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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- Hiking in Torres Del Paines.
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- Kevin crossing a half frozen stream barefoot as its snowing. Miserable!
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- Team work! Patagonia 2015.
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- Finally a cycling photo of both of us!
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- Though we had some sun, we also had a whole lot of rain. Patagonia 2015.
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- These were some of the weirdest roads we have ever been on!
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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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- Guanacos! Tierra del Fuego 2015.
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- The lakes in Patagonia were simply stunning, 2015.
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- Cycling through the sheep… again.
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- Headed into the peaks, 2015.
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- You can see Kevin to the left, a tiny blob cycling in a vast landscape.
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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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- Fly fishing in Patagonia, Kevin has already dreamed of this, 2015.
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- Kevin’s boot wanted to stay in Argentina so it jumped ship! 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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- Sleeping in a field of quinoa.
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- On the summit! Thanks John for the photo!
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- Cycling through the sheep.
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- Need a tent anyone?
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- Beautiful camping!
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- We really enjoyed the few shepherds we met along the way.
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- All around was sand upon sand, though thankfully, the route wasn’t all that bad.
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- Cycling into Torres del Paines, Patagonia.
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- Caught my first trout on a fly!
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- Our friends being cute, Patagonia 2015.
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- The headwinds down here weren’t a joke even if this photo is, Patagonia 2015.
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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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- These little bags (the piece of cloth is always this color) is what all of the women wear here.
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- Cycling the Pan American, Chile 2015.
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- Only one dollar for this delicious street meal of potatoes, rice, and meat!
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- Nothing like a nicely paved road through the mountains! Chile 2015.
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- A cyclists nightmare; tunnels.
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- Yoga in the mountains with friends, Argentina Patagonia.
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- Switchbacks anyone!?
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- There was wonderful camping almost every night on the Carretera Austral, Patagonia 2015.
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- Sleeping in a cave in the middle of Turkey.
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- A small paved section which we quite enjoyed, even though we were going up.
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- This is what makes all the hard climbs worth it!!
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- Kevin far ahead.
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- Kevin being cute, Argentina 2015.
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- Rain, rain, and a bit more rain, Argentina 2015.
Turkey
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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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- Dinner anyone? Soup and spaghetti (with a vegetable sauce) seem to be our speciality, Turkey 2014.
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- Enjoying the snow!
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- Being silly ontop of a pass.
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- .. And so we got to cycle into the sun!
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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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- One of many beautiful valleys we passed through. This is why we love fall! Nothing better than sunny crisp days.
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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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- One of the towns in Cappaocia. Now they are filled with resorts and resaurants, some of which are in caves.
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- Sleeping in an appricot orchard, though unfortunately we were too late for the fruit.
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- Running away from the rain. Of course it caught up with us pretty quickly!
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- Our old large tent.
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- Planning out the day.
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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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- It was very rainy during our first week in Turkey as we rode through the hills.
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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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- Our bikes at Cappadocia.
Georgia
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- Camping next to a church.
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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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- Looking down a Georgian valley, 2014.
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- Guess what we found at the end of Georgia, the best sign!!
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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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- The cows coming home.
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- One of many churches in Georgia.
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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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- Kevin in his element, fishing.
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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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- Next stop… Turkey!
India and Nepal
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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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- One of many monasteries throughout the region.
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- Wind and rain and everything’s great!
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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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- Two Nepali women on the flats.
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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 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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- Some Nepali children playing while their parents worked, India 2013.
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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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- A patient man waiting by the water.
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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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- Cycling through Northern India, 2014.
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- Crossing one of many rivers.
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- Here is a couple we stayed with in one of the small villages.
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- Of course, the trudge up wasn’t always easy… India 2014.
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- The green on this barren landscape is farming fields.
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- One of many river crossings throughout the Indian Himalayas, 2014.
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- Switchbacks are inevitable.
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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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- 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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- 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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- Prayer flags at night.
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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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- A typical village and monetary perched on the hill.
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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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- Cycling Through Kashmir in the northern Indian Himalayas.
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- A wonderful camping spot just before the storm hit.
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- Home sweet home, India 2014.
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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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- Me and one of the many goats I’ve tried to take with me!
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- My kind of road! Ladakh India.
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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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- We love sleeping in shepherds huts, and this one was especially great.
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- One of my favorite lakes.
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- Me and my trusyed stead, Hank.
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- Behind this boy is his house, the house I stayed with during my four days in the village.
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