24th August 2009 – Do the tour solo or with others?

The time I spent reflecting about the tour the previous day had also given me the time to think some more about if I wanted to do this tour on my own, or with others. I had given this some thought previously and I had even spoken to a few friends about this.

I was in two minds. Both doing the trip on my own has its advantages, as does doing it with others. Doing it on my own meant I could start each day at whatever time I was ready, I could go at my pace, I could stop when I wanted and for as long as I liked. I could carry on riding if I felt like it. I could eat, sleep or ride when I wanted to.

On the other hand, it would be a fairly lonely 13,000 miles if I was to do this on my own. I was in the lucky position that I was able to take the time to do this and it was obvious that it was very unlikely that any person would be able to join me for the whole trip. I decided that I would therefore do some of both – some of the tour on my own and some of it with others. A few of the people I had mentioned the tour to had said that they would like to come and do a week, or a couple of weeks, with me. That seems to suit me fine as this would be the best of both worlds.

I decided I would invite a few people to join me. This however does put more pressure on me to know where I will be at any time, within a day or two. This is because if somebody is coming to join me, they are going to need to know roughly where I will be so they can see where they might be travelling from and to. This is so people can choose what part of the tour they might want to do and to enable this to happen they will need to know when as well as where.

I would contact some people about the tour when the planning stage was nearing completion.