A tribute to Tim Garratt

…co-author of Discovery Road, who died in 2010 after a long struggle with a tropical illness:

I am sorry to have to write that Tim Garratt passed away in late 2010 after a long illness. When his wife Phyl gave me the news, I had been thinking of how Tim and I may celebrate 20 years since we set off from Sidney on our journey, and it came as a great shock. Now, over a year later I am at last able to sit down and write a few words about Tim and the loss I feel. It has been too difficult for me to face it up to now. When I first suggested to Tim, in a pub near Telford, that we ride around the world he told me that he had been thinking of travelling around South East Asia. In 1995, three years after our return from the cycle journey, I was living in Hong Kong and Tim did make it to South East Asia, and I met him in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo for some diving and a hike up the mountain, Kinabalu. We didn’t know it then, but in the weeks before he met up with me, Tim had contracted an illness in a jungle in Malaysia, perhaps dengue fever from a mosquito, the effects of which he would never recover from. After our time together in Sabah, he met up with Phyl and went home with heavy flu-like symptoms that knocked him out so much that his friends wondered if he was dying then. For most of the next 15 years, Tim had very little energy; activities such as working full-time and later reading and walking down the street were too much for him. This was a cruel contrast from the Tim that must have been one of the fittest people on the planet at the end of our cycle journey.

There were ups and downs and Tim did work part-time as a teacher at the Bridgnorth Endowed School for some years. He was kind enough to make the trip to Hong Kong to be the best man at the wedding of myself and Bianca in 1999. He and Phyl didn’t let on in Hong Kong that he was exhausted by the travel and the celebrations and it took months for him to regain strength. Tim and Phyl tried every cure that they could find and whilst acupuncture and some medications gave short-term relief there was a slow descent. In a photo taken of him in his final year he looked like an old man, though he was under 50. He died of complications, perhaps caused by a range of imbalances in his body. I am deeply honoured to write these words and to have shared the time of my life with Tim Garratt. I could not have foreseen that the chance meeting on the train at midnight in Agra would become a life-long friendship. Tim’s life was full of achievement, laughter, loyalty, friends, inspiration and love.

My memories of Tim are locked in those wonderful days in the early 1990s on the road in Australia, Africa and South America. He was super-fit then, smiling in the face of the worst conditions, a tough, rugged man and yet kind, especially to children. He was full of energy on the road and always up for a beer or two in some dangerous bar at night. Tim was the perfect buddy for an adventure. He was charismatic and could always be relied upon to take the risk, work hard, charm some troublesome people into becoming friends and stay laid back and jovial.

Tim’s great friends from his rugby playing days before the cycling trip remember him as a bit of a wild young guy. He was their club captain and the guy that would lead them into pranks and trouble whilst keeping himself safely behind the scenes when the police, pub landlord, restaurant owner or other innocent victims came on the scene. Those guys could tell you a hundred hilarious stories of humiliation, naked running around bars and brushes with the law with Tim as the wicked mastermind. After Tim’s funeral we celebrated Tim’s life at the Shifnal Golf Club and the love and respect shown by his rugby friends shone through in the rugby songs we sang together. I will never forget the emotion of that afternoon.

It seems that Tim and I were the first people to have bicycled across Australia, Africa and South America in one year. We learned from the terribly poor and some would say disadvantaged people, to stay positive, have hope, look after each other and make do without complaint. Tim lived this way through his long, painful and draining illness.

During our journey Tim often spoke of his family, his Mum and Dad, brother Simon and his wife Phyl and his respect and love for them. This was very surprising and touching for such a tough character. They were his inspiration and his foundation and they can take some credit for his achievements.

There are no survivors in the world. Death comes sometime to us all, it is the cycle of things; death allows new life to emerge. When we go we would all like to know that we have made a positive impact on people and our planet along the way.

I feel Tim made a difference for many people in Africa, through our fund-raising and awareness raising. Many people have written to us over the years to tell us that they have found our journey and this book a source of inspiration in their struggles.

I know that he was greatly respected by his pupils and fellow teachers. Anyone that knew Tim Garratt personally would feel themselves privileged to have known a very special guy. Tim would have liked the idea of people reading this book after his death and being inspired to make little changes in their lives or embark on great adventures to make things better. So please, don’t hold back, listen to the clues of destiny.

Tim, I love you and miss you, buddy.

Andy Brown

Hong Kong

February 2014