A Call to Adventure

El Fiji Grande

Over 37000 km and counting
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he/him
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El_Fiji_Grande
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El Fiji Grande (#3446)
As many of you already know, I recently withdrew from the vast majority of my activity here on NS for a few main reasons. The big practical reason for doing so has been and will be an epic IRL bicycle adventure that may, if I'm lucky, span continents. In summary, I will depart October 4th by bicycle from northern KY bound for New York City. From there, I will fly to Dublin, Ireland to continue my journey across Europe. My planned route will take me from Dublin west to Galway, north to Belfast, across to Scotland, south through England, across the channel to northern France, through southern Belgium, to Germany. I'll visit family in the Aachen/Cologne/Bonn area and head south, to the base of the Alps, then east through Bavaria and Austria and later Slovakia and Hungary, seeing capitals of the old world I have yet to see. I'll double back west through Croatia and Slovenia, then head south through Italy. At the boot, I'll cross via ferry to Greece, then proceed north past Athens and east to Istanbul, and then Ankara in Turkey. That's assuming I make it that far, that is, and I'm not saying I'm confident I will. But that's the goal. And... frankly, if I make it that far, I'm not sure I'll want to stop. I'm still considering two routes from there. One would take me across Turkey to Georgia and Azerbaijan, along the Caspian Sea north to Russia, then an immense trek across Kazakhstan and Mongolia..... it scares me how empty those countries are. Alternatively, I could fly from Ankara to New Delhi, India, and continue east through Uttar Pradesh to Nepal, then Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia. Though there are problems with that route too, from the potential for disease to the ongoing crises in Myanmar. Or I might just decide that Turkey is far enough, and fly home. It all depends on how much fun I'm having, or if I get totally sick of bicycling, or if I run out of savings to fund the trip.

I promised a few folks here that I'd try to provide updates when possible - the same promise I made to all the friends and family I'm leaving behind to pursue this adventure. As a result, I've decided to start a blog where I'll post these updates, and that'll make it easier for me to update everyone all at once, instead of messaging everyone individually. You can find it at acalltoadventure.net. It's very much still a work in progress, but I'll do my best to keep it up to date as the trip progresses. I may also post specific article links from the blog here for you to all enjoy.
 
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As many of you already know, I recently withdrew from the vast majority of my activity here on NS for a few main reasons. The big practical reason for doing so has been and will be an epic IRL bicycle adventure that may, if I'm lucky, span continents. In summary, I will depart October 4th by bicycle from northern KY bound for New York City. From there, I will fly to Dublin, Ireland to continue my journey across Europe. My planned route will take me from Dublin west to Galway, north to Belfast, across to Scotland, south through England, across the channel to northern France, through southern Belgium, to Germany. I'll visit family in the Aachen/Cologne/Bonn area and head south, to the base of the Alps, then east through Bavaria and Austria and later Slovakia and Hungary, seeing capitals of the old world I have yet to see. I'll double back west through Croatia and Slovenia, then head south through Italy. At the boot, I'll cross via ferry to Greece, then proceed north past Athens and east to Istanbul, and then Ankara in Turkey. That's assuming I make it that far, that is, and I'm not saying I'm confident I will. But that's the goal. And... frankly, if I make it that far, I'm not sure I'll want to stop. I'm still considering two routes from there. One would take me across Turkey to Georgia and Azerbaijan, along the Caspian Sea north to Russia, then an immense trek across Kazakhstan and Mongolia..... it scares me how empty those countries are. Alternatively, I could fly from Ankara to New Delhi, India, and continue east through Uttar Pradesh to Nepal, then Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia. Though there are problems with that route too, from the potential for disease to the ongoing crises in Myanmar. Or I might just decide that Turkey is far enough, and fly home. It all depends on how much fun I'm having, or if I get totally sick of bicycling, or if I run out of savings to fund the trip.

I promised a few folks here that I'd try to provide updates when possible - the same promise I made to all the friends and family I'm leaving behind to pursue this adventure. As a result, I've decided to start a blog where I'll post these updates, and that'll make it easier for me to update everyone all at once, instead of messaging everyone individually. You can find it at acalltoadventure.net. It's very much still a work in progress, but I'll do my best to keep it up to date as the trip progresses. I may also post specific article links from the blog here for you to all enjoy.
Hope you can go through all of the hardships and make it safely home!
 
For those curious about the cycling and camping equipment I'm bringing with me, I created two posts to help illustrate that. Note that clicking on images will take you to the amazon affiliate links for each respective product (but don't feel in any way obligated).

 
 
It's Oct 4 as of 40 minutes ago for me. I'll catch some sleep, and when I wake up around 7 later today, I'll get going.
 
 
 
Still need to add pictures to these, but here are Days 3 & 4:

 
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Ouch.
Sad to hear that the computer suffered a bit of damage, but don’t sweat too much over it! With or without pictures, the blog will always be an exciting read, and what truly matters is the personal experiences on the way!
Good luck for the rest of the journey!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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