Eurovelo 15 - Gearing up!

Committing to a trip away like this is part easy, part hard. I'll come to the hard bit later, but first collating the gear I needed to be self-sustainable has taken a lot of research. While I can buy food along the way I wanted to be able to camp out most nights. Although wild camping is frowned upon throughout most of Europe, the Rhine route is spoiled with campground options. I hope to try a mixture of both.

As a hiker (although the knees and back dispute that fact) I did have some of the gear that would be useful along the trip - tent, sleeping mattress, sleeping bag, cooking gear. However I did need some other tour cycling-specific gear - this is going to be my transportation, home, and 'comforts', for the 30 days on the road. You get to realise quickly that every gram counts - I packed and repacked a few times, asking myself what could I leave behind. Other tour and adventure cyclist blogs came in really handy - most acknowledged that their first few days away on their first trip was a steep learning curve about what they should and shouldn't have packed. There are many stories of posting gear back home. A bit of a challenge for me is that I arrive at the changing of seasons, starting at over 2,000 metres above sea level (cool to cold) and finishing at sea level (mild to warm) so choosing clothing to suit is playing with my mind!

So the photo below is my fully loaded bike. It's a Merida 500 Speeder hybrid bike - not the best gearing for tour cycling with hills however this particular route is mainly downhill (or so the tourist guides say!). There are a few steep gradients which I know I'll be pushing the bike up however there don't seem to be many. I've tried to convince myself that if it's from source to sea I probably don't even need to pedal at all - just coast along to the coast!

I do have a couple of luxury items which, at this stage, I'm not willing to part with. A hiking chair (around 800 grams) and an Aeropress Go coffee maker. If I don't have that coffee upon awakening then heaven help the first person that cheerily says good morning to me! 

So the hard bit of committing to the trip - it's telling the family of my plans. They've always been supportive of my need to 'wander' - however the world has changed and it's a bit more wild and woolly. We still have a global pandemic, and a war in Europe, and I'll be travelling on my own. I know my limitations and my capabilities, and I'm confident in my ability to read the environment I'm in. My family also know my commitment to Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, for whom I hope to raise some funds along the ride as I've done on previous motorcycle rides in Vietnam, India and Tibet. However, it doesn't make it any easier for them.