From here to expedition.....

[John Saxby]

Welcome back, Ian -- and if you've found the approach that floats your boat/turns your crank/whatever, that's the one that's right for you.

J.

[Andre Jute]

Welcome back, Ian.

One thing I did find out was that I really didnt enjoy the camping part, I seemed to spend more time looking for a campsite and organising food, water etc than I did cycling. Not to mention the bike was so loaded up with the camping gear that it never really felt like cycling to me, more like pushing 

I know how you feel. I hate camping too, the work, the discomfort, the dirt, the grit in your food, the limited meals that can be prepared over a wonky camp stove, the shortage of water for such necessary rituals as washing your hands before dinner.

In places where there are no hotels and no traveling servants available (start at  http://www.goodreads.com/comment/show/34575319?comment_show=true  for a short memoir of a very superior travelling servant), for instance when I wanted to travel all the way around the coastline of Austalia to see if there was a book in sailing around the coast, I've always found a couple of starry-eyed kids and made a deal with them: I would pay the cost of the expedition but they would do the hard work. It worked spectacularly well on that occasion; both those guys named children after me, and I still use the Mickey Mouse Alarm Clock (I swear it!) one of them gave me as a parting gift when I put them on the plane back to Texas.

The future for me though is not cycle camping, it is undoubtedly credit Card touring......

There are the wannabe hard men, and then there are the mature sybarites. Welcome to the club!

[il padrone]

Welcome back, Ian.

I know how you feel. I hate camping too, the work, the discomfort, the dirt, the grit in your food, the limited meals that can be prepared over a wonky camp stove, the shortage of water for such necessary rituals as washing your hands before dinner.

In places where there are no hotels and no traveling servants available (start at  http://www.goodreads.com/comment/show/34575319?comment_show=true  for a short memoir of a very superior travelling servant), for instance when I wanted to travel all the way around the coastline of Austalia to see if there was a book in sailing around the coast, I've always found a couple of starry-eyed kids and made a deal with them: I would pay the cost of the expedition but they would do the hard work. It worked spectacularly well on that occasion; both those guys named children after me, and I still use the Mickey Mouse Alarm Clock (I swear it!) one of them gave me as a parting gift when I put them on the plane back to Texas.

There are the wannabe hard men, and then there are the mature sybarites. Welcome to the club!

We have a saying for this sort of tale here in Australia Andre....... "taking the piss"

 

[Matt2matt2002]

We have a saying for this sort of tale here in Australia Andre....... "taking the piss"

 

My mum always said, "extracting the urine"
But that's mums for you

[Andre Jute]

We have a saying for this sort of tale here in Australia Andre....... "taking the piss"
 

Here in Ireland we say, "I knooow," giving the o a long value, as if it were quadruplets.

[jags]

  class.

[richie thornger]

Oh dear! Hi Ian, I remember you asking questions on here before I left on my trip.
As I've been posting details of my journey I haven't had the time or the energy to go through the forum and look at other posts.
I had seen your one lurking there and today, now settled in Sri Lanka for a few weeks I've finally got the time to read it. How shocked to find out the end result but also glad to see you've worked out what works for you.
My own experience was the same I think when I started. I hadn't ridden a bike for 20 years or really camped or done anything that adventurous.
The finding a site and packing/unpacking all seemed such a drudge to start and seemed to take up so much time. Now I don't even think about it. I actually dislike staying in a hotel now.
The thing I've done differently on this part of my trip to the last one is going slower. No aches and pains in the legs or back apart from my dodgy knee that says hello every now and again.
For anyone else planning on coming across Europe and heading further East. Western Europe is the most difficult bit as far as camping is concerned. From Croatia/Serbia onwards you can camp anywhere and people have much more time for you.
I hope you come back and tell us how your first CC tour goes. I've got a load of mates who have all got road bikes since I left and I'd love to go CC touring with them to see how it feels with no weight