt apart to make bandages, cleaned my wounds, and contemplated what to do next…. Watch the video for the full story. Like I said my words don’t do it justice.

Other than the motorbike trip – we toured Pablo Escobar’s estate (self-built prison), that had everything you could imagine. Multiple houses, huge gardens, a soccer field, a dirt biking course, horse riding arena, and more. Too bad people wanted him dead and the whole estate was bombed!

After getting the tour – we paintballed on the estate… crazy experience.

Then another serendipitous travel moment happened. As we got the bus back to Medellin, we bumped into Jack and Jo… completely unplanned. We bumped into my friends in a totally different area of South America. Truly crazy how small the world is.

Lessons Learnt:

• I take risks – but the risk is just relative to what others think. Here I learned that those external perceptions are sometimes closer to reality than my views. After putting my life in danger – I’ve come to lower my tolerance for risk… slightly – and have adjusted my carefree filter of life.
• Any pain can be overcome in a given situation – human bodies have an incredible overdrive. Get in a motorbike crash… 15 minutes later I’m back on the bike… because I have no choice but keep going. This is true in all aspects of life, relationships, business, music, and sport. The question becomes – what’s to gain from the continual triggering of overdrive?