To Turk Land and Back...: And the Journey Begins...

Today has been quite hectic, to say the least and I wanted to write a quick blog before I jumped onto the plane to Antalya, Turkey. It's going to be short and sweet, so here goes -

So as you may or may not know, I am about to embark on a cycling tour from Antalya, Turkey; back to Sunny Norwich, UK. The total distance of my little adventure is about 4000 miles and I will be taking in the glorious views of 16 beautiful European countries in two months. This will include riding up and down the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, climbing Mount Olympus in Greece, visiting the likes of Dubrovnik, Lake Bled and Ljubljana; I will also have the pleasure of grinding up the Stelvio Pass and visiting the Matterhorn in the Alps; then heading home via France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland.

So you're probably thinking what equipment do you take on a trip of this size? And what kind of bike are you riding? Below is the kit and the bike I am taking: my equipment includes a few clothes, a tent and sleeping bag, some electronics to keep me entertained and one whole spare tube. This totals in at just 7.1Kg, which is surprising light and most probably lighter than most people take on a weekend away!

The kit

The kit all packed up

The trusty steed I will have the pleasure of riding on, is a Soma Double Cross; custom built from my very hands. I had the satisfaction of building this 12kg beauty, early in the year; courtesy of some money ExxonMobil decided to pay me for doing some odd jobs around Fawley Refinery for 13 months - Thank you EM :-) (you have to love the acronyms!)

The bike - Soma Double Cross built up by myself

So as an engineer, it is only normal to come up with some quirky designs to make life easier and below are a just a few of my ~~amazing~~ solutions. These included a handy "Easy Oiling Mount©"; my handing sewing kit mount for rips in tyres and a bit of patchwork, tents poles strapped to the frame and an ingenious safe house for my spare key.