We are trying to travel light. There are going to be a few big hills to get up, but also we look with horror at some of the “bike-packers” and think we simply don’t want to take that much weight.
Our aim is to take:
– Our trusty two large Ortleib panniers for clothes, wash-kit and bits ‘n’ bobs.
– A new TopPeak back-box to carry mechanical kit, emergency rations/bivvy bag, first aid kit and bike locks, and to be permanently fastened onto Doris’s bike, not taken into the hotel rooms every night.
– An Ortleib “Barista Bag” handlebar bag containing valuables and e-quipment “never leave the bike without it”. Foully expensive, but a nice bit of kit to take round a town when you don’t really want to look like a crazy cyclist.
For clothes, for most of the trip we will be staying in a different hotel every night. This means it’s actually easier to wash clothes as you go along. So here, approximately (we have a few more nights of nervous re-packing yet) is what we are taking (Sid’s on the right). Not sure if you can see the splendid “Epic Journeys” logos on the polo shirts and baseball caps, but don’t worry, you’ll see enough of them in the photos later.
For the wash kit, there is a limit to how light we want to travel. After all, we might be on the road for 120 days, so there’s no point in travelling with airline toothbrushes and tiny bottles of lotions. I hope you are particularly impressed with the family-size bottle of Factor 50 sun lotion – we’re taking this to encourage ourselves to use it lavishly. Please note that if we ever comment on a smell during the journey, you should mentally add “and mango” because the lotion is very strongly mango-scented.
And the handlebar bag:
Plus EHIC cards, passports, insurance documents (in virtual form as iphotos), innoculation records (ditto).
And we are not now taking our International Driving Permits, as Brexit has now been delayed until after the Epic Journey is due to be completed. Well that’s one good thing to come out of this whole Brexit fiasco.