This post is dedicated to my good friend Ela, our friendship is one of those university friendships that has lasted over the years and distances. We’ve not lived in the same country since university, and there’s much about each other that we are still discovering. For example, when Ela heard about this trip that we were planning and getting ready for, one of the things she asked about was how we were going to pack everything on the bike, and how much she enjoyed finding places/spaces for all the things she took on her trips. Robin gets much more satisfaction in figuring out, where all the bits of our gear and stuff go, in panniers or on little bags strapped to the bike, but I enjoy knowing that everything we need (apart from food) is moving with us from place to place.

So what did we bring and where does it go?

For clothes, we each have approximately 2 on the bike and 2 off the bike outfits, plus a jumper/jacket each. Pictured you can see all the clothes on our bed, they now fit into 3 packing cubes, and all 3 fit into the green pannier.

Next we’ve got out camping things. One 3 person tent, which fits in the bag in the middle. Tent polls which are also in the green pannier. A jet boil kettle with gas canisters, 2mess kits and cutlery sets + bottle opener+ cork screw + camping knife, 2 cups, 2x sleeping bags, 2x sleeping mats and 2x pillows, 2x microfibre towels Our solar panel, for charging on the go. And 2x minimist flip flops, for wearing in the campsite showers. All in the red/orange pannier.

We made a last minute decision to include front panniers – when I say last minute, I mean that Robin got up at 6.30am on departure day to include them. In the front panniers go the sleeping bags, mats and pillows, one set in each pannier. Which freed up A LOT of space in the red pannier, which were using to store bread, cheese, veg and other snacks that we might want to have on the go. It also means that we have some space if we want to buy something else that we find we need that we don’t have. (So far we’re not missing anything)

We also have a box bag at the front of the bag, this holds everyday essentials – including any pastries we buy in the morning & emergency medicines (ex. my epipens & antihistamines)

We have various other small bags on the bike, that hold things like our first aid kit, soaps & shampoos, sunscreens & aftersun, sunglasses, and ‘free spaces’ to put our raincoats in for easy access in case it rains during the day.

The last things that we have are the all important bike maintenance kit (puncture repair kit) , pump and a set of allenkeys. We’re hoping that we don’t need to use these much – although we have already used the allenkeys because we had some trouble with our back brake – but more on that in the next post.

And there we have it. All the things we need (apart from food) for our 10week trip, packed away and stored on our tandem.