And I’m off. Heading to Kent today full of apprehension and excitement.(About the whole trip - not Kent)

 You’d think, with the amount of traveling I’ve done I’d have got used to it but the start of a trip is always a little exciting and worrying. I woke up this morning knowing that I won’t be sleeping in my bed again for 6 weeks. That’s exciting. I packed my bike up – that’s exciting and I looked at the weather forecast – always exciting!

I had planned my route out through Europe to Bosnia but got an email yesterday from Trent. Trent’s an American friend who lives in Alaska (I met him in Argentina in 1996) and he’s currently cycling in Europe with his family. I think he’ll be in northern Austria on Saturday so I might change my plans and ride across to see him for a day.

Other than that I’m ready to go. As Tracy isn’t coming I seem to have a lot of space on the bike but I’m trying to fight the urge to ‘take more stuff’ I know I don’t need it. I’ve had a big debate with myself over which tent to take. I have a small one and a large one. I know that if I’m camping and it’s raining I’d like to be in the larger one but can I really justify taking a 3 person tent which is quite big and heavy?? No, so I’m taking my small, light two person tent. I hope I don’t regret it.