One tour to live?

[Pavel]

If you, for whichever reason, had only one more "epic" tour to plan and execute.  Which country would be your destination?

Mine is a toss up between Türkiye and Mongolia.  It is tough to whittle down dreams to just one place, is it not?  What is yours?

[Matt2matt2002]

I'd do all my previous tours.
There's something I enjoy about returning to places I've visited.

Pamir Highway was good but now politically difficult.

Best

Matt

[PH]

I'd plan round the World the long way, that ought to take fifteen years!
If I wasn't allowed such an extravagance, I'd keep it simple and re-visit some Scottish islands, not just for the stunning scenery and excellent riding, but also the memories of people as much as places.

[j-ms]

I am a bit like Matt on this one in that we revisit favourite areas.  We have done Japan twice, SE Asia three times and are busy with our third trip to the southern half of South America.  Apart from multiple tours in our home country of South Africa  and the above, all other tours have been once off trips.

But back to the original question.

We see this tour as our last big one.  We have been homeless for almost seven years but have recently bought a house in our old home town of Port Elizabeth although we will only move into it when we return from South America in March next year.

We started in Foz do Iguassu in Brazil and are working our way down to Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego over six months.  Patagonia is probably our favourite cycle touring area so we had to give it one last bash before we get too old. 

We had thought that the Panmir Highway would be our last big bash but COVID put and end to that.  We were in Argentina at the time and were hoping to head to central Asia after our usual break back in South Africa between tours.  The Panmir Highway will end up being the great tour we were never able to do but Patagonia is just as good a substitute.

[Danneaux]

My "last tour" would require at least five years away and would likely involve a repeat of one of my European double-crossings (I found west to east is far easier thanks to prevailing winds and hill slopes), then linking from eastern Europe to Turkey and using that as a bridge to Asia. I'm not so keen on a N-S as I am W-E in travel, but that could easily change.

Biggest factors are funding and time away, followed by the always unknown Health looming in the future, but I'd like to see how far I'd get.

I take so well to the touring lifestyle, my one concern is I would hesitate to return to my present life in favor or just going and going and....

Phil, I'll likely see you Out There. Fifteen years sounds about right!

Best, Dan.

[il padrone]

Why should it be a 'last tour'? It's the same as for the ideal number of bicycles - N+1, where N = the most recent future tour planned.

My current N+1 is New Zealand, but after that comes my Vuelta Iberia plans....

[tyreon]

My last tour would be back to the time when the horizon was a long way off and when you got there the horizon was still far away. Now I am near the horizon and my knees arent what they were. 'Back then' nothing was a challenge and doing stuff made you stronger. Now,I am not so bold and more creaky.

Where did everyone go?

[Andre Jute]

I'd essentially stay in the place I am, a not very large island, and go around the coast of Ireland on the small roads nearest the sea, a piece every year from April-May to September-October, giving the faster, smoother roads, that run straighter between towns, a miss. The choice adds a lot of miles and it's slow going because those little roads are not good and very hilly (I average about 15kph on the somewhat better little roads around my house, very hilly), but on them you can easily imagine that you're back in 1900. I wouldn't camp but stay in the government-regulated guest houses so I can hear the local lore and discover which roads to avoid the next day. (I've never been much of a camper even though it was a big deal in South Africa when I was a boy and my family had huge truck fitted out for camping.) The lack of pressure to finish would take a few years over what is probably not more than 3000m altogether, not counting return journeys home by train and bus at the start of every winter and out again to every year's new starting point once the spring settles down. Judging by past shorter tours in the far south of Ireland (starting below Cork, if you're looking at a map) 40 to under 100km per day would be about the right pace, with guest houses conveniently scattered, and topographical survey maps available at the right scale, to make the planning conveniently ad hoc, and to allow for unplanned detours or days of local sightseeing around a guest house. It will not escape your notice that such a tour is well suited to my notion of electric biking (not an electric motorbike but a pedal bike with age-related assistance where necessary).

[in4]

My last tour would end at the lighthouse on Bruny Island, Tasmania. Apart from personal references it’s a place, paraphrasing Seamus  Heaney, where ‘your heart can be blown wide open’
The route I’d follow to get there is a different tome  entirely.

[Pavel]

Mine I should have mentioned would be Mongolia.  One of the important factors on deciding a tour for myself is the cuisine.  Is it for you?  As a meat lover and enthusiast BBQ aficionado (NC vinegar based of course) I would love to experience the culinary arts of Mongolia, and at the same time enjoy the landscapes that make my heart flutter.  Wide open grasslands and big skies.

My net favorite dreams center around the Urals of Russia.  Similar reasons as far as the cuisine being exotic and surprising to my Western pallet, but in second place because I dont' want to be a snack for any of the local bears.   

[John Saxby]

The tour I'd currently most like to do was the one sorta-planned but spiked by the pandemic, and one that maybe I'll do in the next year or two:  out of my back door, 15 minutes to the LRT, then by rail to Montréal and New Brunswick; along the Acadian coast of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia; clockwise around Cape Breton on the Cabot Trail:  all this to visit the old fortress of Louisbourg.  Then, along the east coast of Nova Scotia and inland to, say, Truro, where I'd catch the train back home.

Not a huge safari, but grand landscapes, history, food, and music, and a manageable 3 - 4 weeks, I reckon.

[Pavel]

I lived in Canada for 22 years, mostly in southern Ontario and in BC but I've been to the regions you describe and if I ever had to live in Canada again ... I'd go to one of those places you mention.  New Brunswick and PEI are are just the sort of place that I consider ideal to ride through - and it's a shame how hard the life for natives there now is with inflation causing many to leave for other destinations.  The bay of Fundy, which I saw only when I was 12 ... is a miracle of a landscape.  I remember it as the place I had my very first lobster.  It was quite expensive at 1 dollar and 12 cents. 

[j-ms]

Montréal and New Brunswick; along the Acadian coast of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia; clockwise around Cape Breton on the Cabot Trail:  all this to visit the old fortress of Louisbourg.  Then, along the east coast of Nova Scotia and inland to, say, Truro

Hi John, we are trying to work out where to go in June/.July.  Would this be a good time of the year for the route you describe above ?

[John Saxby]

Thanks, Jean-Marc.  I'd suggest late June and July, maybe early-mid August, if your calendar allows that.

A few notes: 

1)   Take your rain gear.  Some years back, I was scanning a motorcycle ride in Nova Scotia, and looked at the very helpful guide that the province produces.  I was esp interested in the Annapolis Valley, which runs parallel to the Fundy Shore.  Said the guide, "Take your rain gear. It might not rain when you are touring, but that would be unusual."

2)   I sketched out a route on Komoot for the tour I outlined above.  Happy to share that with you if that's useful. Suggest we do so via PM or regular email.

3)   The route I described above does not include Halifax or the area south of Halifax towards Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, nor does it include Yarmouth and the Annapolis Valley on the Fundy Shore. I'd suggest including at least some of that, if your time allows. (Reason I excluded those areas is that I've visited them several times.)

4)   My route doesn't include Prince Edward island, either -- again, have visited it several times.  It is ideal cycling country, though.

5)   One of the reasons I enjoy cycling in Atlantic Canada is that the distances between settlements are usually more manageable than in many other parts of this vast country. 

6)  I've done less cycling in New Brunswick, hence my interest in cycling along the NB shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. (I had chosen Bathurst, NB, as my starting point.)

7)  If your time allows, the Gaspé peninsula of Québec is a fabulous ride as well. (That's the easternmost part of the southern shore of the St Lawrence, the bit that is just north of NB & sticks out like a thumb into the Gulf.) In 2010 I rode that clockwise from Matapédia in its SW corner with a friend from Manhattan. He is well-travelled, but said, "John, I've never been anywhere quite like this." That journey took us about 9 days.  I don't have a journal, but I do have a file with out route, stops, etc.

Cheers,  John

And a late PS, Jean-Marc:  If you're in those parts, I'd urge you to visit Québec City. No place quite like it, in North America at least. Ancient walls, old town and citadel, A-grade food and drink, jazz on the promenade at night overlooking the big river...

[Mark Manley]

I hope to do the northern tier of the trans America trail one day, I have ridden a short section in the west on a motorcycle and chatted to some of the bicycle riders I met and found their comments encouraging.