Thank you

[ianshearin]

Well the time has arrived, despite cries from friends and family of lunacy, golf partners who thought I would never do it and patronising looks from the local Barber I will be getting on the bike and heading South next Week.

I want to say a big thank you to all members of this forum, I would never have gotten this far without the support and advice from you all.

I have sold or thrown out many of my possesions and rented out my flat, I have been prolific on ebay this last Month and said my goodbyes to the Golf club.

On friday I will finalise all the services to the flat and ride to my parents where we are going to have a family BBQ and get smashed...
On Monday I will head South and eventually end up at Portsmouth in a Week or so and ferry across to France, from there I will just keep heading South until I reach Africa.

I have no idea what will happen, if my body will survive or if I will get fed up or what, coming to this forum though has given me great insight into the cycle tourer, you guys make it all seem to easy 

I have completed my list and costs here http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=5907.0

I will attempt to keep a tally of my costs on the trip and post here so that anyone else thinking of doing a trip from scratch will have some idea of the cost.

I will take photos at the weekend of my bike and gear and post here, although I will only have an iphone/ipad to post so not sure if its possible to post photos to here from those devices, Ill check later.

Thank you all for your great encouragement

Ian

[Danneaux]

Ian,

My, what a gracious and nice thank you to the Forum!

Godspeed and all best wishes your way. May the trip be filled with the sort of Adventure that makes for great stories After but little danger along the way.

Know our thoughts are with you and the Forum remains a collective resource for your needs should you run into snags along the way.

All the best,

Dan. (...who knows you can do it and do it well!)

[jags]

Mega respect Ian what can i say except i hope you have a blast.
remember to smell the roses along that epic journey,seems you have it all in hand personally i wouldn't have the balls or know how to do a trip like this ,but i'll look forward to keepinhg tally on yours.
best of luck buddy ride well and  keep safe..
cheers
Jags

(anto)

[Danneaux]

...I will add you're very brave, Ian, and admired for it. To go forward when unsure takes a certain amount of courage.

All the best,

Dan. (...who always takes a few butterflies along when starting an expedition...their flapping wings lighten the load [Right!])

[jags]

say Ian and Dan remember acousticmotorbike he done a world tour i went cycling with him few months back real nice guy,anyway i talked to him on facebook last week he's planning his next adventure france spain africa ,he had some class stories to tell,  i guess Ian you will no doubt have a great story when you return.

[il padrone]

I will take photos at the weekend of my bike and gear and post here, although I will only have an iphone/ipad to post so not sure if its possible to post photos to here from those devices, Ill check later.

If you are going to take an iphone with you on the tour and have network access, get onto Facebook to post photos and communicate. In Italy our prepaid sim cards had unlimited data so it was very easy to use. Take a photo with the phone camera, post up to Facebook and add comments, all in just a few minutes. Phone calls home were expensive so we used the Facebook messages to contact the family.

All the best for your tour, it sure sounds like a real expedition with an uncertain final destination. Do you have a time limit or is it truly undefined?

[Andre Jute]

Godspeed, Ian. Enloy! Send photographs. Give my regards to Africa.

[Znook]

As (I've just) said in the other thread, all the best Ian. Take care and be safe. I look forward to reading of your exploits on the journey to Africa.

Robbie

[JimK]

Awesome! My two cents of advice: don't be a slave to plans. Learn and adapt as you go.

Wishing you tailwinds and only gentle cool refreshing rain but not too much of it either!

[ianshearin]

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement, it means more than you can imagine.

I dont have any plans, my theory is if I dont know where Im going I cant get lost......
All I know is I will head South until I reach Africa, once I see the African coast of Morrocco then I will have achieved what I set out to do. After that I have no idea, if my body hasnt broken by then I may ferry over to Morrocco and cycle round there for a bit, mostly to stay away from the UK in the Winter..... or I may cycle/train back to UK, or I may fly back.

Finances may be the deciding factor, whilst im on the road im not earning, I have a military pension and some rent coming in but not enough to live on the road indefinitely, I also have some commitments in UK which will always be with me so that may be a factor.

Great idea about facebook I am doing that exactly, I do have an interest in web design and have played around with building my own website to track the trip but at the end of the day it was too easy to just use Facebook to keep family and friends update, even my 78 year old mum uses facebook.... don't even get me and my sisters started on that one 

I have received some personal messages of support, thank you  and some interest in the cost of such a trip so I will make sure to keep the forum updated on what and how I spend, the cost of the equipment I have posted allready although I will probably make some last minute panic buys 

Thank you all again, have checked the ipad and it can post pics directly to the forum, so will post some pre trip party pics at the weekend...

Ian

[Donnydid]

Have a great trip Ian!
I'am sure its going to be a great experience, I hope to keep tabs on
you and follow your trip wherever you end up.
Enjoy your journey!

Dave

[jags]

ian did you say you had a blog or are you going the facebook route.

[ianshearin]

I did develop a blogging site Jags but in the end decided it was just as easy to use facebook as the majority of my family use it anyway.

Any forum members please feel free to add me as friend, facebook name Ian Shearin

Ian

[jags]

do that this morning.

[jags]

do that this morning.

DONE>