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Hi everybody
I'm startng to plan my next trip and this time i'll have 14 days in September, i think I will go from Thessaloniki to Istanbul and make a small detour to Ukraine on the way, or I'll start in Sofia, maybe in Bukarest. well I' have not yet quite decided, I think it will be up to where I get the best and cheapest flights.
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I'm trying to read a lot of Blogs and Forums looking for Route suggestions and Ideas where to start and go, hopefully I'll make up my mind soon so I can start looking for flights.
Sounds like a fun trip! I'm hoping to do something like that at some point this year, so we'll see how it goes. If you're looking for info on cycling to Istanbul, Blorg who sometimes posts here has a great report on his trip: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=7459&v=ML
Seriously impressive stuff, and awesome pics
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Planning on going from Santander to Roscoff over about 20-25 days, and will be camping.
So far I have a tent, a good 2 season bag, a matt, cycling shorts, jerseys, a small camp stove and a few cans of gas, er, Im sure there are other things im not thinking of :P
Have you done a tour for this length of time before?
I did a similar journey in 2010 from Cherbourg to Barcelona.
My advice would be (and others have disagreed with me on here in the past) - is not to bring a tent at all, and certainly not to bring a camping stove.
The main reasons I would never use a tent is that tents take time to put up and take down, they get wet and smelly on the inside, you need to put aside valuable time in the day to find a suitable place to place it, and they add weight. All of this, particularly the moisture build up on the inside, would put me off ever using one unelss absolutely necessary.
With the cooking equipment, well, it was never used and added so much weight.
Instead of a tent, when doing a tour, I would sleep 'rough'. There is always somewhere with solid ground and a shelter to put down a sleeping mat and sleeping bag. And in the climate of Spain and the south of France, rain and cold would not be expected, further expanidng potential sleeping locations.
On the otherhand, and advantage of a tent allows you to enter camp sites legitimately. Otherwise it is quite easy to access them for shower purposes. Without one.
Something useful to bring is a Compass. When entering large cities and towns, the large map scale (assuming you are bringing one) tend not to give sufficient detail of the city so as to navigate in and out of it. A compass will allow you to know the direction within a built up area that you should be travelling to get out, so as to not get so lost 0 -
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Have you done a tour for this length of time before?
I did a similar journey in 2010 from Cherbourg to Barcelona.
My advice would be (and others have disagreed with me on here in the past) - is not to bring a tent at all, and certainly not to bring a camping stove.
The main reasons I would never use a tent is that tents take time to put up and take down, they get wet and smelly on the inside, you need to put aside valuable time in the day to find a suitable place to place it, and they add weight. All of this, particularly the moisture build up on the inside, would put me off ever using one unelss absolutely necessary.
With the cooking equipment, well, it was never used and added so much weight.
Instead of a tent, when doing a tour, I would sleep 'rough'. There is always somewhere with solid ground and a shelter to put down a sleeping mat and sleeping bag. And in the climate of Spain and the south of France, rain and cold would not be expected, further expanidng potential sleeping locations.
On the otherhand, and advantage of a tent allows you to enter camp sites legitimately. Otherwise it is quite easy to access them for shower purposes. Without one.
Something useful to bring is a Compass. When entering large cities and towns, the large map scale (assuming you are bringing one) tend not to give sufficient detail of the city so as to navigate in and out of it. A compass will allow you to know the direction within a built up area that you should be travelling to get out, so as to not get so lost
well thats fu.ks up my reply
i had a whole list for ready to post but now ah well each to there own.:rolleyes:0 -
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Have you done a tour for this length of time before?
I did a similar journey in 2010 from Cherbourg to Barcelona.
My advice would be (and others have disagreed with me on here in the past) - is not to bring a tent at all, and certainly not to bring a camping stove.
The main reasons I would never use a tent is that tents take time to put up and take down, they get wet and smelly on the inside, you need to put aside valuable time in the day to find a suitable place to place it, and they add weight. All of this, particularly the moisture build up on the inside, would put me off ever using one unelss absolutely necessary.
With the cooking equipment, well, it was never used and added so much weight.
Instead of a tent, when doing a tour, I would sleep 'rough'. There is always somewhere with solid ground and a shelter to put down a sleeping mat and sleeping bag. And in the climate of Spain and the south of France, rain and cold would not be expected, further expanidng potential sleeping locations.
On the otherhand, and advantage of a tent allows you to enter camp sites legitimately. Otherwise it is quite easy to access them for shower purposes. Without one.
Something useful to bring is a Compass. When entering large cities and towns, the large map scale (assuming you are bringing one) tend not to give sufficient detail of the city so as to navigate in and out of it. A compass will allow you to know the direction within a built up area that you should be travelling to get out, so as to not get so lost
I've lived in my tent for weeks at a time in various countries in Europe, North America and South America, it takes me about 5 minutes to pitch and 10 to tear down and pack. It's an extremely good quality tend and weights 2kg packed so I don't really mind bring the slight extra weight. There is no way in hell I'm sleeping wild, insects fecking love my blood.
The only place condensation is ever an issue is under the fly cover, and that only takes about 10 minutes to dry off if you take it off and hang it somewhere.
As for the camp stove, I play on cooking most of my meals myself and camping wild as much as possible, so it's not an option to not bring one in my opinion. It will allow me to cook a good breakfast or dinner per day at least and I plan on grabbing lunch on the road from supermarkets/cafes/etc.0 -
I've lived in my tent for weeks at a time in various countries in Europe, North America and South America, it takes me about 5 minutes to pitch and 10 to tear down and pack. It's an extremely good quality tend and weights 2kg packed so I don't really mind bring the slight extra weight. There is no way in hell I'm sleeping wild, insects fecking love my blood.
The only place condensation is ever an issue is under the fly cover, and that only takes about 10 minutes to dry off if you take it off and hang it somewhere.
As for the camp stove, I play on cooking most of my meals myself and camping wild as much as possible, so it's not an option to not bring one in my opinion. It will allow me to cook a good breakfast or dinner per day at least and I plan on grabbing lunch on the road from supermarkets/cafes/etc.
Interesting that you have a very different viewpoint to myself
Ill be starting a 3,200km tour in the next two months and neither of us will be bringing a tent as we have had so many bad experiences with them.
With the 2010 trip from cherbourg to Barcelona only one of us brought a tent, and that was regretted as we soon found it to be unnecessary and that it was a lot fo hassle for the reasons I mentioned. Both of us ended up sleeping rough, and doing so was preferred over sleeping in a tent.
But I would say 2kg is a significant weight extra, particularly if covering the pyrenees or the Alps.
I guess it really depends on what type of tour is being done. If 'wild camping' is preferred, then perhaps a tent and stove are required. If touring through villages and towns then food is more readily available, and the hassle and weight of hauling a stove, pots and cannisters around is not necessary.0 -
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