I’m going on a road trip, or at least I’m trying to. Packing for it is proving entertaining. On a motorbike, there is limited packing room, and the EU insists everyone carries a long (and quite bulky) list of equipment, mostly just in case something goes wrong. I mentioned all this last week.
So I’ve made the list of what I need to take, and tried to pack it into my luggage. It doesn’t fit. That is, it fits, but then the zips don’t close. The trouble with biking is that you can’t simply just change bags.
So I’ve unpacked it all and tried to decide what isn’t so essential. The art of Zen and minimalism are seriously coming into their own here. If only I were any good at them.
Of course, I need to think about how likely I am to need stuff urgently (like my waterproofs in a downpour on an autobahn at 100mph) and how delicate it is (like my camera in a downpour on an autobahn – you get the gist) and also how much everything weighs because weight distribution is a far bigger factor on two wheels than on four.
I’m not that precious – I don’t need a hairdryer, an iron or other such luxuries. Okay, I’m not mad about wearing the same shirt for days on end, but I think of that as socially acceptable, not precious.
The trouble is that biking comes with a massive pile of gear at the best of times, and holidays do as well. Combining the two into one relatively cabin-sized bag isn’t nearly as easy as I’d hoped.
So I’m trying the much vaunted tip of living with piles of stuff for a day and then cutting it down to half, rinse and repeat. Eventually, the essentials will be left, apparently.
I’m trying all the methods of packing and all the cool online packing-list tools (http://www.independenttraveler.com/packing). In the end, as long as it all fits in the bag, that’s all I need.
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