The TE in our pAk & TE team was invited this month to talk to a group of students at EOI Santa Brígida, a language school in Gran Canaria, about the bicycle trip we did across Canada, the USA and Mexican Baja California between 2018 and 2019. As the whole journey is narrated in this blog, TE decided to focus on the preparations for the trip. In this post you will find not only a summary of what she said in her talk, but also a quiz on our trip that should invite you to read or re-read our blog again (particularly the posts in English) in search for the answers. You can go directly to the quiz by scrolling to the bottom of this post

Thank you, Tony, Liz, Marina and the whole staff of EOI Santa Brígida for your kind welcome: please feel free to repost, reproduce or adapt this text for your classes! Thank you, lovely English students, for your attention and input during these talks!

The idea for a long bike trip first came to our minds as early as 2013 during a two-month hiking trip across centre-eastern Europe —we were really fed up with our backpacks! We thought it would be easier to carry all our load on bikes. Here are some of the questions we asked ourselves:

• Should we plan our own route or ask other cyclists / travellers?
• Should we save money or find work along the way?
• Should we take all the equipment and tools we might need or simply buy them or borrow them as we need them?
• Should we take clothes for all kinds of weather or buy clothes as seasons change?
• Should we take with us all sorts of medicines? How about medical insurance? And vaccines?
• How will we get in touch with our close ones to let them know we are ok?
• Should we take our own camping gear or improvise for accommodation and meals?

Some answers we found to these first questions:

Learning from others: We started hosting other cyclists after we joined www.WarmShowers.org, ‘a community of bicycle tourists and those who support them’. From our guests in the WarmShowers network we got ideas on what to pack for a long a trip and how to use mapping apps, for example Ride with GPS or Mapy or camping apps (iOverlander). We also looked into other cyclists blogs or vlogs and started following their tutorials and suggestions. For instance, we read ´How to Hit the Road’, an e-book by Tom Allen, a veteran cyclotourer, who also has a fantastic blog.

Being moneywise: We saved money —for five years! We could have decided to work along the way, as we are trained translators and we could have freelanced. However, we didn’t want to carry a laptop with us and be hooked all day to our mobile phones. Working on site in the countries we would visit also posed a legal issue: we had no intention to request working visas, as the red tape involved in the process would have been too burdensome.

Learning mechanics: As we were in Brussels, we used the chance to do a very thorough and cheap bike mechanics course offered by Les ateliers de la rue Voot. They were very practical and we both learned a lot, disassembling and assembling our very own bikes. However, I have to admit I soon forgot everything, while pAk, thanks to his elephant memory and keen practice, would be our Head of Mechanics all along the way. We decided to carry our supplies: tyres, spooks, chains —little did we know that in Canada and the USA those same spare parts were far cheaper than in Europe! We also found that clothes were very easy to find in thrift shops, so we needn’t have worried about that either.

Medical insurance: We had been advised to get insured for our trip, particularly since we had decided to start in North America, and our best option was Iati. It wasn’t cheap, but as we would later find out, coverage was excellent. We got all the vaccines we needed for that leg of the trip (America) and decided to leave others for later, if we pursued our goal to continue in Asia.

Getting in touch: We bought a GPS device by Garmin to send sms to our loved ones and be traceable in a map. It had a monthly rate which wasn’t cheap, but it was the best option for everybody’s ease of mind. Apart from this, every time we changed country, we bought a new pay-as-you-go sim for one of our mobile phones. Unfortunately, in huge countries such as Mexico, some phone companies only covered certain areas and service stopped once you changed state, which was particularly problematic in Baja California.

Carrying all our gear: We had planned to be self-sufficient, so in our 8 panniers we carried a lot —the equivalent to our own weight! A tent, sleeping bags and mattresses, a stove, cooking utensils, food, clothes, shoes, bike tools and spare parts, a water filter, a solar shower —even a little chair! We did a test ride between Belgium and Luxemburg and we saw we were painstakingly slow. We didn’t mind at all —we weren’t in a hurry!

Apart from these few technical preparations, we weren’t trained at all: our only physical training for the past few years had been riding our bikes in the city, every now and then. We hadn’t prepared our bodies at all for this trip —only our minds, to a certain extent! Luckily our then landlord in Brussels helped in this sense, as he refused to repair our broken heater. That, and the fact that the bed was the first piece of furniture we had sold, meant that we had to use our camping gear (sleeping bags, mattress and the solar shower) for two months before the beginning of our trip.

Quiz

The quiz on our trip begins here! You will find links to relevant posts next to each question.

1. Which film did TE watch during the flight to Canada, and why did it make her cry? You can find the answers by clicking on this Facebook post.
2. Where did pAk and TE land in Canada? Was it in mainland Canada or on an island? You can find the answer by clicking on this Facebook post.
3. Why did pAk and TE have to stay a couple of days in the same place they landed before going to Pippy Park campground? You can find the answer in our first blog post.
4. Why did pAk and TE have to leave Newfoundland earlier than expected, and which two means of transport did they take to go to Nova Scotia? You can find the answers in our second blog post.
5. Who was our first WarmShowers host and what did he do for a living? You can find the answers in our third blog post.
6. What animal did pAk and TE see not far from Oxford (NS, Canada) and what did the cyclists do to avoid any trouble? You can find the answers in our fourth blog post.
7. Before Confederation Bridge was built to link PEI (Prince Edward Island) to mainland Canada, why was it particularly difficult to cross in winter? You can find the answer in our fifth blog post.
8. Which part of the bike did pAk and TE check every day and what essential tool should all cyclists carry in any long trip? You can find the answers in the first video of our sixth blog post.
9. Which festival did pAk and TE learn about while speaking to Christina and Alex in Campbellton? You can find the answer in our seventh blog post.
10. What is the name of the submarine where pAk and TE spent the night near Rimouski? You can find the answer in our eight blog post.
11. For a few hours, pAk and TE travelled with a family (mum, dad and two girls) until they reached Gatineau. How did this family power their bikes? You can find some pictures for your answer in our ninth blog post.
12. What was the name of the river near which pAk and TE used their solar shower for the first time in this trip? You can find your answer in our tenth blog post.
13. Why was a police officer looking for TE in the highway to Sault Ste. Marie? You can find the answer in our eleventh blog post.
14. Who did pAk and TE travel with after stopping in Vélorution? Why did TE particularly welcome travelling in a team? You can find your answers in our twelfth blog post.
15. Which special event took place by the shop Valley Foods, when pAk, TE and their companions where allowed to camp in Murillo (Ontario)? You can find the answer in our thirteenth blog post.
16. In which kind of local sport arena did pAk, TE and their companions spend the night in Richter? You can find the answer in our fourteenth blog post.
17. Which two health issues are mentioned in our fifteenth blog post?
18. Which peculiar name had a free campground near Donald (BC, Canada) where pAk and TE met a French biker? You can find the answer in our sixteenth blog post.
19. A gentle driver, Bob, did pAk and TE a favour in their way to Princeton. What did he do? You can find the answer in our seventeenth blog post.
20. To which local event did Laura and Mike invite pAk and TE? In which island did that take place? You can find your answers in our eighteenth blog post.
21. Where did pAk and TE decide to go after reaching Forks (Washington, USA)? Was it worth it? Judge by yourself by seeing the pictures in our nineteenth blog post.
22. Where did pAk and TE spend Thanksgiving? Why did they have to be so long with this fantastic family? You can find the answers in our twentieth blog post.
23. What are ‘redwoods’? What’s your impression of them? You can read about it and see some nice pictures in our twenty-first blog post.
24. Name at least three types of animal pAk and TE saw while riding across California, USA. You can find your answer in our twenty-second blog post.
25. How long is a tourist visa in the USA? You can find the answer in our twenty-third blog post.

The end

That’s all folks for now! We could do a hundred quizzes about our journey, with all the information we have in this blog and in TE’s blog in Spanish. We hope you’ll find this post interesting! If you are interested in a talk in Spanish, French or English with some new questions and reading suggestions from our blog, do not hesitate to contact us! By the way, the first person to send us all right answers to our e-mail contact@pakette.org, will receive a postcard from us —provided you send us your postal address!

Thanks again for reading us and following us on social media!