Itchy Boots - Noraly Schoenmaker
Adventure Rider Radio
Canoe West Media
4.9 • 915 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Noraly Schoenmaker was living a comfortable life in the Netherlands, building a career as a geologist, when her world was suddenly turned upside down. For some, heartbreak might mean retreating inward, but Noraly chose something radically different. She walked away from the life she knew, packed up what she could, and set off to explore the world on a motorcycle. It wasn’t a wild whim — her work had already taken her to far-flung places like Panama and Indonesia, exploring gold mines and studying sand. But this time, it was her journey. Over 20,000 miles later, through countries like Iraq, Iran, and India, she found freedom, connection, and perspective — one road, one meal, one encounter at a time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Norley Schumacher, better known as Itchy Boots, has become one of the most recognized, if not the |
| 0:06.2 | most recognized solo motorcycle traveler in the world. Her videos breach millions. She rides alone, |
| 0:12.4 | films alone, edits alone, all while she's traveling around the world. This is her life now. |
| 0:17.7 | But it all started back when she was working as a geologist. Something big happened at home, |
| 0:22.4 | something personal. In that moment, set off a chain of decisions for her. She quit her job, |
| 0:27.6 | sold her house, and set out to become a full-time travel blogger. Not video, and it wasn't about |
| 0:33.7 | motorcycles either. Once she got to India and started this adventure, she found she could |
| 0:38.7 | rent a motorcycle, so she did. And then through serendipity, she met somebody, she was invited to a |
| 0:43.8 | wedding, and then met somebody else who helped her buy a motorcycle for this journey that she hadn't |
| 0:48.9 | quite planned, but was already on. Now, she knew nothing of the motorcycle travel industry, the culture, the pedigree. |
| 0:56.2 | She had never heard of Jupiter's travels or Ted Simon. She didn't grow up dreaming of crossing |
| 1:01.1 | continents on two wheels or followed somebody's blog or anything like that. She just followed |
| 1:05.6 | her own curiosity and trusted it was going to take her somewhere interesting so that she could |
| 1:10.7 | write about it and do her blog interesting so that she could write about it |
| 1:11.4 | and do her blog. Ultimately, she wanted to get paid for what she loved to do best, and that's |
| 1:17.1 | travel. What's striking is that although she didn't know Ted Simon, she may have more in common |
| 1:23.4 | with Ted than what she realizes. Ted, now considered a giant in the motorcycle travel world, |
| 1:29.1 | set off in the 1970s not as a motorcyclist, but as a journalist. The motorcycle for him was |
| 1:34.8 | simply a way to get around. There was no blueprint, just a willingness to go. But somehow, |
| 1:40.9 | for both of them, for Nora Lee and Ted, on their adventures, the motorcycle became |
| 1:45.6 | more than transportation. It became the adventure itself. And ultimately, the vehicle that |
| 1:52.4 | would propel each of them to the top of a field they didn't even know they were in. In fact, |
... |
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