Around the world in 80 days

Friday 27th May. That’s the day ‘the letter’ says I’ll be leaving work. This feels a long way away, but counting down it’s only 80 days from now. So this is as good as time as any to have a think about what needs doing in those 80 days.

Big stuff:
Iran visa
Pakistan visa
India visa
From looking at their respective websites, it looks like a bureaucratic nightmare, more on these to follow.

Get road tax for current motorbike which expires soon, then…
Sell motorbike (Yamaha Fazer FZ6)
Buy motorbike (Yamaha XT660)
Buy luggage set for new bike & make frame to fit it
Arrange all other mods to new bike
- hard wire GPS & 12v charger to battery
- fit centre stand
- fit rasied screen and hand guards if not already on

Arrange international driving permit from AA
Arrange carnet for new bike from RAC
Make sure all documents from driving license to passport are up to date and make good colour copies of everything.
Take out bike insurance to cover as many countries as possible
Take out health / emergency airlift insurance
Find out what jabs are needed and get them
Arrange a check up at the dentist
Sell car, cancel insurance and collect no claims evidence for when next need it
Sell or store everything that’s not coming with me

Little stuff:
Work out actual departure day & catch ups with everyone before then
Book Eurotunnel or ferry before it gets too expensive
Work out a route & some couchsurfers for the first few days
Look into & print walking routes for a few mountains
Learn how to use video camera and editing software
Cancel mobile phone contract, get new one with international sim
Change a load of money into US$ for emergencies
Make sure all banking Direct Debits etc are up to date
Get CV up to date and work references

Annoying questions:
Look into what happens to my pension & national insurance
Look into completing a P85 Income Tax Form "for those leaving the United Kingdom" and forward to the Inland Revenue with P45

There’s probably more, this is just what’s on my mind at the moment and it’s a relief just to get the list written down. Much like thinking about the trip itself, trying to take it all in at once is impossible, so breaking it down into smaller jobs is the only way. Next up must be selling my bike and buying the one for the trip. Hopefully the next post here will be headed with a photo of the shiny Yamaha XT660. More soon.

Clouds

This is it, the start of a motorbiking journey from England to India then New Zealand and who knows where after then. Departure day is a few months away, probably in early June, but seems to be racing round in no time. Many blogs I read start, quite sensibly, on day one as a bike rolls out the garage, but there’s so much to get through before that point, and the start of a New Year seems as good a point in time as any to put some thoughts down.

Travelling, packing it all in a heading off somewhere else has a ring of adventure and spontaneity to it; booked it, packed it, f***ed off as Peter Kay would have it. Behind that moment though are months and months of planning and many more years of saving. I’ll post some updates on the planning, paperwork and bike stuff as time goes, but the first major hurdle has been making the decision to go. Definitely, unless it rains, or Leeds get promoted, or a new job comes along or… so that’s today’s blog.

Making the decision to leave a fairly comfortable routine and ride round the world, breaking away from friends and family all going through times of change is a without doubt heavy and ridiculously self-indulgent. For me though it's got me out of bed to go to work for probably the last four years at least. Long before then, it was doubtless reading Michael Palin’s books with Basil Pao’s amazing photos where the whole thing started.

Happiness is such an illusive emotion and yet it drives so many of our actions. We’re all constantly put upon with personal dilemmas about who to love, when and whether to have children, how to be nicer to friends and family, which movies to watch, and how to stay ahead at work. Some choices are shaped by the circumstances of those close by, others are at our liberty.

This one, the big one, comes from a sweeping optimism about the world out there spending long days rolling under big blue skies, out on the road, lost in it all. Chasing happiness, but ignoring the niggling doubt that happiness might actually already be staring you in the face if things just stayed as they are.

You really can’t set off without being damn certain that it’s the right thing to do, but to try and justify it with words and reasoning is impossible. Blind faith is as close as it gets, I guess everyone has something they need to do simply because it’s in their blood. Bottling it up and ignoring it puts unreasonable expectations on everything else you do, particularly relationships. To jump in with both feet means leaving the travelling behind and asking someone to be better than your dreams, which plainly impossible and unfair.

It’s the point of deciding to go that all the irresistible expectation meets the gut wrenching reality of telling friends and family not to count you into their plans for the foreseeable. Uncertain goodbyes with parents and close friends are a gathering dark cloud, unavoidable as it is.

Of course battling through a recession, holding down a job, relationship and the countless other travails of life are the real challenges everyone is facing in the year ahead. By comparison, cocking about on a bike for a while should be a breeze.

So, the point of this ramble I guess is, sorry to those whose lives I’m going to make more difficult, and a sincere ‘I’ll miss you’ to everyone else.