How To Begin
1) Buy (or acquire) a bike.
2) Pick a direction.
3) Go.
It’s as simple as that. You will figure out what foods work best for you once you hit the road, just as you will figure out how amazing people are once you experience your first homestay with a stranger. Cycle touring is one of those things which you just can’t plan, because any plan you make is sure to change a hundred times over. Go out with a sense of openness and adventure, ready to wake up in a new place everyday, and I promise you that everything will work out. Don’t listen to the voices in your head (or the voices of those around you) telling you that you can’t do it, because it’s only impossible to those who have never tried.
A Day On The Road
Wake up in the morning and eat heaps of oatmeal with powdered milk, bananas if you can find them, and crushed up chocolate chip cookies if you can’t acquire bananas in order to make your meal more eatable (for those who, like me, don’t like porridge that is).
Roll up your sleeping bag, pack up your tent, and start pedaling; any direction will do. Though this process may very well take you a few hours in the beginning, packing up your home will get faster as time goes on.
Pedal through beautiful lush green valleys, up high deserted passes, and across beautiful mountain ranges. Make your way across wide open plains, through rivers, over bridges, and across vast deserts. Cycle on nicely paved roads, or on rough uneven rocks; cycle on busy highways, or on silent unused backroads. Choose your route carefully or go without maps. The most important thing is that you do what you love, and that you love what you do.
Befriend the lady who is selling tea at the side of the road, or the little girl who waves to you as you pass quickly by. Befriend the farmer, the shop owner, the shepherd, and the giggling group of school children. Stay with the families who invite you in, talk with the locals who are curious as to where you come from, and slowly begin to except just how wonderful strangers all around the world turn out to be.
Ask a farmer to sleep in his field, or find a nice spot by a rushing river in the middle of nowhere without a soul in sight. Ask to sleep in front of a church, a school yard, or with a family. Set up your home, the small yet cozy place you slowly fall in love with a little bit more every night. Cook your dinner on your small petrol powdered stove (noodles or rice, or rice or noodle?), and watch the sunset across the ocean, into the mountains, or across the valley. Camping is easy; you simply go outdoors, and stay there until morning. Where or how you do it, is completely up to you.
Fall asleep, in yet another new place, with the knowledge that tomorrow you are lucky enough to wake up to a whole new day full of unimaginable possibilities.
In Conclusion
Cycle touring isn’t just for cyclists, it’s for anyone looking for a slower way to travel. It’s for people who want to live outdoors and expedience nature in a profound intimate way. It’s for those of you who prefers villages to big cities, and vast open lands to crowded streets. In fact, quick simply, it’s for anyone who finds the idea ever so slightly appealing. Though there are those who will call you crazy, once you join the fast-growing community of two-wheelers spread out around the world, you will realize that you are never truly alone.
South America
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- Cycling into Torres del Paines, Patagonia.
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- Only one dollar for this delicious street meal of potatoes, rice, and meat!
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- Though we had some sun, we also had a whole lot of rain. Patagonia 2015.
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- Switchbacks anyone!?
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- Kevin far ahead.
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- On the summit! Thanks John for the photo!
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- Caught my first trout on a fly!
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- Sleeping in a field of quinoa.
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- Our friends being cute, Patagonia 2015.
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- Finally a cycling photo of both of us!
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- Sleeping in a cave in the middle of Turkey.
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- Nothing like a nicely paved road through the mountains! Chile 2015.
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- Fly fishing in Patagonia, Kevin has already dreamed of this, 2015.
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- We really enjoyed the few shepherds we met along the way.
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- Guanacos! Tierra del Fuego 2015.
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- A small paved section which we quite enjoyed, even though we were going up.
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- The headwinds down here weren’t a joke even if this photo is, Patagonia 2015.
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- This use to be a front rack. Mike and Emily had a fair bit of bike troubles, though thankfully there was always a creative solution to be found.
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- Rain, rain, and a bit more rain, Argentina 2015.
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- Kevin’s boot wanted to stay in Argentina so it jumped ship! Patagonia, 2015
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- Beautiful camping!
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- I can’t even begin to describe how many beautiful rivers we passes. Dark blues and bright ones alike!
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- There was wonderful camping almost every night on the Carretera Austral, Patagonia 2015.
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- This is what makes all the hard climbs worth it!!
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- Cycling through the sheep… again.
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- Team work! Patagonia 2015.
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- There was a whole lot of salt due to the mineral deposits throughout this region.
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- Kevin being cute, Argentina 2015.
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- A bike packed full of food, some mountains, and a boy equals one happy girl! Torres del Paines, 2015.
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- Yoga in the mountains with friends, Argentina Patagonia.
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- Kevin crossing a half frozen stream barefoot as its snowing. Miserable!
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- All around was sand upon sand, though thankfully, the route wasn’t all that bad.
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- The lakes in Patagonia were simply stunning, 2015.
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- A cyclists nightmare; tunnels.
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- These little bags (the piece of cloth is always this color) is what all of the women wear here.
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- You can see Kevin to the left, a tiny blob cycling in a vast landscape.
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- Cycling through the sheep.
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- Need a tent anyone?
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- Cycling the Pan American, Chile 2015.
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- Headed into the peaks, 2015.
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- These were some of the weirdest roads we have ever been on!
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- Hiking in Torres Del Paines.
Turkey
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- One of many beautiful valleys we passed through. This is why we love fall! Nothing better than sunny crisp days.
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- One of the towns in Cappaocia. Now they are filled with resorts and resaurants, some of which are in caves.
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- Planning out the day.
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- Our old large tent.
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- It was very rainy during our first week in Turkey as we rode through the hills.
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- Sleeping in an appricot orchard, though unfortunately we were too late for the fruit.
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- One of many mosques. We must have passed hundreds, or even thousands, during our three months in Turkey.
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- Enjoying the snow!
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- Being silly ontop of a pass.
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- Dinner anyone? Soup and spaghetti (with a vegetable sauce) seem to be our speciality, Turkey 2014.
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- We climbed over a dozen passes, and though they weren’t nearly as tall as those in the Himalayas, they still involved lots of ups and downs!
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- Cooking in an unfinished hut we found at the side of the road, very thankful to have a dry place to cook!
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- Many of the shops, restaurants, and even some of the houses are still built with parts of old caves.
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- Running away from the rain. Of course it caught up with us pretty quickly!
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- Our bikes at Cappadocia.
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- We absolutely loved the Shepard in far eastern Nepal as they really understood our outdoors and nomadic lifestyle. I was seriously tempted to drop everything and follow them!
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- .. And so we got to cycle into the sun!
Georgia
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- Looking down a Georgian valley, 2014.
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- Mestia was one of our favorite regions due to the towers from the Middle Ages, and of course, the mountains!
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- Guess what we found at the end of Georgia, the best sign!!
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- Cooking dinner over an open flame. We loved the picnic culture since so many Georgians invited us to eat!
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- They used these towers for protection from the bloody feuds which continually happened up in these mountains.
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- Next stop… Turkey!
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- We got to help at a local bread shop which was especially neat because they cook the bread on the side of a gigantic wood burning fire.
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- Camping next to a church.
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- The cows coming home.
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- Kevin in his element, fishing.
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- Really rainy I mean.. This is our hobo shelter, a great way to stay dry when cooking!
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- One of many churches in Georgia.
India and Nepal
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- One of many river crossings throughout the Indian Himalayas, 2014.
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- After the children had found my camera they wanted me to take photos of them, though the adults were more wary. Why and giggling these women than asked for theirs since they had never had a photo taken before, and though you could never tell from their serious expressions, they made me delete every photo of them laughing since it took them a few tries to keep a straight face.
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- One of many monasteries throughout the region.
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- A family in a slum who took me in when I was tea doing alone, India 2013.
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- We loved the Sikh people we met in India for their gentle and respectful attitudes, as well as for the belief in equality.
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- The Baha’i temple in Delhi, India 2013.
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- Me and one of the many goats I’ve tried to take with me!
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- Me and my trusyed stead, Hank.
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- Switchbacks are inevitable.
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- Of course, the trudge up wasn’t always easy… India 2014.
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- Camping in the barren high altitude desert of Ladakh. We were over 3,200m for over six weeks.
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- Home sweet home, India 2014.
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- Some Nepali children playing while their parents worked, India 2013.
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- A wonderful camping spot just before the storm hit.
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- Prayer flags at night.
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- One of my favorite lakes.
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- A typical village and monetary perched on the hill.
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- On top of one of many passes. The highest one we did was at 5,600m.
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- Awkward selfie mountain photo shoot.
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- Dinner anyone? I love that in most of the world meat is openly displayed as a dead animal, rather than packages away in a dainty wrapping that is made to have us forget fhis important fact.
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- Behind this boy is his house, the house I stayed with during my four days in the village.
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- Cycling through Northern India, 2014.
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- Cycling Through Kashmir in the northern Indian Himalayas.
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- One of the many playful monkey who intertained me in Nepal. Many of them were so tame (since they know humans equals food) they would sit on a bench with you.
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- Two Nepali women on the flats.
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- Wind and rain and everything’s great!
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- Wearing one of the suits an Indian family had gifted me months before on my 21st birthday, Nepal 2014.
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- My kind of road! Ladakh India.
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- Gramma and the cat! She wanted a photo with everything from this cat, to her granddaughter, to her cup.
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- We love sleeping in shepherds huts, and this one was especially great.
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- Here is a couple we stayed with in one of the small villages.
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- When I arrived they were boiling surgar cane juice to make a very sweet brown sugar which they served of me on a leaf.
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- We also camped in front of a school in a very small village as there was no other flat ground around.
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- These are the typical Ladakhi houses. The animals lives in the first story, while the humans lives up top.
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- A patient man waiting by the water.
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- Crossing one of many rivers.
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- We were lucky enough to hear the Dalai Lama speak twice, once in a small village in Zanskar, and again at a very important Tibetan Buddhist ritual where 200,000 people gathered.
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- The green on this barren landscape is farming fields.
For more information about cycle touring, check out a few of our previous posts which may answer your questions!
–Dispelling Common Myths About Cycle Touring
–Cycle Touring 101: How To Get Started
–The Gear
–The Money
–It’s Not About the Bike
For a photo of the day and other updates follow me on facebook here, and for some awkwardly cropped photos from our journey, follow us on Instagram @awanderingphoto!
Excellent montage! Only question, where next?
Beautifully written, Shirine. Yes, we’ve noticed that our packing gets a little faster each morning, especially with these hot days, it’s important to leave as early as possible. Cycle touring has brought me more adventure than any vacation ever would. Slow travel allows us to see the parts of a place we would never otherwise visit and to speak with people with whom we would never otherwise converse. Ride on, Wandering Nomads.
Reblogged this on Topofests and commented:
When I try to explain what makes me want to pedal harder and explore further, it’s mostly just “uhh, you know, like umm…” These guys do a much better job, with some cracking photos to boot. Thanks Nomads!
A well crafted piece..cycle touring is really amazing