If you are on your bike and have to climb tough mountains you will be happy about every gramm less to carry with you. I think we all align on that 😉. Thus, one aspect in choosing what equipment to take with you is weight. The other one, of course is the packing size. Because everything should be more or less compact to fit on the bike without any additional bike trailer etc.

However, from our former tours we knew some things we would not want to miss although some people would probably call it luxury camping. For example a table and two chairs 😁. But lets see what we plan to carry with us in detail… (this summary is probably still not complete).

Equipment for our bedroom

We used our former tent already in more or less uncomfortable temperature ranges (for example in early spring on Shikoku in Japan). But for really cold conditions it is probably not the right one. So we did some research for a tent usable for all seasons and to give us some more space. So even if we would stuck in there for a few days with awful rainy conditions, we could do so. Being a four-season tent and originally designed for three persons we found the Orion III extreme tent as our favorite. We tested it already during summer right after ordering it and also in freezing cold nights at the end of the season in October. Especially in combination with a warm sleeping bag and insulating mats it was a nice and comfortable experience. Of course, a small pillow should not be missing either.

As add-on we carry along a tarp to have more space outside the tent to store the bags, and/or bikes, or just to sit below it during heavy rain. It can also spend some shadow in the heat of the summer. We have never used it to sleep below without the tent. But maybe during wild camping in the future this would be a good option.

Equipment for the kitchen

Next to good sleep and getting enough rest another important part during bicycle travelling is eating good. What is needed to prepare food fast and convient? For sure, you can live with a tiny stove, one cooking pot and really basic plate with spork. But we added some more parts to our kitchen to be more flexible and don´t lose the motiviation to cook every day. So now there is also a pan, some more foldable bowls, sieve, separate spoon, fork and knife. A lot of the stuff is from SeatoSummit or MSR, but we are also very happy with the boxes from WILDO. Looks quite a lot, but if you pack everything together the packing size is just amazingly small! Propably we will add some more small things like a super sharp knife, a dish washing sponge, or some more herbs/spices.

The outdoor area – living room?

Don´t wanna sit between ants on the ground or stand while eating your breakfast? This is why we chose to take a table and two chairs with us. So it is possible to sit relaxed below the tarp even on rainy days, prepare the food at the table or just put things on it to avoid them to lay in the dirt.

We bought a new foldable LED lamp as our old one needed batteries and was easy to be switched on while being packed (and of course empty afterwards…). Furthermore, our typical camp containes a clothes line and we invested in a portable “washing machine” which we used already in New Zealand. In terms of washing (our bodies 😉) for sure fast drying microfibre towles are the first choice. A 10 Liter water reservoir will complete our water supply in addition to our water bottles. In terms of energy we are well prepared with adapter cable etc. to be able to connect at camping grounds.

Other stuff…

Of course we want to write in this blog and take a lot of photos during our trip. Thus, there is also the category of electronical stuff. Alinas camera equipment, Alex´s tablet, some power banks, and our navigation device truely belong in this category. During former trips we often navigated just by smartphone (using OsmAnd or MapsMe). Now we switched to a GPS bike navigation system from Garmin. We are curious how this will perform in the future.

Having done only more or less shorter trips we never prepared for real repairs on our bikes (just at least flat tires). But with a time frame of six months now in mind this is probably necessary. Thus, Alina sewed a tool rool and we bought some tools for replacing the chain, the brake pads, and other stuff. Due to Corona it was not possible to take part in a repair training session we had already booked, so it will be more like training on the job 🙈.

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