An adventurer who has toured the world on old scooters is gutted after her beloved leopard print model was stolen – when she arrived back in Britain.
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, 35, has ridden everywhere from Vietnam and Cambodia to Russia and Ukraine on trusty Hondas.
But after returning from a 3,000-mile jaunt around the Black Sea her C90 – nicknamed Ken – was stolen from outside her home in St Werburgh’s, Bristol.
She said: “I know it is so silly to be upset because it is only a piece of metal but it has so many happy memories attached to it.
“It is just sentimentality, I loved that bike, it was unique and it was mine.
“I will drive all over the country looking for Ken, it means so much to me, I really loved that bike I am absolutely gutted.”
Antonia is a travel writer is well known for her books and articles about long journeys in comedy vehicles.
She travelled between Bangkok in Thailand to Brighton by tuk tuk in 2007 and most recently travelled the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia on a pink 25-year-old Honda Cub.
Antonia and boyfriend Marley Burns, 38, bought their most recent bikes in 2008 after deciding to travel around the Black Sea taking in Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia.
They painstaking painted the C90s, one in zebra print and another leopard version, by hand, before setting off on their epic trek in 2010.
They returned home to Chew Magna, Somerset, three weeks later, where the bikes were put into storage.
She retrieved it when they moved to their new home in St Werburghs, Bristol, a few weeks ago.
But just days later, on Monday (10/2), she was horrified when she went outside her home to find it had gone.
“We had only been moved in a couple of weeks when it went missing,” Antonia, said.
“I went around to everybody in the street and put notes through doors but nobody had heard anything.
“I don’t think this was kids. It was too professionally done.
“The locks had all been removed and the main big lock had been cut using a bolt cutter. Poor Ken is probably in some garage now being stripped.
“There are lots of bikes in St Werburghs, people seem to love them, within 100 metres of my house there are six bikes.
“But they only took mine, that was it.”
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said the theft had been reported to them immediately.
“We had a report that both locks had been cut from the wheels of the vehicle and had been left in the street,” he said.
“We understand that the motorcycle has huge sentimental value to the victim who had travelled all around the world on it. Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 101 quoting crime reference 14267/14 of February 9.”
If you think you have any information that can help Antonia she would like to hear from you on antsbk@gmail.com.
