Cathy and Bernard

‘Its all about what you can and not about what you can’t’. That’s the message both Catherine Birchall and Bernard Smith are spreading as they move along their expedition of going around the world on their 1000 cc motorbike. Cathy is completely blind and she is doing a pillion ride with Bernard. They’ve had very interesting experiences as they moved from country to country.

Let’s read on, as they talk to George Abraham about their adventurous trip and the passion that led them to take this on.

George: Hi! How did you get to actually think of going on this motorbike expedition around the world?

Bernard: Originally it was my idea. I have wanted to do it my whole life and it was about three years back when I actually got the opportunity to start planning it. Then I met Cathy, so rather than doing it myself, I wanted to see if something more could be done with it in terms of visual impairment and so I asked Cathy if she’d be interested and she said yes.

George: That brings me to the question, how did you guys meet?

Cathy: We met through work. I was at that time teaching in a college in Liverpool and Bernard was with Royal National Institute for Blind People within the college and so that’s where we met.

George: Right, and what do you teach Cathy?

Cathy: I teach computer studies and Braille.

George: Bernard, what’s your profession?

Bernard: My profession is teaching. I have been a teacher most of my life. Even now, when I am working with RNIB, I still have a teaching role. Only now it is with the blind and partially sighted people.

George: What actually interested you in teaching and working with blind people Bernard?

Bernard: That’s a good question. You see, when you first come across blind people, you aren’t really sure how to interact with them and the correct method of doing things. So, I became really interested in knowing the correct method of doing things when you meet with blind and partially sighted people. So it was really that sort of interest that led me to change from what we called the mainstream teaching or secondary teaching to specialist teaching in terms of skills and abilities of blind and partially sighted people.

George: Since how long have you been working with blind people?

Bernard: Relatively short period. About four to five years.

George: When you met Cathy and got to know each other and then you made the offer of this world tour, I am sure Cathy may not have agreed right away. How did both of you finally agree?

Cathy: Well, I have always been very adventurous and if an opportunity comes to do something completely different then I generally take it. This is exactly what happened when I met Bernard. He has always been on bikes all his life and it has been his life long ambition to go around the world on the bike. To begin with, we did a couple of test drives, the first being through the Alps and the Pyrenees in France. As soon as I got on the bike, I felt so comfortable, I felt I was free and being on the back of the bike is so completely different then being in the car. You are out in the open, you can hear all the sounds around you and as you travel along you can smell the different smells. It was just a wonderful experience. So then we discussed the main trip, which we are on at the moment and of course, being the person I am, I said yes.

George: Catherine, you are blind and can’t see a thing. Has this been a problem since birth or is it something that caught up with you along the way?

Cathy: I have a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, people know it as RP. I had it from birth but I had some sight till some years. Gradually over the years, it deteriorated and for over 20 years, I have had no sight at all.

George: What’s the kind of education you’ve had? Did you go to a special school or were you a part of the mainstream education system?

Cathy: I’ve had both. Because I had reasonable sight at the age of 5, when I started school, I was sent to a mainstream school. Up to the age of eleven, I managed perfectly well in mainstream. Then I had to transfer to secondary education, the system was slightly different in the way you are taught and the way things are done. And so, I began to struggle because of my sight. I was very shy as a youngster, I wouldn’t tell my teacher that I could not see the writing on the board, I had to copy from the person sitting next to me and if they were off, ill or something, I just scribbled. There was no actual support mechanism in place when I was at school, so I didn’t have anyone to help me. For three years I struggled a lot and I became very, very upset. In the end, my mother got so worried about me that she kept me off school saying, “We would have to find a more suitable form of education for her because this is not working. She is not happy and I am not sending her to school.”

George: Did your family that is your parents and your siblings know that you were struggling with your problem and you needed help at that point of time?

Cathy: Yes, they did and that’s why my mother took the course of action that she did. I felt isolated in the mainstream school; no one else in the school had vision impairment. I felt low and I felt different and you know, as a teenager, that’s the last thing you want to feel. So my mother eventually managed to find me a place in a specialized school at Liverpool. This school was for blind and partially sighted people. I started attending that when I was fourteen and that was the best thing that happened to me at that time. I wasn’t the only one who had vision impairment, everyone else in the school did. I realized that, there was more to life than just being miserable at school. I was here for two years and I actually enjoyed being there.

George: Since the time you were in school and now there is a big difference in the way education is for blind people in England. I understand, there are no special schools or the special schools have become few and far between. And the few that exist have also changed there style and the blind and visually impaired students are now studying in the mainstream education system. So, what are the kinds of changes that have happened in the education system in England that the mainstream schools are now coping with teaching the blind and visually impaired students as well?

Cathy: The thing is, I know a number of people who have carried out their education in mainstream. The support mechanisms are in place these days.

George: What are these support mechanisms?

Cathy: Well, they can vary from school to school. A support worker is often provided to work with the child to help read, write, etc. It has its advantages but also could have its disadvantages because it depends on the individuals support worker or the school he or she is in. I have known people who have completed school without having correct skills as a visually impaired person. For example, one person who had left school, had very good touch-typing skills but they did not used the speech software on their computer. So in spite of knowing to type, he couldn’t navigate around the computer himself because his support worker at school used the mouse rather than teaching him with the speech software. So as you’ve already mentioned, most of the specialist schools which were around when I was a youngster have now moved to mainstream schools because all the visually impaired children are now studying in mainstream schools. My view will obviously differ from that of peoples view, as mine would relate to my past experience. Bernard can probably talk more about this because of the work that he is in at the moment.

George: Ya, that brings me to another question, Bernard you work with Royal National Institute for the Blind and Cathy you work with The Action for Blind People. Tell us briefly, as to what do these two organizations actually do?

Bernard: Royal National Institute for the Blind is the largest organization in the United Kingdom. It provides equipments, employment training, software training, and a lot of daily aspects of being a blind person are handled by the RNIB. Counselling and providing of telephone support services are also taken care by the organization. Action for Blind, do a lot of similar type of work but is a smaller organization. Cathy will probably say that Action for Blind People is a more personal organization because they actually do home visits and other such things, which the RNIB tend not to do. So RNIB itself is a campaign organization. It’s very much involved with political and socio political levels in terms of lobbying for changes. For instance, the philosophy behind education, in terms of the laws for the blind people being implied, in tackling discrimination and equal opportunities. It is often referred to as a big umbrella at the political and socio political level. Where as Action for the Blind tend to be more on the streets and with the blind people in their houses and help them to solve problems of everyday life. I think that would be a fair account.

Cathy: It is fair, yes. Action for Blind People does assist in educating and training for seeking employment rather than giving them employment directly. They also help blind people with housing issues. Because of the integrated system of education, blind and visually impaired people do not get a chance to interact with each other. So the sports clubs all over UK, provide a platform for young blind and visually impaired youngsters and their parents to meet each other and to discuss various issues. They play sports as well, so they get a little more interaction, which they may not get in mainstream schools. Action for Blind People also has a national helpline, where I am presently working. This helpline provides information and advice and works with individuals to try and resolve any issues that they have.

George: When you talk about the national helpline, besides sharing information with the callers, what is the overall operation of Action for Blind People vis-à-vis gathering information and connecting with people?

Cathy: We do it in various ways. We are very active in making partnerships with all the local organizations that work with visually impaired people. We have a lot of information leaflets with our helpline number on it that gets passed on locally. We also have the website, which you can access. We also do it through the media like the radio and TV where we have some sort of small campaigns and the helpline number is always given out. We try and let our services known in as many ways as possible. Like, we have information leaflets in hospitals and in the newspapers as well.

George: When you use media services like radio and TV or newspapers etc., do they charge you for it or is it given as public service, free of cost kind of thing?

Cathy: Generally what happens is, because it is a charitable organization, we usually run some sort of a campaign.  For example, earlier this year, we ran a campaign, following a study that took place in relation to abuse of visually impaired people. We found out that abuse to visually impaired people is higher than the abuse to all the people in society. So we ran a big campaign on the television and the media helped us with that and it was at no cost.

George: Coming back to this particular expedition you are on, does it have anything to do with your work back in UK?

Cathy: Yes it is related because back in the UK we are raising funds for three of the organizations, one being the Royal National Institute for Blind People, Action for Blind People and also the Guide Dog Blind Association. I myself have a guide dog at home. So through sponsorships and donations we are raising money to help the three organizations. That’s where the connection is. One of the big and main purpose of this trip as far as I am concerned is to create awareness about vision impairment and to show, what can be done and not what cant be done by someone with sight loss. Through this trip we want to get that message across that there are no barriers and if you are willing to do it, you can do it. Maybe you can’t necessarily do it all on your own but with a little bit of help one can. So by linking up with organizations such as yours all over the world, we can help local organizations raise awareness and see how best sighted people can help visually impaired people to achieve. And also, when people see me going around the world on the bike with Bernard, I am hoping it’s a bit of a inspiration for people, that you can do extreme things. All it needs is a little bit of understanding from the sighted people.

George: Bernard, when you first met Cathy and you had this motorbike expedition in mind, what made you think that Cathy would be willing to do this and that it was a great idea?

Bernard: The first time when Cathy was ever on a bike, it was in a work related situation. A lot of blind and partially sighted people do not have the opportunity to be on the motorbike. Actually my friend at college with whom I work very closely also has retinitis pigmentosa and he, too, had never been on a bike. So the more we talked about it with the students, it seemed that most of them had never been on a bike. So as the academic year was coming to an end we set a date and I came to work on my motorbike, and about 10 blind and partially sighted people were sitting and waiting for me. So I spend the whole day going up and down on my motorbike.

George: Giving them rides?

Bernard: Yes, and that was the first time Cathy was ever on the motorbike. She got on the bike and said, “What do I have to do?” I said you don’t have to do anything; all you need to do is relax. If you relax, then that’s fine. Now Cathy was most natural among all the students I took out that day. She was sitting so naturally that I wouldn’t have known she was there because she was unusually quiet. After that, as I said to you earlier about doing something more with the journey I was going to do. The more it seemed to work in my head; I didn’t know whether it was achievable because it had never been done before. The stresses and strains might be quite profound at times for both of us. So this is where I speculated with Cathy about whether we think it could be done. That is why we did the earlier two test runs. It was not only to test the equipment but also to test ourselves in terms of health and safety.

George: Where exactly did you do the test runs?

Bernard: Well the first test run we did was across into France and down as far as Monaco. We went across the Alps and the Pyrenees. We roughed it a little bit because in some ways I wanted to test Cathy out. As I was used to this, its something I’ve been doing all my life, but Cathy wasn’t. And it ran absolutely perfectly. We managed to solve the mechanics of how to stop for petrol. Cathy got off the bike safely when there was traffic around us. The physical little things that maybe we don’t think about other wise, we had to work them out. The second test run was not long before we left, was from Johnroads to Lands End. The two opposite ends of England. So we got the full length of the country. We had a lot of bad weather, it rained a lot and it was very miserable but Cathy was still laughing by the end of it. I thought this was perfect and there was no problem.

George: After having made that decision, how did you actually prepare for this trip? What were the issues you needed to address specifically to finally say ‘yes, we are ready’? I would like both of you to answer this separately.

Bernard: For me, the issues I had to address were a lot of paper work. There were international export and import licenses for the bike. I had to put in hours and weeks and months of work to get the various documents of all the countries in place. Besides that, I was spending a lot of time in the garage. For almost three to four months I would spend several hours working on the bike after college. Making sure, as much as I could, to solve the problems before they actually arose. So anything that looked like it might break was replaced. Also, working on the computer emailing people, and working out the safest route because the bike is very heavy and big. So, since the bike couldn’t across mountain goat roads the route had to be very carefully planned. These were the issues for me, primarily, that needed to be addressed.

George: And what is the bike that you are using?

Bernard: It’s a BMW, a 1000 cc. It’s actually 18-19 years old. It’s a 1990 version. I’ve had it for about four years and its been completely rebuilt for this trip.

George: Cathy, what were the specific issues that you addressed before you said ‘yes, I am ready to go’?

Cathy: One of the main things that I had to take care was to make arrangements for my guide dog. I had to make sure that she was going to be well looked after. Also, she was going to keep up with some extra training while I am away because 12 months is a long time. So I made the arrangements and she is doing very well and has not lost any of her guiding skills. Obviously I had to sort out the right sort of clothes to take. Also since I had to limit the amount I could take, that was quite a feat for me.

George: How did that become an issue? Did you realize it along the way or what was it?

Cathy: Well the first trip we did in the Alps in the Pyrenees, I did take quite a lot of clothes with me. One day in the Alps we ended up in a ditch with the bike on top of us and Bernard swore it was the weight of my clothes. Though I didn’t agree to it at first but since Bernard has been on bikes all his life and has a lot of experience I agreed to cut down on my clothes. But we’ve been buying on the way so that’s fine.

Bernard: Replacing them.

Cathy: Ok, replacing them. Also I looked into communication because sitting on the back of the bike could be very boring. So Bernard had contacted an intercom company, who very kindly provided an intercom system for us all free of charge fortunately. So now we can talk to each other through our helmets. I can also link my phone through bluetooth. Besides taking phone calls while I am on the bike, also both Bernard and I can follow the satellite navigation system through the phone. So we can make sure we get the right directions. Also, back in England Dolphin company provided us with a laptop with speech software, so that I can actually keep in touch with family and friends through email and Skype. Also it’s useful for Bernard to know his routes by looking at the Google map. So these were the kind of preparations that I took on board.

George: Were there any specific people and others that you met before you left or was it just, kick, and off you went?

Bernard: Good question.  We did try to stimulate a lot of interest among people all over UK. You know, through the Newspapers and the media because I’ve always believed that it would make a fantastic documentary. So we contacted various companies who make documentaries to stimulate some interest but we never succeeded in that at all. In the end what happened was that we spend a lot of money and time trying to generate a massive crowds behind us before we started off. But we didn’t realize till about six months before we were due to leave that we had spent so much time and money chasing that side of things that we had actually forgotten to do the more important things. So at that point we changed track completely and spent all our time and efforts in solving the logistical problems ourselves. We just accepted that we are all alone.

Cathy: We are in touch with Radio 4 In Touch programme. It’s a 20-minute programme that goes out once a week all over UK. It’s about the issues related with visually impaired and blind people. You can access it on the Internet as well.

George: This is the programme that is anchored by Peter White?

Cathy: Yes it is. They are the only ones so far who are following our journey.

Bernard: We’ve had lots and lots of newspapers and magazine articles.

George: So are you trying to keep a track of all that?

Bernard: Yes, we are trying our best to keep a track of it all as we move along the journey. But you see, after you’ve sat on the bike for about 10 to 12 hours and then you arrive somewhere, you find somewhere to stay and then you just collapse into some room somewhere. The last thing you want to do at that time is to get onto the computer and see if anyone has written anything about us anywhere in the world. But yes, we do try and keep in touch.

George:  Will you talk us through your journey from the time you started on August 1till the time when you reach back say in May or June? In terms of your route, the countries you’ve been to, and the places you will be going to from here on.

Bernard: Our first stop was Ireland. Here we met my sister and my father. After that we arrived in France. We travelled through France and reached Switzerland visiting organizations along the way. Then back into France and into Italy. We reached Croatia by a short ferry ride and over to Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and down into Greece. After being in Athens for several weeks visiting organizations we went into Turkey. We drove up to the borders of Iran but had to come back to Istanbul as there were some problems with our visa. From there we put our bike and ourselves on the plane to Karachi in Pakistan. Drove down to Lahore until we arrived in India.

George: Where do you go from here?

Bernard: We head straight to Agra from here to visit the Taj Mahal. This is one place Katharine wants to visit and I promised I’d take her. After which we head to Nepal, to Kathmandu.

George: Well probably you know, Taj Mahal is the symbol of love.

Bernard: Yes, I knew it but Cathy didn’t. I was saving it till we actually reached there.

George: So it’s Taj Mahal to Nepal and the Mount Everest.

Bernard: Yes, that’s right. Then we ship ourselves to Thailand to arrive in Bangkok. Although, it may not be a good idea because the news last night said there have been some explosions. So, we’ll see. After which we move to Indonesia into Jakarta. Then we ship through the sea journey to Northern Australia. Then over to Argentina, to Chile, and the rest of the Westside. We are then planning to go to Mexico and into the United States, Canada and back home.

George: Right, and this will take you right up to May or June.

Bernard: I reckon it will take that much time. After which we reach home, sleep for a couple of weeks, grow out of being room serviced. After which we write a book.

George: Coming back to the actual journey, now you’ve   been to about 14 countries, India is the 15th country you are in—if you were to think back over the past 14 weeks or so and share with us some of the high points of the journey both in terms of excitement, distress and fun.

Cathy: I think one of the most interesting parts of the journey so far has been going through what was former Yugoslaiva. Although Kosovo is still United States controlled and so the borders have huge gates with very stern looking men with big guns. Since we had to cross several borders, I noticed that the attitude of the men was very intimidating. They wanted to get people through quickly and the paper work out of the way. So when we arrived at one of these borders and this chap asked Bernard for some papers with a scowl on his face, not very approachable really. As luck would have it, some of the papers were not readily available with Bernard, which meant that both Bernard and I had to get off the bike. So when I got off the bike, Bernard sort of indicated to him that I can’t see. As soon as he realized what the situation was, his attitude changed completely. He became a kitten. He smiled at Bernard and came out of the little booth he was in and held me very gently by my arm and guided me to a bench and reassured me that it was safe here. He went back to Bernard with a smile and sorted out the paper work. And just as we were getting ready to pull off, he started harassing other people again. So that was very interesting. Another area that had a very serious impact on me was in Kosovo. As we were driving along, Bernard explained to me the conditions of the burnt out houses. They had shell holes in the walls and their roofs all burnt out. I had heard about these happenings while it was on the news, but it did not leave that impact on me as it did now when I actually went through the area having met the people who were so welcoming and friendly. They were so kind. You know, these people had gone through a war not so long ago and yet they welcomed us with open arms. It was really very humbling.

George: What about you Bernard?

Bernard: I think what impressed me most was that no matter which country, language or religion, the kindness that has been demonstrated towards Cathy by everyone we’ve met along the way has been most gratifying thing for me personally. I suppose the lowest point of our journey which we both share is when we had to come back all the way from Istanbul because we had some confusion with the Iranian visa. We were completely flattened while waiting for the visa to come by. It was about six weeks of complete inactivity. We were very sad because we finally couldn’t meet this lady in Tehran, whom we wanted to meet so specifically. She produces the only Braille newspaper in the whole world. Truly we were very sad we couldn’t go into Tehran.

George: What are the kinds of organizations that you’ve been visiting for the blind people till now?

Cathy: We’ve visited Harry’s Guide Dog Association, where we met a lot of the staff and we were talked through how they trained the dogs. They then recommended us to the Swiss Guide Dog Association, as I suppose this is the premiere association in the world.

George: Was Switzerland in your original travel plans?

Bernard and Cathy: No, it was not. We had to fit it in. It was a big detour.

Cathy: It was really a worthwhile visit because the work being done here was really of high standards. The dogs were trained to think for themselves and to find out ways to cross obstacles. Then we visited the Light House Foundation in Athens. We had a tour of the centre and saw the various services that they provided. One of the things that I really benefited from was the only museum for the visually impaired people. In the museum, they had miniature models of famous monuments and statues which a blind or a visually impaired person could touch and feel it and understand its layout. So it becomes very easy for a blind person to make a picture of the same in his mind. For example, we went to see the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and we found a model of it in one of the tourists shop. So I had touched it and had understood its layout and had a picture of the whole building in my mind before we actually went in. So it makes such difference.

George: Now coming to the Indian sub continent that you are in. What were your quick impressions about the two countries, India and Pakistan?

Bernard: Everyone was worried about us arriving in Pakistan, about the security and the situation considering the difficulties in the region. My overwhelming impression of Pakistan was once again the kindness and lovely sense of curiosity about what we were doing. Everyone we met, they showed a lot of interest in the bike. I must say we came across almost the same situation when we crossed the border into India. The bike is like a magnet. It just attracts people from nowhere. Especially in India, whenever we stopped for five minutes thinking it is in the middle of nowhere and in just two minutes we find 30 people standing around us—all with a smile. We don’t know how it happens, but the friendliness, curiosity and inquisitiveness among the people is very overwhelming. That’s my impression about India and Pakistan so far.

Cathy: I agree to what Bernard said about friendliness, kindness and the welcoming attitude. Also, I noticed as a blind person, that the streets are very busy, very noisy   especially when we are in the cities. The traffic and the people are all so different. I find it very interesting.

George: How has this journey personally impacted you? Have you become a different person or have you changed in anyway?

Bernard: That’s interesting. In fact Cathy and I have been talking about how I think Cathy has changed and how Cathy thinks I’ve changed. So I’ll tell you about Cathy and she can tell about me.

Well, I think Cathy has changed, because as we discussed at the planning stage there are certain things you have to let go over your head. When you are on the road for over 10 to 12 hours in the day you are bound to be very tired, you are bound to be hungry and thirsty. All these things have an impact on two people travelling closely together 24 hours of the day; it’s inevitable to have arguments which may lead to fights. What you have to realize is that you are not fighting with the person; you are fighting because you are hungry, you are tired, and you are hot or cold. So the big difference that I’ve noticed in Cathy, is that now she lets things watch over her a little bit more than when we first started. She was always very patient but now her patience has expanded much more. So that’s the change in Cathy.

Cathy: What I have noticed in Bernard is that even though Bernard has been on the bikes all his life and has a lot of experience; his driving skills have improved enormously. For instance, about three months ago when we started, Bernard would suddenly get worried when he would see gravel or something on the road because it’s a very big and a heavy bike but now he takes it in the stride and just handles the situation as it comes. The sort of driving he has done in different conditions of the roads and the traffic really amazes me. Really his skills have increased enormously.

George: After almost 12 months on the road, when you reach home, do you both have anything specific that you are planning to do? Also, are you looking at something new to do in terms of career?

Bernard: I think it’s going to be very difficult for both of us to fit back into everyday life. We are already thinking about our next trip. We are thinking of doing the same across Africa. I don’t think personally we will ever settle into routine life again.

George: What about you Cathy?

Cathy: Well, I think we both have jobs to go back to, so whatever it is, we will first get on to that.  But I think it is going to change us both enormously. I love being on the roads. I love the fact that you don’t know where you are going to stay that night or whom are you going to meet. It’s all so different. But the first thing that we are going to do before all that is, we are going to write a book—all about the journey, our experiences together, and for me as a visually impaired person. The organizations and the people we’ve met—all of that will be in the book and of course the journey in itself.

George:  What sort of book will it be? Will it b a travel log or an inspirational kind of a book?

Cathy: We are hoping its going to be an inspirational book. Actually it’s going to be a bit of everything because we don’t want it to be meant only for visually impaired people. We want it to be read by everyone, be it bikers, mainstream or people interested in travelling. The idea is to spread awareness among all. To people who have never come across any visually impaired person. You know, when they meet me, they realize what can be done by a person who is blind and I want to get that message across to everyone.

George: So have you thought of a title for the book?  

Bernard: Yes, the title of the book is going to be the same as that we’ve carried on the side of the bike. It says ‘A Blind Woman, Two Wheels and 25,000 Miles.’ Our website also carries the same title, so we continue with that. Because that’s the kind of awareness we want to spread.

George: Thank you very much for being here and spending time with us. We wish you all the very best for the rest of your journey and your future plans.