TRIP OF A LIFETIME: Start Planning

After writing my last blog I recieved a comment from Jophiel Wiis, who is planning a motorbike trip round New Zealand and Australia.

His really is a trip of a lifetime, the kind of thing I one day hope to have the time to do, and I started thinking about extending the route and length of my trip.

I speak relatively good German and I was thinking of extending the amount of time I spend there. As Jophiel is from Denmark, I have also considered riding North through the Netherlands, then the tip of Germany and heading into Denmark before back through Germany.

He also suggested looking into funding for the trip. Instead of this, I have been thinking about using the trip to make my final project. It's only an idea for now but as I have a chance to think about it I'll hopefully expand on the idea.

Places to Stay

Right now I'm trying to finalise a route and look into places to stay along the way. After travelling across America I found the use of hostels a nessessity and I have been looking into hostels across Europe.

There are plenty of places to stay and at a relatively cheap cost as well. I would quite like to get the chance to camp, especially the further south I go, and the European Park Guide has been a great help.

However, this raises the question of luggage. I already have a large back box to cart my things from home to uni and back again, but I need panniers, and then possibly a tank bag as well.

There are a plethora of clever luggage accessories available for bikes, and all can be found at decent prices if your willing to compromise a little. The question is, just when does too much become too much?

Leaving it Behind

I'm trying to learn lessons from Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor, who often talked about taking everything and the kitchen sink, then finding they didn't need it.

If I was to take camping equipment as well as clothes, maps, waterproofs, basic equipment etc then the bike would end up pretty heavy. How much of that do you actually need?

Answering Questions

In order to get any further than just having a hazy idea of going on a trip sometime next year, I need to start answering some of the questions.

The most important is where I will go, how I will get there and how long it will take.