5.7.05

Tilmann Waldthaler

It is important to prepare yourself for the trip.
The success of your short trip or your tour around the world on a bicycle will depend to a large degree on the preparation you`ve made prior to your tour. If possible and if you can afford it, start out with good material. You will minimize technical problems and we all know these can be a pain and disastrous as well. Check your route, rules and regulations en route and prepare yourself also mentally for the trip. Get maps and inform yourself regarding places to stay if you are not camping. Have an emergency plan, if ever you should get sick or have an accident. Learn the basics of the language you`ll be confronted with. During my time on the road I have experienced civil wars in El Salvador, Zaire, Uganda and many other countries, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and twice I travelled through very heavy earthquakes 6.4 in Costa Rica and 6.8 in Manila.
Once you know if you`ll be camping or staying around in accomodation places and once you know if you`ll do the cooking yourself or carry your money to “ Big Mac” you will also have to decide on your financial arrangements for the road. T.C or C.C.
There are ofcourse lots of other important facts to decide. What about the watersupply and the climatic conditions. What kind of equipment will I need ? What is useful and what is useless? What about informations, how do I get hold of them, books, internet or magazines ?
You will find all this information on my homepage in time .
Each trip is a very individual happening. All the informations on my homepage should be used as a guideline. Maybe the most important tip is to take only the necessary equipment.
It is so easy to overload the bike with items which will find little or no use at all during the trip. Keep your equipment to the minimum.Each trailer no matter how small is a hinderance and should only be taken along if necessary for extra equipment through difficult places.
The trailer in the picture belonged to a VAUDE Sponsor partner who unfortunatelly got shot dead during his trip around the world in Indonesia.

Tipp: Take along an email address it is a good thing to have on the road as it doesn’t cost anything and it doesn’t weigh anything either. It allows you to communicate with your family and friends out of any Internet Cafe in the world and there are so many, especially in poor countries as the people there do not have computers and notebooks in their homes. These "toys" are only used by a few priviledged people. Sometimes it is difficult to obtain a place in an Internet Cafe because they are crowded with travellers or students.

Tilmann 16. Juli 2004

TIPS FOR THE TRIP

posted by alvaro @ 4:58 a. m.