The Beginning of the Beginning

So we have a date for leaving. We fly out on the orange dream; the easyjet airbus express from Gatwick to Tallinn on the 22nd of April.

SHIT. GOT. REAL.

I have a rough route plan (I refuse to make an itinerary, it takes all the fun out of going places, I'd rather veiw this as one long psuedo-situationist derive across northern Europe), a list of all the youth hostels in the major towns along away, other than that, we have a tent, some maps and the hope that things wont all be going fooking pete tong.

We even have insurance. Like real adults.

Iain, is mostly worried about gear. This is fair enough, though I hope (and have good reason to suspect) that civilisation (and notably bike and camping shops) exists out in the Baltic countries and we will be able to sort out any severe gear problems there.

When will we be back? I can't say. I hope early to mid June. That is the plan. Hopefully we too much stuff won't go wrong, but if nothing goes wrong, then we won't really have travelled will we?




LOGISTICA

This bit is for anyone who is planning to do a similar if not the same trip...it'll probably be tedious if you're not... but I found blogs to be invaluable for research when planning this. So I hope this will be of help, don't hesitate to get in touch in years to come after we've done this if you want any tips...

Firstly, flying.

We picked easyjet because a) they're cheap as chips and b) they have a vaguely coherent and reasonably transparent bike policy.

Now their terms and conditions are a bit vague on the bike + hold baggage weight allowance matter. In their FAQs they say that after paying the fee for the transportation of bikes that 'the bicycles are exempt from additional excess baggage charges', meaning you should be allowed to have your 20kg of hold baggage, and up to a 32kg bike without paying for extra weight. However this is not stated at any other place on the website or on their sporting goods bicycle section, meaning that the effective weight limit is 32kg and going over would be met by extortionate excess baggage charges. 

So I contacted their customer service team for clarification... and the bikes do indeed seem to be exempt from excess baggage charges, which is good, if you like me are taking touring equipment as well as a bike with you when you fly.

'Dear Tom,

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

I would like to inform you that if you have one hold baggage and one bicycle (sports equipment) on the booking then the standard combined weight for the hold baggage and bicycle would be 40 kg. The combined weight combination can be explained with the following scenarios:
examples:
1. one hold bag 15kg + one bicycle 25 kg = "ALLOWED" (40kg standard allowance)
2. one hold bag 15kg + on bicycle 35 kg= "NOT ALLOWED"

No excess baggage applies :- SEC(bicycle) and hold baggage combined weigh 40 kg (more than 32 kg) but bicycles are exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle (please note that a bicycle cannot weigh more than 32 kg).

Do contact me again for further clarifications.

Regards,

Jagjit
easyJet Customer Services'

Got my travel insurance from here, seems to be the business and is reccomended by the Cycle Touring Club, as it includes fairly comprehensive bike insurance, including bike replacement and even bike repatriation if everything goes awfully tits up.

Other than that, the maps were bought from the wonderful Stanfords of London, who have outfitted more adventures than I've had hot dinners, most notably Shackleton's famous expeditions. So they were more than adequate to get some maps of Northern and Eastern Europe... We're using Michelin 'Regional' maps to begin with, and might buy more maps on the way if these prove inadequate...watch this space...

Other than that, there have been many hours spent reading guide books, perusing Wikipedia, Wikitravel and Google Maps. Some more timid (and arguably ignorant) souls have urged me to check with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website whether these countries are safe to travel in...this is patently ridiculous and there is no need to do this. If you are an EU citizen all the countries en route are perfectly simple to travel in.  

Profiles

So there are two of us going. We are both very much amateur enthusiasts. I feel we could do with something of an introduction.

Tom

I am Tom, I am the author of this blog and instigator of this mad biking endeavour. I've always been a keen cyclist and outdoorsman, having conquered many icy Munros, tramped up Icelandic Glaciers, explored wild Scottish islands and strode hundreds if not thousands of miles along the paths and hills of Britain over my 23 years.

I work as commercial script writer, have pretensions of being a proper writer someday and I aspire to spending my life going on proper adventures.

I've spent the past four years of my life studying to get a geography degree from the University of Edinburgh, I'm not too sure why I did this other than I felt in my bones somehow that geography was the subject of adventure. However my principle passions in life are great stories followed shortly by imagination and big dreams.

I'm 6 foot 9 and about 22 stone of solidly built man and muscle. This probably has something to do with my character, I'm larger than life and can be quite exuberant but I hope I'm pleasant enough company.

I am taking my one year old trek frame touring bike. It's built like a brick shit-house but with an aluminium frame it's pretty light considering this.

Iain

Iain is my companion on the trip. I've known him since he was a wee nipper, he is one of my best friends from school younger brother, and a damn good friend in his own right. His sport is normally sailing but he's a keen cyclist too.

He works as a carpenter, is as no nonsense as they come and has a craftsman's touch for making models and fixing all manner of things.

He has spent the past 4 years training to be (and working as) a carpenter, living at home, so I feel this adventure will be good for him to get out, see the world, see what he's made of and as he put 'do something a little bit crazy'.

Iain is a small man compared to me, but at 6 foot 5 and a lean mean carpentry machine (with the kind of muscles you only get working at building site all day every day...none of these showy gym muscles; this kid is just strong), he's certainly no smurf.

This will be his first time cycle touring and he has elected to do it on his Grandad's 65 year old custom built Rayleigh racing bike (his grandad was top flight cyclist in his youth). It's a wonderful machine but whether this will be a wise choice of bike, time will tell. Iain has chose to ignore all complaints over the wisdom of this choice and insists it will make him happy, he says he has grown up with this bike and idolised it through his childhood, it was to him always 'The Bike' so it will mean something to him if completes this trip on it (I myself have some reservations about the bike but I quite like the poetry of the thing so, I can sympathise).



We have decided to raise money for cancer research UK, as Iain's grandad (the same whose bike Iain will be riding) currently has cancer, so it seemed like a fitting a cause to support. Please donate to our just giving account if you would like to support us.