As the months pass by the time of departure draws closer and the number of things on my list finally start to become less instead of more. For the most part I feel like I’m missing something because it doesn’t seem to be much left to be prepared. So I will give you a little overview about the things that happened and still have to happen.

The Company you keep: I was able to persuade an able and willing fellow traveler to join me on this tour. Back in October 2016 I meet with Andrea and we went on a weekend trip in the mountains to see if we get along. Apart from the raccoon that stole my backpack and tried to drown it in the nearby lake and the fox that chewed through my shoestrings during the night, the weekend was quite a success. Due to bad weather conditions we had to get off the mountain after two nights. It was still a lot of fun and we really got to know each other well.

So a few days after the trip Andrea agreed to be my trusty travelbuddy.  Since then we have been preparing and helping each other out with good advice and tips for good gear.

Right on Schedule: A big part (issue) of this whole journey will be the acquiring of the right visa at the right time. Even though we will be sheltered from the weather, riding in the car we still want to avoid the cold as much as possible. Our first visa will be necessary for Iran and can be extended to a maximum of 3 months which we intend to use completely. After Iran we will proceed north to Turkmenistan, so we don’t want to be there early since it might be a bit cold up in these regions in January. In order to get everything to work out we will travel around Europe for a little longer than originally planned to arrive in Iran beginning December 2017. We are certain that this will work well since there is a lot to see in Europe on the way. The planning of what we will do in each country is omitted for the most part, since we plan on getting some information on the road. We got some travel guides so we don’t miss out on any highlights, but there will be no detailed plans. As of today, Romania is the first country that we have a few ideas what to see and do.

Grease Monkey: The most preparation time is invested into the bus right now. Although it is all coming together quite nicely and as planned for the most part, it is still time consuming. The other day I managed to get my glove caught in the angle grinder, that hurt pretty bad, but nothing permanent, still got all 9 fingers ;) I have the insulation of the raised roof completed and was able to find the leak that caused some wet feet initially. Right now I’m in the process of putting the front axle back together after having exchanged all worn parts including suspension, brakes, bearings and all other moving parts. So on the technical side only the rear brake and suspension needs overhauling, but that shouldn’t take long. All that is left after that, is like a gazillion small things on the inside, but I’m confident it will be done plenty ahead of time. It really starts to look like a home in there :)

You’ve gotta see this: If you have followed my bike journey on benamericana.org you are familiar with the awesome videos that Standoutmedia put together for me. So I’m glad to announce that I was able to convince Henrik to be part of this journey again. Within the next weeks we will get together to talk through the details. This time you will even get better and more divers viewpoints because I will have Andrea to assist and participate. So you wont be stuck with either seeing me or the road ahead of me this time. :) We also have some minor video editing capabilities on the road, this will allow for more frequent videos due to the fact that we can do some rough cutting. Since technology and equipment has evolved since the last tour in 2013 we will add a few nice new touches. We hope you will like it and it will help you to participate more in our adventure and experience it in a better way.