This will be my first spring departure and i am heading south to get summer a little earlier. The plan is very loose, but I will travel to Milan by bus, then island hop between Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. After which the decision will be either to head east to Albania or west to France. Preparation begins a few weeks prior to departure, making sure the bike is ready, tickets booked, planning route and CouchSurfing/ Warm Showers hosts organised. This stage is actually exciting to me, especially finding out how easy it is to find hosts in new countries. For example, in spite of previous difficulty in finding hosts in Italy, this time I sometimes have too many invitations and need to refuse some.
Modifications to the bike are minimal; new brake blocks, brake cables, chain and cassette - best not to mess with a system that has already been reliable for 20,000+ km.
Flixbus offers a very good service for bike touring, as most of their buses are fitted to accept at least four bikes. Travel by ferry is much cheaper as a foot passenger and, naturally, allows the transport of a bicycle for a minimal fee.
Route planning is made easy using openstreetmaps and you can even see the end profile of the routes you choose. This is very desirable in more mountainous terrain.
No comments:
Post a Comment