Today marks the beginning of the journey. If you’re reading this it means I’ve successfully passed the FTRR [Flight Trip Readiness Review]
Bike: Check; Trailer: Check; Passport: Check
The bike, an old DiamondBack Wildwood, was a purchase I made back in 1998. So for its 18th birthday I’m treating it once more to some open roads. Rebuilt with reconditioned parts, new chain, cables etc. Whilst it can be a burden, I’m also taking a nice Bob Ibex trailer. Well most people put all their gear on the bike, into big fancy panniers, I’m not so keen. Lots of weight on the bike puts undue stresses onto the wheels and if you have a failure of some sort it can be difficult to continue; The trailer gives me the option to shift weight off the bike, saving spokes, wheels, tyres etc and tow it behind. The draw back is an additional 8kg of trailer to lug up those hills.
I always try to keep a list of what I take, and almost always I’ve used every component, well excepting the first aid kit!
The pack list is here-> packlist-2016. Sure you can take less, more, whatever, but there’s nothing more annoying than realising you wished you’d taken that little widget that weighed next to nothing & now you’re stuck. So I’ve not trimmed the packlist to nothing but some things are essential!
So with batteries all charged, mapping tiles loaded on to my phone, route memorised, gear packed, hotel booked I should make Puerto Montt [named after Manuel Montt, President of Chile 1851 – 1861] by Saturday night, from where I’ll have a days rest before taking the bus overland on a 30 hour trip through beautiful Argentina to my start location, Punta Arenas [Latin / Spanish for Sandy point], which is as close to Nowhere Man as one could get.
Cyclingpatagonia2016 