Exciting first steps!

Hello!

We are really pleased with our progress this week. Julia has been staying with me in Nottingham for the last couple of days and we have used this time to put our heads together and gets some bits done before Julia heads off home to Hong Kong.

Firstly, welcome to our new website! This is where all our info on planning, training and any other successes will end up. We have also created a facebook page called 'Forks on Wheels', which will go live next week! We also have a Twitter page and are quite excited about posting fun facts and training tips and using the @ and that ‪#. So all in all, hello social media!

Secondly, we have an official route outline. This has been a tricky one... we discovered several setbacks but currently we feel confident. I'll run you through a few of them:

1. A route plotting software.

We decided to use Google maps and the plotting was going brilliantly until we reached the Italian-Swiss Alps. At this point Google simply refused to go to Italy but was quite happy to go anywhere else. This was so frustrating that we ended up abandoning it all together!

Since then we have actually had some changes in our route, taking us to the Danube trail and therefore we will not have to negotiate the Swiss-Italian Alps at all. Much to Google's delight.

However we still haven't found a suitable software - we'd love some suggestions!!

2. The 'stans

Unfortunately, the UK government foreign travel advice site has recommended we do not travel through some of the countries we would have liked to go to. For example, Tajikistan has the Pamir highway, which is known as one of the hardest cycle touring routes in the world (hardest? Great! Let's do it!). We also followed advice from other sources suggesting we avoid Turkmenistan. These precautions meant we had to make a number of alterations to our route, in order to try and make it as safe as possible. We will also need to be flexible with the route to accomodate for any changes.

3. Tibet

We originally wanted to go through Tibet until we discovered that not only does Tibet need it's own visitors permit (not just a Chinese visa) but also you need a Chinese or Tibetan guide! Unfortunately neither Julia nor I know anyone from the Tibet region, let anyone crazy enough to get on a bike with us. And naturally organised bike tours in Tibet are incredibly expensive.

So how else to enter China, considering the other option is the Gobi desert? Well, fortunately for us, the roads from Kashgar towards central China are very well maintained and this looks to be the best option.

Finally, we are Forks on Wheels! After a couple of beers in the sunshine and lots of mindmaps (see picture), we managed to organise our ideas and come up with an idea that would help us produce a story to be proud of and support charities we believe in! Watch this space!!

We will be blogging our progess from now on, so keep an eye out for more! Our next step is to make contact with the charities we are interested in working with and try and get them onboard.

Forks on Wheels x