Around the world by bike!
Here’s the plan:
Chapter 1:
Nashville to LA. Warm up ride. Our plan is to leave on Feb 14, and ride an average of 50 miles per day. At that rate, it would take us 44 days to do the 2,200 mile trip. Factor in some slow days and some rest days, and we should be there in 2 months. We’d buy our plane tickets, LAX to Sydney, for a departure date of May 1st. This would give us plenty of time in case we just aren’t making good time at the start.
Chapter 2:
Australia. Dipping our toes into international bike travel. Our first foreign country is an english speaking nation. We plan on taking 5 months to cross the country. First, we head from Sydney to Melbourne. Then, we have to decide whether or not to fly to Tasmania. After that, Melbourne to Adelaide, then across the Australian outback up to Darwin. The whole point of starting our trip in February is so we would be crossing the Australian outback in winter.
Chapter 3:
Southeast Asia. Happy birthday Sarah. We want to ferry around and island hop through Indonesia on our way to Singapore. Singapore through Malaysia, and into Thailand. The goal is to be in Bangkok for the 4th in case my sister Sarah is able to make it for her birthday. The problem is that since we’d be entering from Malaysia, we could only get a 14 day visa. We need to figure out how to get a visa extension in Thailand. We want to head to Chiang Mai in Thailand, then over through Laos and into northern Vietnam. From Vietnam into…
Chapter 4:
China, South Korea, Japan. A lot of our planning for China revolves around how long we can get a visa for. Can we get a 6 month visa? Yes…in theory. In reality, we might be lucky to get a 3 month visa. In any case, we want to see Guilin, Hong Kong, and Beijing. If we have to take a train or bus here or there because of visa restrictions, so be it. We would then ferry from Tianjin to Seoul, South Korea. We would spend a month biking to Busan. Then ferry to Shimonoseki, Japan. We would want to spend 3 months biking around Japan. Then Ferry from Fushiki to Vladivostok, Russia.
Chapter 5:
Across Asia, yes, that Asia. The big challenge here is that it is impossible to get a visa for longer than 3 months in Russia. So, we would probably ride along the Trans Siberian highway for two months, then duck into Mongolia, head to Kazakhstan (or back to China), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey.
Chapter 6:
Europe with a hint of Africa. Nine months of Europe. The problem with biking through Europe is the Schengen region. Most of Europe is signed to the Schengen agreement which means that as Americans, we’re only allowed to spend 3 months in any 6 month period, in the Schengen territories. Fortunately, the UK isn’t part of the region. So, we’d spend 3 months trolling around Europe, then duck into the UK for 3 months, maybe splitting it into 1 month sections in each, England, Scotland, and Ireland which should reset our 3 months in the Schengen region, then back to Europe for 3 months. In the 6 months of Europe, we want to hit Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and at least a couple of days in Denmark so we can take Nicolai Bangsgaard to dinner. While in Spain, we’d head into Morocco for a few weeks. Then, we head to Heath Row, or another major airport for tickets to…
Chapter 7:
Pan American Highway. We would fly from London to Santiago, Chile, where we would bus down to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern-most city in the world. If we can find a ferry to Antarctica, we’d like to do a few miles there. Then, we want to bike from Ushuaia all the way to North America. Depending on safety, we’d either bike through Central America, or island hop through Cuba up to Florida. If we do the Pan American Highway, we’d have to go all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. We’ll see.
biking with angie 