I learned a lot by making many mistakes...
There were a lot of things that went absolutely wrong. You can only plan so much, but in the end most of that you planned is going out of the door as soon as you start pedalling away from home. But because you planned it, you can always get back to the that track when something doesn't go the way you wanted.
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Medical things
I was lucky to not have many medical issues along the way on my trip in 2023 and in 2024 only some minor ones. You can not really plan for those. I had on both days a few days of horrible period cramps, which made me wonder how pro-athletes perform at that time of the month. I was an absolute mess that could barely move. I also developed a tennis elbow towards the end of my trip in 2023. It wasn't bad when I was riding, but as soon as I tried to carry the smallest item in my right hand it was very painful. Another niggle both in 2023 and 2024 was a numb left ring finger in the last few weeks of my trips. The finger was just numb from a suspected pinched nerve in my shoulder. In 2024 I also had a spell of insane, constant, nauseousness. Couldn't eat anything, but was never throwing up either. A few days of not moving much and some medicine from the pharmacy made it go away.
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Bike mechanicals and incidents
I didn't get into any accidents, but I did have a few mechanicals along the way on both trips. Of course a few holes in the tyres. Water in my frame due to some rain storm. But I managed to prevent any big things by booking my bike in for a service after a month of riding. I would get a new chain, brake pads and it would be looked over properly to find solutions to the noises it was making. This resulted along the way in a new bottom bracket, a hub service and new bearings. It was a lot of money to replace all these things during the trip. But when your bike is your home for as long as you're on the road, I found that it definitely was worth the investment.
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What did you eat?
See here some examples of what I made out of those couple pots, on the side of the road or at the campground sitting on my garbage bag chair. Breakfast was often some delicious pastries when I was in France, yoghurt and fruit or left over wraps or bread with eggs, peanut butter or whatever else was left. For lunch, I loved to eat bread with salad, veggies, cheese and some fruit on the side. I never pulled out the cooking stove for lunch as it was just not practical. At dinner time I cooked something warm. This mainly consisted of a mixture of store-bought salads, bulked it out with lettuce and veggies. Or 1-minute rice or 2-minute pasta with the same idea of extra veggies. Then I would add a type of protein, either a veggie meat replacement or beans.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
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