Life behind bars, a solo cyclist wanders, but not searching for himself . Not some deeper meaning to life itself, rather it’s to experience the world and all that it has to offer for those willing to get out and look. A life experience, with its warts and all, as seen from the seat of a bicycle at 10 miles an hour. A God experience, I admit the world is too large for me to explain in any other way.
This cycling journey begins in Trondheim Norway, which is a city that resides about half way up Norway’s length. Why Trondheim you may be asking, for no other reason than I picked it out on the map at random, nothing more than that really. Yes, I know, I could fly further north and begin above the arctic circle and yes I did give that some thought. The thought of adding many hundreds of miles of mostly swatting mosquitoes and tundra landscape, well lets just say it became less appealing the more I thought about it. The route is good, Trondheim Norway to Istanbul Turkey. Just enough kinks, curves and meanders along the way to make it worth the effort. It’s good enough for me.
Norway- with a length of approx. 2600 km ( 1320 miles ), an astounding coastline length of roughly 240,000 km. Norway is a rugged country, made up of huge granite spires, tall strait timber, and weather worn rugged people capable of life along the nations scenic fjord’s.
I consider myself as being both lucky and blessed with having had many opportunities to visit Europe, I have seen a lot of it, and love it all so far. This cycle route puts me through countries and regions of countries that I have not visited before. The carrot on the end of the proverbial stick will be all those new roads, new faces, new cultures and traditions. I have a growing list of peoples names that it has been suggested I stop to visit.
MY training is much the same as it was for the RTW journey, a lot of weights have been lifted with the aim of adding some mass since so much is lost while pedaling. Yes, I have dined on more doughnuts than is healthy for cycling………..but I also know that the cous-cous and noodle packs are coming my way like a comet, so I will enjoy the excess for a few more days yet. My trusty steed for this journey will be my Surly Long Haul Trucker, 26″ wheels, 12ga 4 over 4 spoke pattern and 27 gears, a Brooks saddle B-17……….did I mention the hemroid cream and tire patches……….and no the patches aren’t for the tire tubes. Cant leave out my Ortlieb bags, double wrapped bars.
One thing I can tell you now, I sure as heck wont be packed like so many blogs seem to instruct. I am a certified minimalist, and if I run into something beyond what I have then I wlll hit a goodwill and buy what i require and keep moving on. The plan is to tent it, with enough stops for rooms as is required to charge equipment back up and maybe wash the peddler once in a while.