As usual, we will be ‘visa-camping’ this year – which means we’ll bring the tents and clothes, but will leave it up to the restaurants, cafe’s and pubs to keep us fed.
This allows us to keep the gear down to a couple or rear panniers and a small day pack. Not quite as minimal as we saw from two Aussie couples we met a couple of years ago – they rode from Frankfurt to Rome on road bikes, carrying only one change of clothes each. They planned the trip, with every hotel pre-booked along the way. Organized? Yes…but not much leeway to change if they ran into an extended period of nasty weather! Good on ’em, though!
For my setup, it’s the trusty 2006 Kona Sutra, with a pair of Ortlieb Classics (in classic yellow, of course) and a weatherproof backpack.
Left Pannier:
- Tent, poles. pegs, groundsheet
- Inflatable Thermarest mattress, light sleeping bag
- Rain gear on top for easy access show the need arise (jacket, pants, booties)
Right Pannier:
- Clean and dirty mesh clothes bags for
- 3 pairs socks, two pair underwear, two pair bike shorts
- Convertible pants, day shorts
- Two biking jerseys and one quick-dry t-shirt
- Light hiking shoes plus biking shoes
- Light long sleeve sweater
- Toiletry bag
- Quick dry ball cap
Backpack
- Electronics bag with chargers, batteries, extra SD cards
- iPad, iPhone, GPS, Camera
- Paper (!) journal
Obviously, I’m wearing some of that stuff at any given time, and some of the electronics sit in a triangle frame bag while biking. There’s also other odd stuff here and there – tool kit, spare tubes, spokes, that sorta thing.
Total load: about 30 pounds for the panniers and pack, and about another 30 for the bike and miscellaneous stuff. Oh yeah, plus 205 for me, and it’s always a flip of the coin as to whether the exercise will counteract the beer and food, so my weight may vary!
UPDATE!! So a bunch of friends and I get together on Sunday as a send off for the trip, and it appears that leaving my iPhone in the 30 degree sun was not good for it. Thought it might recover after cooling down, but it is dead! So no voicemail, calling, or most important, a backup for the work iPad… On the plus side, if/when I inevitably stop posting blogs, I can blame it on a failed iPad?
