Day 1,324

The road ahead

So after nearly 6 months caring for Tom's mum and sorting the sale of the family home we are getting ready to set off again.

The ideal scenario would simply be to return to La Paz in Bolivia and pick up where we left off. That doesn't work though as we've missed the weather window. So it's back to our very first plan from 2021, to set off east through Europe. Covid had scuppered that plan at the time, but this time we're good to go. 

As we will be setting off in very early spring (aka winter) rather than the original summer departure, Tom has been busy planning a new route. In our latest video he explains in detail just how he plans this. My job was to get the bikes ready for the trip. I decided we may as well have new rims, Ryde Andra 30s again, and as my eyesight isn't really up to wheel building anymore we took them into our local specialist shop based in Delapre Abbey. I decided to let them do all the other repairs as needed, so the bikes have had gear and brake cables replaced, a new drive set for Tom and both bikes a general check over. I've saved one job for us though, the Rohloff oil change. 

So that's it. We hope to have the house sale completed within a week and then we should be off, just one more problem to overcome - I've got Shingles, and yes I know it's painful! I'm resting up, watching endless cycle touring videos, and hopefully by the end of February it will be debsandtom.com back on the road!

Draft route map through Europe to Central Asia