The Final Preparations

Finally. I found some time to write! (I am Siemen by the way, the name of the author is usually underneath the post)

After quitting my call center job in Berlin I wandered and cycled around central Europe with my girlfriend (not the cycling part), but now I'm back in Belgium and have some time to give you a further introduction into our trip.

So, what is this all about?

On October 25th the two of us will fly to Santiago de Chile. Further public transport will take us south to Puerto Montt at the Northern frontier of Patagonia, the southern tip of South America.

When people think of South America the first thing that crosses your mind is rain forests  beaches and temple ruins, but the part we are visiting is way different. Patagonia is known for its fjords, fierce winds and penguins . There are better places to spend winter in the south. But people say it's beautiful and we tend to believe them. We will cycle straight south to Ushuaia and return north by ferry around New Years.

After Patagonia we hope to travel North to Bolivia and Peru. It is an open ended trip. We will not book return flights. We go back when we feel like (or we get a job in Joachims case). Although at some point we will also run out of money and patience from our girlfriends, so we did restrict the trip to a maximum of 6 months.

People could think this trip is a last chance to enjoy life before we will be swallowed by society and do the things that are expected from us: maintain our current monogamic relationships until and beyond the holy matrimony, reproduce and work our asses off so we can maximize our consumption, but for me it isn't, although even I may fall on my knees for it very soon after meeting the love of my life a couple of months ago. What I'm trying to say is that I've been taking life as an adventure for the past couple of years. I have lived in Berlin and worked in a call center despite my degree in Political Science. Two times I have undertaken serious bike trips. Once across the United states (2010) (blog here) and last year (2011) from Germany to Morocco. After this trip even Joachim will be convinced this is the way to go. It was a trap!

We have had some misfortune with out physical health lately though. Joachim's knee was hurting a lot and he will have to do special exercises until the start of the trip. I was diagnosed with Pfeiffer (also known as Mono(nucleosis) or kissing disease) in late August. Some people don't notice it, some end up in hospital for 2 month. Luckily I wasn't sick for more than a couple of days and I am fully recovered from it for a while now.

So soon it's all starting. More's up next. Joachim has already introduced you to some of his fancy gear and I will offer you a sneak peak into my preparation as well.

I've always been a freak when it comes to travelling light weight, but with abundant electronic gadgets. I have now found the ultimate travel combination that will hopefully satisfy me during our trip. Here's a picture of all the stuff I'm bringing with a total weight of not more than 1300 grams.

Here's also a picture of my bike during one of my post-pfeifer training rides. It's a German Fahrradmanufaktur TX400. Schloss Hohenzollern in the background. 

Here's me with my friend Christian and my loaded bike (left). As a preparation for this trip we cycled 3 days together, from Tubingen to Munich.

This will be the cockpit. Handlebar bag still missing.

I managed to fit the above battery into my cycling shirts to charge my smartphone while riding. During the last test it managed to charge my phone 5-6 times. Enough for a week of cycling. The solar panel backpack on the left is useful to attract locals for conversation, but I'm not sure if it's still working after not being used for 2 years.