7 Aug 2013

7. Mission aborted.

I expect anyone looking at my blog’s map can see I’m taking a rather strange route to Istanbul.  When I reached the Greek island of Euboea I had a bit of a strange feeling.  To date that was the tours furthest point from home so I just shrugged it off as that, but waking in my tent the next day I said to myself “I’ve had enough, I’m going home”.

Having to still cycle up the island and back up along Greece gave me chance to analyse my decision for a few days and ensure I was making the right choice. These were the key points;

1.   Maybe I was looking for the adventure I’d had on the African tour but repeating something you’ve already done again is never as exciting the second time, maybe I’d burnt myself out from the zig-zag route I’d taken around Europe?

2.   Being aware of the following point from the tours actual conception I was only too familiar with the hassle of obtaining visas.  From Istanbul onward (for Iran) visa chasing would be a permanent task, this had hit-home even more-so as Istanbul was now the next city I was heading for.  Not being the most patient of people to sit around and wait in hot, noisy, capital cities, for a week or more (on my own) is not something I enjoy having to do, and with no guarantee the visa would be issued after waiting!

3.   I had been getting rather lonely at times, travelling through foreign countries certainly puts limitations on conversation, occasionally I’d meet someone who could talk English but there had been days where I’d talked to no one, except myself.

4.   I was missing my girl friend, family and friends.

5.   Each day had started to become routine; wake up, pack tent, eat breakfast, cycle 120km, stop, pitch tent……

I’d say each one of these points had been eating away at me for a while and that Saturday morning they just all surfaced together.

Cycling back as opposed to flying was the only choice.  This would at least bring my tour to a gradual close, rather than jumping on an aeroplane along with all the hassle of flying with a bicycle.



For my own personal reasons I’ll continue the blog’s postings. Writing this gives me something to look back at, so to anyone who has been following the blog then at least you can also come full circle.  As of today (Aug 7th) I’ve crossed from Greece, through Macedonia, then Serbia and today entered Croatia.

As the note above the blog’s map says, maybe it is the ocean that decides one’s route?