Noraly Schoenmaker
Itchy Boots
170,000 kilometres. 109 countries. 8 bikes. 2 crashes. 1 collapsed lung. And she is still riding.
She was a geologist. She had a house, a career, a plan. Then she found out her partner had been having an affair, and she decided to ride a motorcycle across the world instead. That was 2018. She has not really stopped since.
Noraly Schoenmaker grew up in the Netherlands, earned a Master of Science in Geochemistry from Utrecht University, and was on the verge of starting a PhD when she went to Australia to collect rock samples and discovered she did not want to be a scientist after all. She backpacked through Southeast Asia, ran out of money in Indonesia with a hundred euros to her name, flew to Perth, worked six months in the mining industry, and then spent two years wandering through Central America, South America, and East Africa before returning to the Netherlands completely broke. She then spent five years working for a dredging company in the Bahamas, Brazil, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, and Morocco. She got her motorcycle licence in 2015 and bought a second-hand Ducati Monster 796. She rode it alone for hours, without a destination. She was, in other words, already becoming Itchy Boots before she had a name for it.
In July 2018, she sold her house, quit her job, and booked a one-way ticket to India. Her plan was to become a travel blogger. She called the blog Itchy Boots. When she arrived in Manali and noticed how cheap it was to rent a motorcycle, she rented a white Royal Enfield Himalayan and rode 3,000 kilometres through the Himalayan mountains. It was the first time she had ever attempted off-road riding. She struggled. She loved it. She knew immediately that this was how she was going to travel from now on.
She bought a brand-new Royal Enfield Himalayan in Delhi, named her Basanti after a character in the Bollywood film Sholay, and started a YouTube channel to document the journey. She planned to ride to Malaysia. She ended up riding to Europe — through Oman, Iran, Central Asia, and Turkey. 36,000 kilometres. Eight months. Twenty-five countries. The channel grew. The world was watching.
"I fell quickly and helplessly in love — with a motorcycle."
The book that came from all of this — Free Ride: Heartbreak, Courage, and the 20,000-Mile Motorcycle Journey, published by Atria Books / Simon & Schuster in June 2025 — is an Instant New York Times Bestseller. In it, Noraly reveals the full story: the affair that broke her world open, the Himalayan rental that changed everything, and what it actually feels like to be alone on a motorcycle in the middle of nowhere with a hundred euros and no plan. It is, as the BBC described it, "a no-frill, from-the-heart story of self-discovery and renewal."
The Fleet
EIGHT BIKES. EIGHT NAMES. ONE PHILOSOPHY.
Every motorcycle Noraly has ridden has a name. This is not a quirk — it is a philosophy. When you are alone on a remote road in Mauritania at dusk with a broken chain and no mobile signal, the relationship between rider and machine becomes something that deserves a name. The Ducati Monster 796 she sold when she quit her job in 2018 was the one that hurt most to leave behind. She has never replaced it. She has never needed to.
THE BIKES
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The Falls
TWO CRASHES. ONE COLLAPSED LUNG. STILL RIDING.
In July 2022, in the Nevada desert during Season 6, Noraly came off the bike on an off-road route. It was the first time she had hurt herself in three and a half years of riding. She recovered, continued to Alaska, dipped her wheels in the Arctic Ocean, and then shipped the bike to Morocco for the Africa season. She had ridden 43,000 kilometres on that Honda CRF300L Rally — a bike she called Alaska — and she was not done yet.
The serious crash came in May 2024, in Tanzania. She was on a good road near Mbeya when she hit a rut wrong and went down hard. She lay there for a while, unable to lift the bike. She reached for her Garmin inReach satellite beacon and sent a message asking for help. No traffic came for a long time. When a truck eventually stopped, it happened to be carrying doctors. Her collarbone was broken and separated. She flew back to the Netherlands for surgery.
During surgery, her lung collapsed. This was not from the crash — it happened on the operating table. She spent months recovering in the Netherlands, in more pain than the original fall had caused. She used the time to write her book. In October 2024, she returned to the road with a new bike — Frankie, a 1987 Yamaha Ténéré XT600z, completely rebuilt, born the same year she was. Season 8 began.
"After months off the road due to my accident, I'm finally back. A new season is here, and with it, a brand-new bike."
THE ROAD
What Drives Her
109 COUNTRIES · 5 CONTINENTS · 3 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
There is a question that gets asked of Noraly constantly, in every language she speaks: are you not afraid? The honest answer, which she gives freely, is yes. She is afraid of many things. She is afraid of the dark roads in countries where the road surface disappears without warning. She is afraid of being alone when something goes wrong. She was afraid, lying in a ditch in Tanzania with a broken collarbone, that no one would come. Someone came. They always come.
What makes Itchy Boots different from the thousands of motorcycle travel channels on YouTube is not the distances or the countries or the crashes — it is the honesty. Noraly does not perform adventure. She documents it. When the bike breaks down in the middle of the Sahara, she films herself fixing it and looking genuinely annoyed. When she is lonely, she says so. When she is scared, the camera sees it. When she arrives somewhere extraordinary and stands there in silence for a moment before speaking, three million people stand there with her.
She cancelled her US book tour in 2025 because she did not feel safe travelling to America under the current immigration climate. She had a valid ten-year visa. She cancelled anyway. Her North American tour was eventually cancelled entirely when the visa was finally delivered after all the tour dates had passed. She posted about it without bitterness. She moved on. She always moves on.
The current season — Season 8, heading to the Far East on Frankie the 1987 Yamaha Ténéré — is, by all accounts, the best she has made. The bike is slower, older, and more temperamental than anything she has ridden before. She loves it. She is riding through Turkey, Pakistan, and beyond. She is filming every kilometre. She is, by any reasonable measure, having the best days of her life.
Free Ride
Heartbreak, Courage, and the 20,000-Mile Motorcycle Journey
Atria Books / Simon & Schuster · June 2025 · 271 pages
The full story — the affair, the Himalayan rental, the 36,000-kilometre journey home, and what it means to open your heart and let the world in. Published in the USA, UK, and Commonwealth. First published in Dutch in 2024. An Instant New York Times Bestseller.
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The Just Gerald Scorecard
NORALY SCHOENMAKER — ITCHY BOOTS
I have been following Noraly since Season 2. I have watched her fix a broken chain in the dark, navigate a border crossing in a language she learned on the road, and lie in a ditch in Tanzania waiting for help that she trusted would come. What I admire most is not the kilometres — it is the honesty. She never pretends it is easy. She never pretends she is not afraid. She just keeps going, and she takes three million people with her. The book is extraordinary. The channel is extraordinary. And Frankie — a 1987 Yamaha Ténéré XT600z, born the same year as her rider — is currently somewhere between Turkey and the Far East, carrying the whole story forward. That is a Best Day Ever, every day.
— Gerald