Five Months and Counting

It seems like it was only a month ago that I was saying that we only have six months to go before departure, but now the calendar is telling me that we have reached the even more exciting milestone of five months.

When we consider that the planning for this adventure actually began five years ago, I guess we have reason to be impatient. The normal lead time from original concept to departure is typically two years. Five years is really a tad long, especially when our team members are growing older by the minute, let alone by the year.

Of course the repeated delays we caused by the intervention of a Covid pandemic - not something that I considered even in my wildest dreams. The original trip was postponed multiple times, until I began to think that it was never going to happen.

The initial plan was to have a two part trip. The first part would be a week long bike and barge along the Moselle from Saarburg to Koblenz, and this would be followed by a two week ride around the Ardennes Region of Central Europe.

The multiple delays impacted, not only the trip that was originally planned for 2020, but also a subsequent European ride that had been planned for 2021. It was only after the pandemic began to finally subside that I started to consider the possibility of combining two years of rides into a single, multistage, extended trip.

Over a period of months the options were examined from every angle. Maggie and I spent hours with calendars, maps and the all powerful Google search engine, to try to find a workable solution to the puzzle. Gradually a possible itinerary evolved, but it was quite different to the original plan.

The new plans meant that we would do the Ardennes Ride first, then ride the Moselle in the upstream direction from Koblenz to Saarburg. The group would then split into two parts, with one group proceeding to ride the Danube from Passau to Vienna, while the other group went on to complete three more rides in Germany, Switzerland and France. Yes, it was complicated, and easily the biggest cycling adventure that UTRACKS would be overseeing in 2023.

With a total of 29 participants, the sheer size of our group made for some serious logistical challenges. Many hotels were unwilling to take bookings for a large number of rooms, and at times, it really looked like we had hit yet another roadblock. Fortunately the problems were gradually resolved and our final plans were confirmed.

Yesterday we had our first (and last) team meeting with the Melbourne based members of our group. It was exciting to finally see so many of our travelers all together in the same place, all happily chatting and sharing their experiences together.

After a wonderful lunch, I was able to share some more detailed information about the upcoming trip. The next time we have the group together again will be when we are in Europe in August.

Now it's only about 150 sleeps to go.Read more