Planning update – Late January 2012

Well, the trip is getting very close now! 7 weeks till I’m in Barcelona- only 19 days left in the office, which will go very quickly. Lots of little things to sort out, here’s a bit of an update.

Route:

No really major changes to the route since the last update- except that I’m probably going to cut Italy out of the route completely and save it for another trip. I just don’t think I can really do it justice in the time I’ve got. And they’ve got a hell of a reputation for drivers as crazy as NZ ones!

I’ve still got to work out the timings, but I’ve got quite a few friends going to Rock Werchter in Belgium, so I’m contemplating swinging past that. It’s a 4 day music festival, with camping etc. One of my concerns is my gear, so might have to find a Warmshowers.org host nearby to stash most of my gear at. On the plus side- they have guarded bicycle shelters at the concert! Wouldn’t get that in NZ!

Also, I’m leaning towards flying to Japan instead of Mongolia after the UK. This is because I think Mongolia would be much better on a dedicated trip with more suspension on the bike than a sprung saddle! And I’ve heard really good things about cycling in Japan, so want to check it out. And I tried to study Japanese for 3 years at highschool (even if I only got 39% in School Certificate japanese!). It makes China that much easier too- I’d be crossing to Shanghai so could loiter in the south a bit longer, or maybe go Simon Winchester styles and follow the Yangtze! :-)

Gear:

As you can see from my previous post I got all my gear together to look at and consider. I’ve still got some thinking to do around what merino layers I take and whether I should get a short-sleeve merino/cycling top or wait for a few months till I lose some weight.. I’m leaning towards sticking with what I’ve got- it’s still going to be relatively cold when I get to Europe, and long sleeves give good solar protection.

The good news is it looks like I’ll get everything under the 20kg limit for my bag, with the extra 7kg of carry-on. So then I’ll only have to worry about my excess baggage for the bike. In hindsight, I think I should’ve flown through the US, as then you get the extra bag, even if you do have to get off the plane to go through customs etc.

I think I’ve got pretty much everything now (my Kindle Touch arrived this month thanks to my sister), only minor things to go like an AA battery charger and a new camera charger. Oh, and still need to find some NZ flag stickers to put on my panniers/bike.

Misc:

I also visited the doctor to get my last immunisations and a heap of drugs for the trip. It really made me appreciate the NZ health system- for ~$20 I got 9 months of anti-malarials, 2 types of anti-diarrhea meds, antibiotic ointment and antibiotic pills and 100 paracetemol!

A common question I get asked is related to visas. I can’t apply for any from NZ- I’ve got to sort them all out overseas. I’m fine in Europe- I can get by with Schengen and NZ’s bilateral agreements with the countries. There’s good info for NZ travellers on MFAT’s Safe Travel site here. Then in Asia the only one I think I need to apply for beforehand is China. I haven’t looked into it in detail (partly because I still haven’t decided where to enter from), but it sounds like you can get a 120 day visa which would be great for me. I’ll be applying from London, possibly through an agency, so will try and look into that a bit before I leave. Then all of the SE Asian visas I’ll sort as I’m going- some are from the border and others from the nearest city to the border I believe.

Otherwise, I think I’m all sorted, just packing up my room and putting stuff into storage. I’ve got some friends who are kindly looking after my bed and books while I’m away, and pretty much everything else is either getting sold, sent to my parents place, sold or given to charity. I’m giving my old computer to a refugee family, which is much better than putting it to landfill! It’s got the added bonus of working as a heater when it’s turned on.

And finally, here are some photos from a recent evening walk I did along Wellington’s South Coast- playing with some HDR that I might try and do more of on the trip.