The secrets of adventure riding - How to prepare for an epic trip around the world

Failing to prepare means you’re preparing to fail. This is a popular saying, but do you think it is true? Is planning essential, or can you plan too much?

“Travelling like we do can be highly unpredictable. There is a lot that can happen on the road: you can crash, become ill, have a technical issue, equipment failure, you can get stopped by corrupt police or even get robbed. It’s a matter of simple statistics: the longer you travel, the higher the chances are that one day something will go wrong. Things have gone wrong for us in the past. We have both crashed our bikes, Tom broke his foot in Mali, Caroline had salmonella and Tom had malaria twice with an extra salmonella infection on top. Needless to say, those weren’t the best days of the trip.

We’ve had flat tyres, snapped bolts, broken spokes and so on, all as a result of continuously pushing our fully loaded 701 Enduro machines to the limits. But when you know your equipment, you know which things are most likely to go wrong. There is no road assistance in the Sahara Desert, so you have to try and anticipate what you might require.

It is a matter of making informed choices, as we really prefer to travel light. It makes the ride so much more fun. So we carry a spare tube, tyre patches and a few spokes, but we won’t carry tyres or extra rims. In exceptional cases where these might need to be replaced, we have to wait a while for them to arrive from Europe.

We also try to calculate when things will wear out and have them ordered or shipped to a certain destination. There isn’t too much variation in chain and sprocket wear and an oil change every 10 000 km is also pretty predictable. Over the years, we have learned to limit our packing list to the bare minimum, while still being prepared for the most probable issues.

And then there is that need for freedom, of course. It is a substantial aspect of the project and we feel like being over-prepared would just compromise that freedom of movement. You want to learn, adapt, find creative solutions and re-plan when unforeseen things happen. It’s just an essential part of travelling.”

When planning your upcoming trip, how did you decide on the right mix of being organised and safe, while also remaining free and able to react spontaneously?

“I guess when you put Tom and me together, you have a perfect mix of ‘organised and safe’, and ‘free and spontaneous’. By living together for all those years, Tom learned that organised and safe doesn’t always mean boring. And I learned to believe in myself and just jump without thinking too much.

Because of the situation in Europe right now, we feel that some of the countries we wanted to visit in a first stretch of our trip are not safe enough. To get to Mongolia, we will have to get into Russia first. Is that a good idea? Will they let us leave the country again? When we think the risk is just too high, we resist the temptation. We still have a long trip ahead of us. One of the things we learned, is that you don’t always have to follow government advice. They can’t take any risks, so their recommendations are pretty strict. Sometimes listening to locals and using your common sense lets you travel through red zones on the safety map and discover those hidden gems no other traveller gets to see.”

Being ready for all eventualities is so important on a trip like yours. When it comes to carrying spare parts, what will you take and why do you choose Husqvarna original spare parts?

“Choosing original Husqvarna parts is just a way of being sure of the quality and fitment of the spares. There’s always a unique part number to avoid any confusion. The last thing we would want is to have to replace an essential part in a remote location and then discover it doesn’t fit or is not up to the task.

The list of spares we take is pretty extensive but can be narrowed down to the following categories.”

• Seals, O-rings, Gaskets: “These are very specific spares but fortunately they are compact and lightweight so are easy to carry. We try to avoid paying DHL 100€ to ship a 0,50€ O-ring to us.”
• Bearings: “When these fail, especially wheel bearings, it can be a real show stopper. They are often really hard to source locally.”
• Brake, Clutch, Gear levers: “Spare levers are essential as they are often the first things to break in a crash.”
• Spokes: “If you hit a massive pothole at high speed, there is a good chance you will break a spoke or two.”
• Brake pads
  
• Front sprocket: “We tend to calculate when the rear sprocket will be due for replacement and have it shipped or sourced on the road. However, we do carry a spare front with us.”
• Fuel system spares: “Fuel can be of pretty low quality at times, putting a strain on your fuel system components. So we carry spare filters, a pump, and injectors. When filling up dodgy 84 octane fuel mixed with way too much ethanol from a rusty barrel on the Bolivian Altiplano, you know there is a possibility that things might go wrong.”
• Assorted bolts, nuts and screws: “Knowing which fasteners are used on your bike is essential to avoid carrying a bag full of useless weight. Also, bolt quality is of importance because in some countries they only sell the low-tensile type which will shear off after hitting the first pothole.”

Where will your upcoming trip take you and why? Is the plan to simply experience more of what you experienced on your first trip, or to go to new places, or will you revisit your favourite locations? For how long will you be travelling this time?

“Since our initial plan was to travel for five years, we would now like to do the remaining three years. During the first trip, we travelled through (mainly) western Africa and South and North America. This means we still have some parts of the world that remain unexplored by us. Some regions in Europe, but certainly also Asia, Australia and New Zealand, eastern Africa, Brazil and the southern tip of Argentina and Chile are on our list. The exact order in which we will travel these areas is yet unsure and will depend a great deal on safety and health conditions. Pandemics and war zones tend to have a great impact on the feasibility of a specific region. We know a guy whose goal was to travel to every single country in the world. That’s not really our type of project. We want to travel to countries that attract us, that have something to offer, preferably for offroad bike enthusiast like us. We don’t want to visit a country just for the sake of it.

Visiting every tourist hotspot is not our goal either. Certainly it would be a shame not to visit Petra while in Jordan or Machu Picchu while in Peru. But we prefer riding our bikes to remote places where no tourists are to be found, instead of being part of an overly organised circus and finding ourselves in the souvenir shop at the end of the guided tour. We met quite a few people who were shocked that we ‘missed’ certain tourist attractions on the road. But they didn’t pitch a tent with that magnificent view all to themselves in the middle of nowhere, neither were they invited by a local family to spend the night in their hut. All unforgettable experiences.”

Was there a long decision-making progress behind deciding to go for this adventure?

“When we came home after two years on the road, we immediately started saving up for this trip. Our journey wasn’t over yet, we had to do that second part as soon as possible. That was a done deal. We both went back to work, but with only one purpose: being able to leave again as soon as possible.”

Generally speaking, you know what to expect heading into your second trip. Does the gained experience from the first trip allow you to be more confident, more adventurous, or will that experience shape the trip in other ways?

“We won’t change our way of travelling. We both feel that it suits us, we enjoy it immensely. I guess we were already rather adventurous, but the previous trip makes us more confident in many ways. We know better how to react in certain circumstances, we know what to take care of, we know our routine – as far as we have one. We found out that there is always one of us that stays positive and knows what to do in a crisis. That’s a very reassuring thought. Sometimes, we ask ourselves if this new trip is going to be as good as the first one, because it was so incredibly awesome. Then we realise it will be. Different, but good simply because we are doing what we love the most: exploring the world in the best possible way.

We might change a few things though. We are thinking of travelling a bit slower, staying a little longer in our favourite countries, spending more time with other people maybe. We also plan to make more calls to our family at home. When you’re on the road and enjoying new scenery every day, you sometimes forget that those who stay at home are waiting to hear from you. We always thought, ‘No news is good news’, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. We’ve learned from our mistakes, that’s for sure.”

Mostly everyone who ever owned a motorcycle and has travelled would love to do what you are doing – but they don’t. What is it that makes you go for it?

“Travelling is a priority to us. We don’t spend a lot of money on cars or expensive consumer goods, and haven’t been on a holiday for the last two years. We skipped restaurant visits and barely bought any new clothes. Every time we wanted to buy something we didn’t really need, we counted how many days on the road that would be. Our way of travelling is not luxurious at all. We sleep and live in a tent or the cheapest hotels. We eat street food. When it rains, we get wet. When it’s freezing we get cold. And the tent comes without air conditioning, so we wake up early when the desert sun comes up. We’ve had days in a row without showering; our kneepads smell like ripe camembert. Unlike most of our friends, this is a life that makes us absolutely happy. Lots of people make other choices in life. When we talk about what we do, you hear the usual, ‘If I didn’t have kids…’ or ‘If I were 20 years younger…’. Well, we jumped. We didn’t want to wait those 20 years and regret it for the rest of our lives.”