Into labour!

Exactly one year ago, I passed for my driver's (or shall we say: rider's) license. It's quite amazing what a year can bring, isn't it?

With two years behind me in the project and only 9 months to go until the final trip, I've more or less sorted out the riding schedule. I'm most likely to depart on Friday the 19th of July, arriving in Brindisi on the 27th-28th.

From there on in, I board the ferry to Greece, and then it's anybody's guess; either way, I plan to be home around mid-August. I've planned in all of the day-destinations, but for good measure I also added a couple of resting days that I can move around on the fly, just to enable me to stay somewhere longer if I want to. Average length of each leg is about 200 miles, which should make the entire trip less exhausting as a whole (I for one am not going to repeat the first days of the GB tour, by doing 600 miles in two days).

The bike will need some work as well, in the coming months. I want to remove as many unknowns from the equation as possible, just so I can be sure the beast is in top form for over 4000 miles of heavy touring. Wheel bearings, brake discs, brake fluid, chain, sprockets... the list is ever-growing. I also think Scotland killed a few spokes in the frontwheel, so the rim will probably be sent off to be relaced in the coming month. The rack, however, is back in top form already.

The date for the helmet auction seems also an obvious choice; for now, I've set it on Friday the 13th of September 2013. I'm still investigating options on the how and where (if you've got suggestions, I'm all ears!), but rest assured that I'll also give people overseas the opportunity to contribute online.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to be doing first on my checklist. Just so it's clear: the left column is just for the bike...