Congratulations on getting a rough idea on your route! Now it's time for important checks!
- is the weather okay everywhere? How about typhoons, landslide, earthquakes, ...? - visa: do you need one? For how long can you get one? Can you renew it? Can you extend it? Where? Are there extra demands for obtaining one (you can't enter Pakistan if you have a visa for Iran in your passport, for some countries you need a special invitation letter or you have to give a detailed itinerary). Check this thoroughly for every country and see if you have to obtain it while in your home country or if you can obtain it from somewhere else (also check the time it might take AND the attitude of the people issuing it (friendly, corrupted, swift, ... )). - Are there dangers? Go to the website of external affairs and check the travel section for detailed information on each country. Check the internet for people who've been there: are there still problems, did they feel save, what about the landmines, ... ? Whatever you read or feel: follow your feelings. If reading certain stuff makes you uncomfortable: don't go there, make a detour or look up if you can take a train through that area. - have contact (e-mail, fora, skype, personal) with cyclists who have been to the countries you want to go. What route did they take? Why? What do they think of your route? Adjustments they suggest? Extra precautions? Listen to their advice, they know what they are talking about! The answers for my trip are: - weather is almost everywhere green with some possible orange spots. Typhoons shouldn't be a big issue, landslides are mostly in monsoon times and I'm avoiding those. You can't really prepare for earthquakes, but I now know in which countries they are possible. - visa: I'll obtain my visa for the -stan countries and China in advance, as far as possible. Visa for South East Asia, South Korea and Japan will be obtained on arrival or in a neighbouring country. There are a lot of changes going on with the demands for obtaining visa, so I'm keeping my eye on it and will be going into more detail about this for myself in a year, when leaving home is getting a lot closer. - there are dangers along my way. On the website of foreign affairs I read about mines, fighting and borders being closed. It scared me bit, but I realised that a lot of my itinerary has been done before by other cyclists. I checked with some cyclists that had cycled 'dangerous' parts and came to the conclusion that foreign affairs is very careful. Most other cyclists didn't really have issues with a lot of the dangers. I will of course keep them in mind while cycling through them. - most cyclists thought my global route was pretty good. One of the adjustments made were to cycle the Pamir Highway instead of the 'shortcut'. the shortcut apparently has a very terrible road and it would take you as much time as taking the Pamir Highway. Besides that the Pamir Highway is very beautiful, not that hard (since you've been going up the entire time already) and you can team up with other cyclists when necessary or desired. A second (big!) adjustment was made in China. The road I planned on taking was a bit too close to Tibet and apparently extremely hardcore (high altitude, climbing, very bad roads, almost no shops along the way, ...). A fellow cyclist told me he had taken a train to somewhere else and cycled a beautiful path with two options: through the mountains (beautiful and quiet) or next to the river (faster and easier). I decided to follow his advice. So, my route is fixed now (more or less). How about yours? Having a good idea about your route means you'll find it easier to look up information about visa, route conditions, availability of water and food, hospitality, repair shops and all the more. So, next up: part 4! :)
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So okay, you figured out your essentials. Now you're ready to create a general idea of your route. How to do this depends on your own way of working. You can use the routes that other people did, focus on the weather in certain countries or on how long you want to be in one country, visit certain things, ... .
I started with the weather. For cycling it's important to know the weather conditions before you go on your trip. This way you're sure to have the correct equipment with you, don't get stuck because mountain passes are closed due to snow or other roads are closed off because of monsoon rains. First I made a table with a row for each country (or area) and a column for each month of the year. I looked online for climate information (www.klimaatinfo.nl ended up to be my winner, but it is in Dutch. Another good website is www.worldreviewer.com/world-weather) and gave every month a green, orange or red color. To make it easier for myself I added the maximum and minimum temperature together and divided it by 2. This way I came up with a number that could be higher then 20°C (green), under 5°C (red) or in between (orange). I also added the rainfalls. A tiny drop meant between 101mm-200mm and a big drop meant over 200mm. I did this for every country that I might have to cycle. You can skip this if you are blessed with a good memory, but I like my table because I can have a quick overview at all times. Then I tried to put together a route. To be able to do this I need to know how much kilometers I'll have to cycle in that country, to know how long it will take me. So I went to Google maps and used the route planner. I entered a possible starting point and an ending point. I made some adjustments in between until it looked like a feasible cycling route. I noted down the kilometers, divided them by my daily cycling distance and added an appropriate number of resting days. this gives me a rough idea of the time I'll spend in a certain country. Beware: you cannot do this when you cross a border with China: Google indicates that there are no streets. You can however make a road up to the border, one inside China and another from another area, outside China. Remember to note down any detours you made, so you can find this 'global first route' again. I have to be in Japan in July and August 2017 and I can't start before July 2016. This meant that Mongolia was going to be difficult, since I only had green in July and August, so I had to start my trip there. However, once I started planning further I noticed it would not be possible to continue due to coming into red zones... . So I decided to leave Mongolia out for the moment. Someone offered the suggestion of taking the train to Astana (Kazakhstan) and start cycling from there. To keep up with my weather preferences I had to shorten my initial route in the '-stan countries', but in the end I had my global route. Well done, you now have a good idea of your trip! The next step is a bit less fun: testing to see if your global route is possible and narrowing the route down (when preferred and possible). So you're thinking about going on a big trip? But how to do it... . I'll let you know about my preparations and maybe it will give you a starting point for planning your own trip.
First of all: figure out the essentials of your trip. How long, where, what weather, ... . The more detailed you do this the more clear your journey will become. It will help with expectations and give you a good idea about the effect of the trip on yourself. For me it ended up like this: - one year cycling in Asia, on my own with a map and compass (no gps) - starting July 2016, ending in August/September 2017 - selfsupporting with tent and cooking gear - don't mind wildcamping, but also love a real bed from time to time - cooking will be primitive meals and tea - don't mind company along the way, but not too long - don't mind taking trains or boats - do not want to take a plane and try to avoid buses - cycling 60-80km a day, with one or two resting days a week - don't mind going to desolate terrain, nor busy city roads - love cycling near the sea and have mixed feelings about mountains (love them, but at the same time they scare me!) - good weather = above 20°C and bad weather is below 5°C - don't mind rain, as long as it isn't constant and there are ways to avoid rain while cycling (eating, tent or shelter) - Must see countries are Japan, China, South-East-Asia, Mongolia and the so-called "-stan countries" - must avoid: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran - communication with home through blog and facebook, once a week (unless I give notice about the impossibility of this) - taking camera and the time to take pictures - money: I have saved enough to be able to do this on a budget. I will have to watch out to spend as little as possible, to make sure I don't end up coming home without any money. Everything I don't spend will make it easier for me (and my boyfriend) when I come home and don't have a job yet. - miss boyfriend terribly! Okay, so that's that. Now you're ready for part 2: planning a global route! |
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