Planning Update – Mid November 2011

Only 4 months to go until I leave (which means 3 months of work!)!  So here’s another update on how my planning is going for the trip. Covers some more thinking on the route, logistics, the website and some stuff about gear.

Route:

No major changes here, just refinements. The biggest change to my current thinking is around Italy. I’ll be coming down from eastern Switzerland to Como and Milan. I’m now thinking I’ll leave my bike in Milan for a few days, and take the train down to Pisa, Florence and Rome, then back to Milan. From there I’ll head across towards Verona and Venice. There’s the option from there to take a ferry down to Split in Croatia so I can ride up to Slovenia, or skipping Croatia and heading straight in Austria or Slovenia.

I think that this is a good compromise- it’ll save me at least a month of riding, through a country that I’m mainly going to for the touristy bits that I can get to on the (reasonably priced) train. This will mean I’ll either be able to spend more time exploring places like Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic, or head over to Asia a bit sooner so that I can get a bit further west (and up) in China before the winter hits! So yeah, thinking Europe might now be 5-6 months, and taking the train in late September instead of October like I was planning. There’s still the issue of being in the UK around the time of the Olympics, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to base myself out of London and just head in for a bit of touristy stuff for a few days, and to sort out visa’s and train tickets for the next part of the trip.

I’ve been studying a few of the bike paths across Europe, and it looks like a lot of the places I’m going I can follow cycle paths the whole way, which should be great!

I’m also looking at spending a month or two working in Perth when I arrive in Aussie (similar to how Thomas from http://www.cyclingtheglobe.com/ stopped in Alice Springs for a while). This should allow me to replenish some of my funds, as well as letting me settle a bit in a place after over a year on the road.

Logistics:

With the realisation that Singapore airlines give me a bugger-all luggage allowance (15kg for the bike and 20kg for the rest of my gear), I’ve been looking hard at my gear, and what I can pick up over there. Unfortunately I’ve got all my gear now, so there’s not a lot I can drop, other than some MSR fuel bottles and taking the absolute minimum of clothing (of which I would’ve taken too many anyway!). I think it’ll just come down to things like my camera tripod that I’ll have to leave behind. I’ve started putting all the gear I’m taking in a corner of my bedroom, and I’m hopeful I should be able to keep it all under the weight limit (esp if I maximise carry-on etc). The bike will be borderline on the 15kg, but it sounds like you’ve just got to speak nicely to the person at the check-in counter and hope for the best!

On the positive side, I’ve got some potential places to keep my bed in Wellington while I’m away! Now I’ve just got to sort out what I’ll do with my large collection of books (as they’re too heavy to ship to my parents house) and I’ll be pretty much sorted.

Website:

I’ve turned on a Social commenting plugin. I’d be interested to get some feedback- is this appealing to people?

I’ve also linked to a Google Calendar that I’m going to try and keep up to date around where I might be when. On the road I’ll try and update it with the places I’ve been on specific days.

You might have seen the previous post with the geotagged photos. I hope these are interesting for people- I’m kinda passionate about mapping, so I’m trying to maximise that aspect in the blog.

I’m also a little concerned about some of the delays I’m seeing in the website loading. I’m looking into some of the caching settings etc, so hopefully that’ll improve it.

Gear:

Just a quick note on this. I found this post on Cycling The 6 very interesting, and well worth a read. It reminded me I need to get on and sort out some “business” cards for the trip that I can give out as I travel.

I still haven’t decided for sure on cameras etc. The video I’ve embedded below really makes me want a GoPro Hero2, but maybe I’m just a sucker for awesome videos. It seems like the kind of thing I’d really like to have a play with before buying, but that’s not really an option (they shops in town don’t even have any out of the boxes!).