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Elspeth Beard (born 28 April 1959) is an architect and motorcyclist, noted for being one of the first Englishwomen to ride a motorcycle around the world. She later redesigned the historic Munstead Tower in Godalming, winning the 1994 Royal Institute of British Architects award for South East England. She now owns an architectural firm based in a converted stable in Godalming.
In Sydney she ran out of money and spent seven months working in a pub before motorcycling across Australia. In Townsville, Queensland, she had an accident which left her hospitalised for two weeks. Afterwards, she travelled to Singapore, where she spent 6 weeks replacing important documents and gear after they were all stolen; then she travelled into Asia. In Thailand, she collided with a dog and recuperated with a local family who fed her the remains of the dog she had crashed into. At the time of the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the entire Punjab state was closed. Beard forged the necessary permit to get out of the Punjab region and travelled into Pakistan before riding back into Europe via Turkey. She arrived in the United Kingdom in 1984, having travelled . In doing so, she became the first Englishwoman to motorcycle around the world.
When Beard returned from the trip, there was a lack of interest for what she had accomplished, as she stated in an interview: "After I got back and nobody was interested in what I'd done, I just shoved everything into the back of the garage. I just kind of moved on with my life."
Her 2017 autobiography Lone Rider chronicles the circumnavigation.
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