Preparation

The Trip

So far the main things I have looked at for the trip are the route, basic visa information and attempting to get as many contacts in the various countries as possible. I have now bought a lot of the kit I will be using on this trip, its been a combination of ebay, CTC and Wiggle for most of it. I still have front panniers and a tent to get and possibly a few other bits depending on finance.

The Route
 The main drivers for my choice of route were the lack of time available to me (and therefore requiring a direct route) and also political problems in various countries. I have chosen to avoid the Middle East for political reasons as I believe British citizens are actually unable to obtain visas for Iran at the moment and there are obviously lots of potential safety issues in that whole region. I decided to take the Kazakhstan route rather than Mongolia partly for directness and potentially less hassle with visas (not so long in Russia) but also because Kazakhstan is a huge country which you don't really here a lot about and it certainly isn't a tourist hotspot, so it will be great to support that area a little and meet people from such rural areas.

Visa Info
 At the moment I haven't obtained any visas because it looks like they tend to expire quite quickly and can't be 'deferred' I am going to have to get my visas in order which will probably mean spending a bit of time London just to sort them out rather than having my passport in the post a lot! A friend has recommended www.russiadirect.co.uk which has an affiliate company www.visatochina.co.uk, although this is quite an expensive way to arrange it this may well be the most practical method to deal with all the bureaucracy, there are also other companies who can do similar for Kazak visas. I know for certain that I will need an official invite into Russia and Kazakhstan, this can either be arranged though a company (as above) or it maybe possible to get a contact in the country to do it (for example in Russia you can obtain a visa from the Russian Cycle Touring Club which you can then use to obtain the visa)

Networking
This is very important for a number of reasons; firstly from the safety point of view, if I have pre-arranged rendezvous with friends of friends along the route then this will serve as a useful waypoint for me to recharge myself & make contact with my family & friends. It also has the advantage of helping me to keep my sanity (the shreds that are left anyway!), if I can have a number of friendly faces who are expecting me along the way then this will alleviate some of the anticipated loneliness & withdrawal that I associate with a trip like this. Also having links in the various countries will help me with language barriers, cultural information, local route planning and gives me somewhere to turn if it all goes pear shaped!! My aim would be to have a rendezvous about every one or two weeks although I'm certain I will make other friends along the way.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to e-mail me