Marc Weitz is a highly experienced traveller, but his relationship with motorcycle travel is unusual. He has ridden motorcycles in difficult places around the world, yet he has never owned one and can go months without riding. In 2025, he flew into Kabul with a flight home, someone willing to rent him a motorcycle and an idea to ride west across Afghanistan to Herat. That was about the extent of the plan. Why choose a motorcycle for a country under Taliban rule—and how much of the attraction was the challenge it added?
During his research, the remote Minaret of Jam had got into his head. To reach the 12th-century tower, Marc had Google Maps, a recent German map and a GPS route sent to him by an experienced couple who had already ridden there. But three sources pointed toward two different routes, and one word in the couple’s description changed the way Marc understood the choice. Which route would he trust? And once he was out there, how would he know whether he was still on a road at all?
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