Preparation: Us

This is more about all the things that have to be done before you can turn up at the airport and catch the flight to your destination. Preparing ourselves is the easy part!! Having both done long trips before, we know pretty much know what to expect, although for me it is going to be a different experience travelling by bike instead of public transport

Our starting point was organising the shipping of the bikes to Los Angeles. Air was too expensive so we started collecting Ocean Freight quotes from various sources. It was interesting to note that the actual cost of the sea freight was pretty similar (around $80US per cubic metre) but charges for paperwork and documents varied wildly. Arno got a couple of crates sorted out and we played around with crates and bikes, trying to get the total size as small as possible.

SHIPPING UPDATE We have finally booked the shipping of the bikes, with a firm here in Munich, they will pick up the bikes here, take them to Hamburg and see them into the container to LA. The price is pretty good, $68 a cubic metre, not the cheapest, but they gave us a great quote to get the bikes from here to Hamburg, so the total cost was well below the others. Total cost,for both bikes, not including US charges €539. Harbour charges etc in the US will probably add another $300 to that sum. If all works out I will put in a link to the firm, so check back in Sept to see if our bikes arrive in one piece!!

The next big project was getting our camping equipment sorted out. Most of the equipment we needed for this trip, we already had from previous trips, two new additions however were tent and cooker. Previous trips have seen us squeezing into a 1˝ person tent, leaving most of our stuff outside in waterproof bags – not recommended in Central/South America!! So we splashed out and got a Macpac tent for a great price from Sian’s employer Lauche & Maas the source of most of our equipment.

June 2002 Testing out the tent near Staffel See

As for the cooker, Primus won over MSR, and we are the proud owners of a liquid fuel cooker

For those that are really interested (or bored) here is a complete equipment list of what we started out with.

Technology has changed completely since the last time we both travelled (no email address then!) and we had to decide how much of this tech we were going to take with us. The list of ‘useful’ gadgets and such was loooong, and our budget small, so some decisions were made quicker than others. Eg no GPS, no mobile phone, no pocket PC. It took a lot longer to decide which items to take and more importantly which model etc.

We both already have SLR cameras, but the versatility and possibilities offered by digital was extremely interesting. After a lot of questions at various camera shops, internet forums etc, we decided that the Sony MVC CD range fitted our specs, but not our budget!! The final decision is awaited – watch this space!!

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE Things have sped along in the last week or so, we are now the proud owners of a laptop and a digital camera.
The laptop we got from one of our sponsors, Micheal at Bikeactive. A toughbook, no less. We will have to see how tough it really is!!
The camera, a newer, shinier model than we were hoping for, was half paid for by Sian’s L&M colleagues, as a leaving present. Many thanks to everyone who contributed.
Now we just have to get the handbooks read and a few practice pictures taken before we leave.

Still to come………..
How do we sort out the insurance minefield??
Which flight to we book, to where??
These questions, and probably many more, will be answered (we hope) soon!!