That was and is the party line and I'm sticking to it.
Selfishly I'm not doing this trip for charity or out of a percieved obligation to a dying friend ala Harold Fry or to break records or to proove anything, except perhaps to myself.
If I stop enjoying it, I'll stop. If its too hard, I'll push the bike up the hill. Too boring? I'll get a train to somewhere more to my interest.
And with those disclaimers out the way, here's the route I've been planning.
The map below ids a very rough, pretty inaccurate over view of my "route" dran in paint.
It doesn't even show my planned vsist to Rome
The current milestones are as follows1. Start
2. Strasbourg
3. Zurich
4. Orvieto/Rome
5. Lake Bled, Slovenia
6. Istanbul
7. Baku/Estephan
8. Almaty/Islamabad
9. Xian
10. SE Asia
11. Sydney
12. Ever onwards...
Naturally there are all sorts of places I'm very excited to see along the way but these are the natural chapter ends for each leg of the trip as I see them.
When travelling it depends on the individual as to which I say I'm heading for. Typically I say the next chapter end because saying I'm cycling to Australia when I'm in Calais seems not only faintly ridiculous but also fraudelent given I don't know if I will, or can, make it that far.
The chapter ends get more georgaphically distant from one another the further along I go; partly because my planning for those areas is naturaly more general at the moment; partly because I assume if I've made it that far I'll be likely to travel further still.
The route divergence in Eastern Turkey is largely due to visa costs and complications. My current preference is the southern route through Iran and Pakistan but recent relaxation on EU cictizens visa requirements in the ex-soviet states makes the northern route potentially simpler.
So that's where my mind has wandered to when looking at a map. Now to see where it can get when on a saddle.
This is going to be awesome!
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