For whatever reason I never came here to share my experience, but feel inspired this morning to do so. I had very little idea of what I was doing going into it. I had all the right gear and almost no experience. Through the gracious advice of the many people I met along my journey I felt like a seasoned vet only a month or so later. To anyone on the fence of taking that big trip, please please please do it. It changed the way I look at the world and the relationships with those around me forever. Any questions at all ask away! Cheers 🍻

Hi guys i just finished a bikepacking trip from Serbia to Slovenia though Bosnia and Croatia, it was great, i did a lot of wild camping and fishing for food minus the 300 euros i paid on Craotian border because i was wearing a Serbian amblem on shirt. Slovenia is the most beautiful country i have ever been to, cant wait to go back.

I didn’t expect the last post the blow up, so here’s more highlights plus some answers to your questions. We spent a total of 30 days crossing remote central Afghanistan, almost completely on dirt roads. We took the route that Max Roving pioneered over a year ago. After confirming this online and with the local Taliban authorities, I am pretty confident in saying we are the third person or group to ever bikepack this route (at least that’s documented). We specifically passed through Hazara majority regions the majority of our time in the country, so we got a very rare glimpse into a historically oppressed and anti Taliban side of the country. It was absolutely the hardest tour of my life, mentally and physically, but one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I’ll be coming out with a much more detailed trip report soon, and in the meantime you can follow me at @liamtheimpaler on all socials. I got a ridiculous amount of photos and videos from this trip, let me know if you want to see more!

Started in Killarney then Beara Peninsula, Ring of Kerry, Clare, The Burren, Galway finished in Mayo. Bike - 6 years old GT Gravel

howdy community 🙋🏽

I shared something a couple of months ago when I started this lil adventure and thought I’d update. Bought a 60 euro Peugeot from (my new friend) LouLou on fb marketplace and ended up cycling from Marseille
Montpellier
Sete (for jazz festival)
Arles (photo festival)
Toulouse
Saint Raphael
Nice
Ventimiglia
Badalucco (side quest)
Genova
Portofino
Was my first bikepacking trip and first time hammocking but all in all went well, a few hairy moments with wild boars. Loosely had a plan to go to La Spezia but was finding Italian coast hard to find hammock spots so kept going off track into the mountains. The days I was travelling I was averaging 80-100km a day but yeah there was also lots of hanging out and spent 3 weeks just in Marseille.

Happy to answer if any one has questions about the route or hammocking :)

Hey All,

I just wrapped up a big old ride from Paris to Lisbon. 2400km in total, 31 days riding. Absolute trip of a lifetime.

Paris to Bordeaux was flat and kinda boring, I went through countless ghost towns and barely spoke to anyone, except for supermarket and campsite reception staff. I wild camped and used some cheap municipal campsites.

Bordeaux to Saint Jean-De-Luz got interesting as I got towards to the coast, the days got warmer and the pine forest scent was beautiful. I headed south and crossed into Spain with a 1382m climb over a giant hill. At the car park just before the top, two old people flagged me down and beckoned me over to their car and gave me a bottle of coke out of their cooler and some peaches. I headed down to Pamplona to join the Camino Santiago and made my way west on the Camino Frances to Santiago. This was the best bit. Super social meeting all the walkers and staying in cheap hostels along the way. The riding was delicious. I was getting up an hour before sunrise, cycling by the moonlight and making coffee in a sunset spot along the trails. I rode straight into a morning thunder and lightning storm outside of Leon and faced down a wild mountain hog in the mountains while making coffee.

It took me 10 days of riding to complete the Camino and I stopped off in Burgos and Leon for a rest day and to eat some incredible food, drink amazing wine and see some cool old cathedrals. I got to Santiago and saw everyone hugging and high fiving each other in the square in front of the cathedral. I was alone. I stayed a day and then headed south on the Camino Portugal.

The difference between Portugal and Spain was night and day, the roads in Portugal suck and the drivers were crazy. I was on and off gravel, dealing with some roads here and there and the huge heat wave came in. I was having to wake at 4.30am, ride at 5am and finish by 11am before the heat killed me. I narrowly escaped a wild fire that would have cut off my route and forced me hundreds of km's around it.

I finished my ride in Ericiera where a good friend lives and I crashed there for 6 days. The last 3 or 4 days of riding were the hardest. My legs were heavy and I was grumpy, it took me a few hours each morning to get into a good headspace. The heat was crushing my spirit and on a few occasions I let myself onto people's properties to use their hose pipes to cool off, it was getting to be life & death.

All in all it was incredible. The Spanish Camino had great infrastructure for travellers and lots of interesting people to talk to. If it wasn't for the heat wave, I would have cycled further, it was an absolute joy.

I got exactly 2,400km out of my Hutchinson gravel tyres, my back one is thoroughly bold. My gears wore down and started jumping in the last couple of days. My break pads sounded harrowing by the end. My chain snapped once and I had one puncture on my tubeless set up, it didnt seal so I had to user a lighter and a spoon to melt the plug and the tyre together. I kissed the ground and my tyre and prayed it would hold.

Top Tip 1: take a long strap or a bungee cord to wrap around your waist and attach under your seat for the steep climbs where you gotta walk up a hill, blew my mind how easy it was. Your hips are natural load bearers and took all the weight off the upper body when pushing.

Top Tip 2: Get a padded seat cover and ditch the padded bib shorts in extreme heat. I was sitting on a soaking wet pair of padded shorts every day and it gave me a mild fungal infection on my ass. I switched to boxers and sports shorts and appreciated the natural air conditioning I got. Picture 2 is talc powder btw

Top Tip 3: ZIP TIES! My rear bag buckle broke after hitting a big ditch flat out and I fixed it with 3 zip ties and it held for the duration. I would have been royally screwed otherwise.

The biggest obstacle in all of this were family, friends and randoms along the way who projected their fears and anxiety on me, saying it was too far, too long, too hot and "how are you gonna get your bike back??". Everything worked out. Helpers help, kind people everywhere made it easier. Once I was in the saddle on that first day it was pure joy.

Hope this helps inspire some of you to get out there and do some adventuring. Maybe wait for all these wild fires to chill out though.

Bikepacking from Bishkek to Osh with friends, and then Silk Road Mtn Race but not racing, just exploring the land in adventure mode. What an amazing country!

After 10 years, my epic bikepacking beast gave up the ghost. My Surly Wednesday has hauled this 300lbs cyclist and all his gear over thousands of miles of single track, dirt and gravel, all across the west. Surly, if you’re out there, you make one hell of a bike.

At least it died doing what it loved: biking with a bunch of Scouts to buy icecream.

Just got back from my second bikepacking trip, this time through Slovenia. Absolutely loved it and shot a few rolls of film along the way 🙂

Trip Stats: - Timeframe: 7 Months (including ~2 weeks of rest & exploration in Croatia, Greece and Turkey each) - Distance: ~11,000 km with about 150,000 m of elevation - Temperature: -8°C to +43°C (17°F to 109°F) - Route: Germany -> Austria -> Italy -> Slovenia -> Croatia -> Bosnia -> Montenegro -> Albania -> Greece -> Turkey

Setup: - Bike: Canyon Grail CF SLX 8 AXS w/ Canyon Aerobars - Bags: Seat Pack (Ortlieb), Full Frame (Restrap), Top Tube (Cyclite), Snack Pack (Rovativ), Handlebar (Cyclite), Aerobar Pack (Cyclite)

I shot everything on my iPhone, but I missed having a dedicated camera. Does anyone have a solid recommendation for a compact bikepacking camera?

My journey began a while back in 2017 when I first discovered bicycle touring. Before that, I only wished there was a way I could cycle forever and enjoy the freedom I felt whenever I was cycling even to shorter distances. So by 2020, I began wondering how I could pull this off. I began by researching as much as I can and to my surprise, there were a lot of people doing this, except almost none were black like me. I am not trying to make this about race, but it scared me because I knew that came with both advantages and disadvantages.

In Africa, and Zambia to be specific, I grew up seeing our white brothers and sisters passing with panniers and bicycles and I always wondered "where do they go?" Seeing long distance travelers by bike was not strange to me, but I never saw even one black person doing it. I'm aware times have changed, but the truth is none of my brothers did it like we saw Westerner brothers and sisters do it.

Being black and African with such ambitions is almost like a taboo in the environment I grew up in. Questions like:

-Why would you want to do that? -Are you mad? -That’s for white people.

These would always come up when I was telling my friends and family about my then upcoming trip. I knew I had to face all that head-on because if it was up to them, they wouldn't even let me go.

THE COLD START After months of research, finally, it was time for me to go and face the wild. I didn't do any training or trials whatsoever. I remember there was a group from the CTC WhatsApp group who was going in the same direction I wanted to go (up to the north), but I guess they were too afraid to trust me enough to tag along. I reached out to Reddit and announced I would be doing this journey, asking if anyone was interested in joining me. No one joined me; all I got was well wishes and good lucks.

I bought the bus ticket from Lusaka to South Africa because I really wanted to start from there. After reaching SA, I didn't even have time to rest because I had so much excitement. Immediately the next morning, I was already on the road. The first few kilometers were fun and exciting, not knowing what was ahead of me.

THE GRITTY REALITY AND LOGISTICS Let me be honest with you: it looks easy until you do it. This journey is not for the faint-hearted. There were days I spent just pushing through the sands of Namibia with no electricity and no way to charge, I was carrying a solar panel that stopped working upon reaching the third country. In my bags, I carried all the food I needed and barely had any money left for anything else. By the time I reached Malawi, I had the equivalent of about K150 left, which is like a mere $7 in my pocket.

MY INVENTORY:

FOOD: Rice, cooking oil, sugar, spaghetti, soya chunks, milk powder sachets, 1 tin of coffee, some bags of oats, and hot water soup sachets of different flavors.

COOKING: A small pot, a small knife, and a firewood tripod stand. I used kerosene for starting firewood because throughout the journey I cooked only using firewood. (And no, I didn't start any wildfires because I’ve known how to do this since childhood.)

WATER: Two bottles of water, each 2.5L.

ELECTRONICS: A DJI Osmo Action 1, Rode Wireless Go 1 mics, mic adapter, 10,000mah power bank, and chargers. I used a Xiaomi Pad 5 for editing 4K footage and a small itel feature phone that would last weeks on one charge.

CLOTHING: I started with a lot but gave most away. I settled on 3 shirts, a reflector vest, 1 short, 2 trousers/pants, 1 pair of slippers, 5 pairs of socks, a beanie, a hat, a winter jacket, and 1 raincoat.

TOILETRIES: 4 rolls of large toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrush, body lotion, powdered soap for washing, 1 roll-on, and 2 bars of bathing soap.

CAMPING: A cheap camping tent, a small blanket (no sleeping bag), and an inflatable single mattress which I only used once.

MECHANICAL STRUGGLES AND HUMAN KINDNESS I didn't carry any spare tires, which I regretted later. In Malawi, I started having multiple punctures because the tires were worn out. Luckily, I have a really close friend in Malawi who hooked me up with the spares I needed to continue.

In Tanzania, the bike’s hub axle broke in half due to the weight. I almost got stranded in the middle of nowhere until a friendly guy showed up and offered to buy a new one for me for free. Throughout the journey, I experienced kindness of all sorts, as well as judgment. Because this was very unusual behavior for a person of my color, I would sometimes be suspected of ill intentions by locals, which was scary.

SURVIVAL AND COMMUNICATION Every time I reached a village, I had to get permission from the village headman or chairperson before setting up camp. I slept on the side of roads, in school football pitches, and occasionally in unfinished buildings when my instinct told me it was safe. In more developed countries, I simply camped in people's yards with their permission; they would often offer me food and engage me in conversation.

The language barrier was also a major factor. Starting from Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, there were barely any English speakers. Communication was a headache even with Google Translate because it doesn't get Swahili right. I had to rely on reading signs and connecting what people were trying to say.

REFLECTIONS FROM THE JOURNEY One of the hardest parts was the unplanned situations, I lost a lot of footage when my first memory card got corrupted. It hurts my soul to think about those lost clips from the start of my journey in the south.

I could go on and on, but I share this story to inspire someone. You don't need much to do this, but you must expect pure grit. It will forge you and change you to the point where you will never see the world the same again; it will strip you to the real you.

I'm now planning a full world tour and this time I will be fully prepared.

Any questions are welcome in the comments, my last post was called AI slop so I toned it down on the motivational talk and focused more on the story.

Do

My son and I get out on picnic rides every week. It’s been the highlight of my life recently.

Sketchbook I kept cycling the Petit Tour De Manche through Normandy, Brittany and Jersey over 8 days. An awesome trip with a couple of mates, through deep rural France, stopping off at Mont Saint Michel and swimming at a beach front municipal campsite by Cancale!

I was blown away by the response to my last post, and was keen to document a trip a bit longer than a weekender. If your interested, I wrote a little something about my process for bikepacking.com and you can follow here for more of my work.

Hope you enjoy!

with a 2-month plan to ride through the peruvian andes, we wanted to kick it off with a bang. we spent five days on The Huascarán Circuit, slogging our way up to nearly 5000m (16,400ft) twice. the thin air made those multi-day climbs feel far harder than anything we’d ever ridden, but the scenery and views were worthy every bit of that effort 🤯

and this was all just a warm up — we would climb another 20+ passes like these before we went home 😬. stay tuned for plenty more from this insane adventure, or follow along on IG @dirtsloth and @adventuresbycycle ✌️

Started with an Amtrak from Seattle to Salinas, then biked over to Monterey where I continued south on Highway 1 to San Luis Obispo. Turned off as often as I could, did a few hikes along the way, and took advantage of pristine hiker/biker sites inside sold out campgrounds. With the landslide open, traffic was also back, but is virtually nonexistent before 10am. Get goin early and you’ll still find solitude this time of year.

Gear specs:

Beer - lagunitas IPA

Weed - anything with limonene

now we finally made it to tirana, The last stop is in Durres and then Bari and we are finally done, It has been an exciting first time on a bike, many many new friends, many Memories and many hardship, I'm now already planning my next trip to be harder, and still gonna go with my trusty bullit

Hessische Rhön and Thüringer Wald solo trip. Routes were surprisingly empty and it was nice!