Whilst travelling in Canada, we found our man. We were on a mission to find the right person to pass on a pair of nuts. Dave, a young Aussie guy on a mission of his own, was our willing recipient. It was a perfect match.

Will from Colorado on his journey through South America. (Thanks for the photo Will!)

This story started way back in January 2013 in Valparaiso, Chile. We were waiting in a hostel for our motorbikes to arrive from Sydney when another biker turned up. Like a whirlwind, Will from Colorado, USA blew in. He was riding incredible distances daily in order to reach Ushuaia before his holiday time ran out.

There was no space left at the hostel but that didn’t faze Will. He set his patched-up tent rather haphazardly on the front narrow footpath for the night. This was quickly followed by sharing a few remarkable stories of his journey and then, an offering to Fiona and I.

Our bikes early in the trip sporting their nuts

During his time in Peru, he was given a couple of witch’s gourds for good luck. He’d attached them to his bike and hadn’t encountered any problems since, so figured they might be of use to us as we commenced our trip north. Top bloke!

Our lucky charms were the shape of very small butternut pumpkins, once decorated but now faded thanks to their arduous journey. With some cable ties one hung in the space behind each of our bikes’ front wheel.

Fi showing good handling skills

Their shape, size and positioning naturally lead us to refer to them affectionately as “Will’s nuts”.

Like Will, we don’t know if they worked or not, but didn’t have any major problems throughout our journey. What they did do, however, was provide no end of amusement to others: we were stopped regularly to explain what they were, bringing laughs and smiles to the faces of those who asked.

Two nuts. Matt (right) handing over the nuts to Dave (left)

More than a year and a half later, and approaching the end of our trip, we were on the lookout for another traveller who would take good care of Will’s nuts. We met Dave who was starting his solo motorcycle adventure in Canada and heading to South America. On his way, he hopes to raise money for cancer research and awareness of testicular cancer. He is a cancer survivor himself and has boldly called his blog “onenutter”. The handover was a no-brainer.

Dave’s KLR 650

Dave, we hope the nuts bring you good fortune for your mission and laughs throughout for your trip!

If you are interested in supporting Dave’s journey, find out more at his website onenutter.com

Posted by Matt

Our bikes in the USA without the nuts

We met Dave again by chance nearly two weeks later at a small Canadian/US border crossing