Intro etc

We've been nomads for more than a year now. Since we sold up at the beginning of 2016 we have spent four and half months touring on our bicycles with the rest of the time travelling around in our Landy and off-road camper.

For the past six months we have struggled to think of much more than the six months that, in a few weeks time, lie ahead of us. If it wasn't for a pelagic birding trip that we had booked and paid for almost two years ago, we would have left already.

The plan is simple. In May we fly from South Africa to Japan, cycle southwards for a month and catch the ferry to South Korea. In November we fly back to South Africa from Hong Kong. What happens between South Korea and Hong Kong will develop along the way but the Four Rivers Route (or parts of it) will almost certainly feature and we will hopefully get lots of time in China. Yunnan sounds intriguing. Northern Vietnam also beckons. Taiwan is a possibility.

Due to various things that have got in the way since the second step, we are probably not as fit as we should be but we will start off slowly and hopefully get fit along the way.

We have upgraded our gear since the first step (details in the second step) and we think we should have most bases covered. Leigh has gone through a process of working out which saddle works best for her. She finally settled on the fifth one she tried: a Brooks B67 Select which is not yet conditioned to suit her bottom but I am sure that our slow start will allow it to be worn in before the long miles start.

We received our Japanese visas today so for the first time it feels as if it is all systems go. We've only got 30 days so after a few days in Kyoto and Nara for sight-seeing and getting used to Japan we can't waste too much time on our sort-of-planned route down the south-eastern coast of Shikoku and onwards to the ferry port at Fukuoka. We don't need visas for South Korea and we will apply for Chinese visas once we get to Busan in South Korea, probably taking a side trip to the historical city of Gyeongju while we wait for the applications to be processed. By that stage any plans we might dream up now will have almost certainly changed so we won't even think past that point.

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