Touring ideas?

WAPAIC

Hi all,

I met a guy on a Surly in Vietnam in January and was very jealous. So now I'm looking for ideas and inspiration for my next trip. Has anyone good ideas/plans for an adventurous cycling tour? Ideally fitting some or all of the following criteria.

-2-3 weeks. Maybe 4 if it was really inspirational and the boss said ok
-fly into one airport and out of another
-camping but not necessarily all the time.
-at least one stamp in the passport (i.e. outside Europe)
-somewhere with a totally different culture and landscape to Ireland
-at least part of the trip not on tarmac roads
- Happy enough to use buses, trains and planes if needed
-not completely savage distances, I want to stop and enjoy myself also and I'm not super fit.
-Most importantly, something with a sense of adventure about it. I'm not looking for a tour of french vineyards although that would be lovely too.

Turkey is topping the list at the moment. Tibet to Kathmandu also looks amazing but I've been to Nepal on a bike and would like to try somewhere else. Morocco would be great but I've been there too. Somewhere new would be nice.

Any ideas, dreams or plans?

Mr. Grieves

Leh to Manali in India is a trip I'd love to do at some point in the future. Mostly gravel roads and passes over 5000m altitude. I was there (not cycling) 2 years ago and saw a good few touring cyclists.

Plutonium Kun

Leh to Manali is an bike incredible journey, but you'd have to be very fit and prepared to do it under 3 weeks. You need several days at least to acclimatise to the trip. If you start from Leh, you need to rest up and explore to get used to the altitude, if you start from Manali, you need to take it easy as the first climb is mind blowing and brings you up over 4,000 metres faster than is usually recommended (I met an experienced Alpinist who nearly died from altitude sickness after going up and over). There are other shorter trips in the area that may be suitable, for example, Manali to Simla. Another potentially great (if expensive) trip in the Himalaya is in Bhutan. If you are interested in the region, then I'd recommend the Himalaya by Bike guide by Laura Stone from Trailblazer guides:

http://trailblazer-guides.com/book/himalaya-by-bike

I'm not sure how up to date the book is at the moment - the politics change there all the time. Riding solo in Tibet now is a lot harder than a few years ago due to restrictions.

For ideas for other adventurous trips, the go-to book is the Adventure Cycle-touring handbook:

http://trailblazer-guides.com/book/adventure-cycle-touring-handbook

Two great places to cycle tour are Taiwan and Japan. Out of Taipei there are some amazing roads, and huge climbs through sub-tropical forest with regular stops in hot spring resorts. The Taiwanese are really friendly to bike travellers, especially if your bike is made there (which it probably is!). Japan needs planning as many of the roads are not bike friendly, but the smaller islands such as Shikoku or Hokkaido offer great short tours.

SE Asia has numerous options - once far out of Bangkok, Thailand is of course beautiful, although you need to do your research to avoid the main highways, which are pretty dangerous (an English couple who had ridden from the UK were killed by a truck there just a few weeks ago). The south is easy riding and very pleasurable, up north around Chiang Mai is more mountainous, but its possible to cycle away from tourist hotspots and get a really nice experience on relatively quiet roads. Laos is a long time favourite for bike tourers, the road from Vientienne to Luang Prabang is a classic ride, although busier these days with traffic than it used to be.

Plutonium Kun

If you are more interested in the off-road side of touring, one of the best resources is Cass Gilberts epic blog, www.whileoutriding.com, lots of information on adventurous riding from Alaska down to South America. Much of the north American rides are based around the Great Divide route which is well mapped by the Adventure Cycling Association in the US. A good off-road route would be to take a chunk of the Great Divide (I'd recommend the bit around Colorado).

Canis Lupus

Morocco is much different on a bike. The Riff valley and the Atlas mountains are awesome to camp in.

Personally I'd recommend horsing through Europe towards Turkey. You'll get amazing scenery and importantly a constantly changing culture/people along the way.

el Bastardo

I rode that last year, from Manali to Leh supported. I didn't find the riding especially difficult and I'm not one of those cyclists that runs up crazy figures on my bike computer. The biggest issue I found at altitude was not getting proper sleep and with respect to India, not depleting yourself by cacking yourself inside out! I'd happily do it again, unsupported, but in reverse (on account of road conditions). Preparation is important though; There aren't shops or places of rest everywhere.

(A little edit, if I may: A write-up by one of the non-paying, journo tour-mates) http://www.bbc.com/travel/slideshow/20130205-cycling-the-high-altitude-himalayan-highway

Plutonium Kun wrote: »

Leh to Manali is an bike incredible journey, but you'd have to be very fit and prepared to do it under 3 weeks. You need several days at least to acclimatise to the trip. If you start from Leh, you need to rest up and explore to get used to the altitude, if you start from Manali, you need to take it easy as the first climb is mind blowing and brings you up over 4,000 metres faster than is usually recommended (I met an experienced Alpinist who nearly died from altitude sickness after going up and over). There are other shorter trips in the area that may be suitable, for example, Manali to Simla. Another potentially great (if expensive) trip in the Himalaya is in Bhutan. If you are interested in the region, then I'd recommend the Himalaya by Bike guide by Laura Stone from Trailblazer guides:

http://trailblazer-guides.com/book/himalaya-by-bike

Northern Thailand, particularly the mountains, is absolutely beautiful!

Plutonium Kun wrote: »

SE Asia has numerous options - once far out of Bangkok, Thailand is of course beautiful, although you need to do your research to avoid the main highways, which are pretty dangerous (an English couple who had ridden from the UK were killed by a truck there just a few weeks ago). The south is easy riding and very pleasurable, up north around Chiang Mai is more mountainous, but its possible to cycle away from tourist hotspots and get a really nice experience on relatively quiet roads.

Ole Rodrigo

- Dublin to Istanbul would be great as a light tour over 4 weeks

- The Pamir Highway

- I met a guy years ago in Exmouth Australia who was cycling from Darwin to Perth, most of which would be heat, empty landscape and asphalt, but it always stuck out in my mind for some reason

- An expensive supported tour but in the event of redundancy/ mid life crisis would be pretty amazing - the Tour d'Afrique

WAPAIC

Yeah some of the treks you read about people doing on the web look fairly thankless - days of dessert does not interest me!

The Pamir highway goes through Afghanistan? Would that not be fairly dangerous?

The Great Divide and the Tour D'Afrique are definitely on the "would love to do" list. Read a little bit about the Great Divide route a few years ago, it's amazing how remote parts of the US are - some of the accounts make the Cairo-Cape Town route look less hairy!

On the Dublin to Istanbul suggestion - I'd rather fly to somewhere like Venice (skipping the UK and the rest of western europe) and do something like this

Great ideas though, thanks and keep em coming!

Ole Rodrigo

WAPAIC wrote: »

The Pamir highway goes through Afghanistan? Would that not be fairly dangerous?

That particular route skirted the Afghan border without crossing, which I'd imagine would be ok once you left your CIA jersey at home :pac: Would be hilly enough and without much creature comforts for good stretches, although I hear its getting more crowded each year

WAPAIC wrote: »

On the Dublin to Istanbul suggestion - I'd rather fly to somewhere like Venice (skipping the UK and the rest of western europe)

Or start off in Amsterdam and through Holland would be a good also

What about a trans american or trans canadian tour ( coast to coast ) ? Might be tough to squeeze into 4 weeks

Or, I did a vague plan last year for Dublin to France on the ferry, then down the west coast into Spain and across the Northern Camino to Santiago, then fly back to Dublin - doable in 2 weeks or a bit over as a light tour