Hitting the road ↑ all posts

The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can. Sung by Bilbo as he leaves the Shire

I know that as soon as I get on the road I’m going to love it, but that doesn’t really help calm the pre-departure nervousness. Leaving behind all the comforts and security of home, to spend months alone on the road living in a tent… am I sure this is a good idea

It helps if I don’t think about how far I have to go: instead it’s just a few days cycling down the road to Dunfermline. Google reckons it’s 2500 miles from Dingwall to Istanbul by the most direct route, but I’m going to have to attack this in small chunks, one day at a time, and slowly chip away at the distance.

I’ve packed and re-packed, double and triple checked everything, I don’t really have excuses left. Best just man up and get going…

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I had a gentle afternoon following Sustrans Route 7 from Inverness into the edge of the Cairngorms. Found a reasonable place to camp and took an unreasonable length of time to put my tent up and sort myself out!