Logistics….
While this trip is to be free-willed, and casual, a few major things are at play here…
1) Finances – I’m working on this a proper budget which I _hope_ to aim for. Now being a consultant, I’m very well aware that what you forecast doesn’t always come to be the final amount – So I’m cautious. I am trying different methods to save money, some working, some not in hopes of keeping this trip long.
2) Mother Nature – This is the actual main reason for wanting to do specific things, visit specific countries at specific times. What with monsoons, searing heat, snow, blustery winds, and freezing cold, it’s hard to find that happy medium and to be in the right spot to be able to enjoy yourself at one point in time. Either of those variables affects the way that one is able to travel, let alone survive.
I had originally figured that arriving in Ireland in March would be a fairly simple affair, head over to Scotland, and spend time in England. Summertime, being the festival season shows alot of promise for festivals such as Breakfest in the Czech Republic, Love Parade in Germany, and those freetekno underground parties happening all over France by ex Spiral Tribe members hold alot of interest to me. Somewhere in my mind, I had figured it would be essential that I make it into Mongolia by September of that year..
Am I nuts? This means, come August, I’m to bike 6000 some odd kilometers in a month… Come on now..
Fact of the matter, is that I’d still like to be cycling, and not holed up in a place to wait for a season to pass. This makes things a bit easier and a bit less rushed, by allowing me to spend a bit more time in Europe and Central Europe, before making the trek through Turkey and Iran. A much more reasonable plan would be in Mongolia by sometime in 2011, finally then going down into China to beat the cold winters at that point in time… Eventually this whole Asia experience would finish in India. It is a wonderful springboard to head anywhere in the world by a plane. With these thoughts alone, the budget and finance requirements rise again. Europe isn’t cheap. The Middle East and Asia are fairly reasonable.. What does this all mean? I don’t know.. Going in a small loop back to #1.
