Cycling from Chennai to Delhi (2200 KM) - What did I carry?

"You should take only 50% of what you need and should try to manage with it", said Mr. Babu one of my Chennai Travel Club whatsapp group friend. Travel packing is an art, even though I have backpacked to some places, I still have a long way more to learn that art. In my case, it is about trying not to do the same mistake again. Back in 2015, I have traveled solo abroad for the first time to Hong Kong.

Last year in 2017, I have again traveled solo to Jammu and Kashmir. I did a bad job at packing during this trip, and this experience helped me to pack light before heading to Delhi. Let me share about the gears and accessories I carried in my backpack for this epic cycling journey of 2200 kms.

Things I carried on this journey?

Firefox fusion 2.6 bicycle

4 pairs of T-Shirts and Shorts

4 underwear's

Selfie stick

Tripod

Metal air pump

Motorbike helmet

A cowboy hat

Two books

A Notebook and a pen

A Towel

Camping sleeping bag,

A Notice board,

Two water bottles,

Electrolyte,

Two broken earphones and more.

The bicycle is something which I had bought during my pre-final year of college. When everyone around was buying a new motorbike, my parents got me a brand new Indian gear bicycle. They were glad that they bought me a bicycle which costed 10 thousand Indian rupees, irrespective of the family financial situations.

Coming back to backpacking, I took 4 pairs of t-shirts and shorts. They were heavy collectively even though they were lightweight individually, sound idiotic sometimes ha ha. During the trip I learned that just two pairs of T-shirt and Short were much enough for me.

I didn't use the Selfie stick nor the tripod and the motorbike helmet, I gave the tripod to the guys whom I have met during my journey. Those 3 guys from Tamil Nadu were doing Kanyakumari to Kashmir on their three individual motorbikes. I thought the tripod would be useful to them and helpful for me to lessen the weight.

The cowboy hat helped me big time somehow to keep my head off the direct sunlight. Nevertheless, sun has been a great companion for me. It was traveling in the X-axis and I was in the Y-axis.

A notebook where I had noted down the village names for every 80-90 kilometers. A generic idea about where I may find a decent place to stay for the night. Occasionally I penned my travel experiences as well in it.

Two books, Extreme Survivors foreword by Bear Grylls and Man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl.

A camping sleeping bag is another most important thing I carried, it came as a savior during my stay in the Temple waranda, Bus stand, and in Railway stations. With Mr. Babu sir, he gave a warm welcome when I returned back to Chennai.

And, the earphones to listen to motivational videos (40) I had saved on YouTube app and to listen songs shared by my friends. 

Things for which I didn't wait to start my trip:

Since the trip was a sudden one, for which I didn't do any dedicated research, physical fitness training, cycling training. Would never advise ignoring proper preparation and the safety measures but don't let it delay your start very much.

But, I have prepared myself mentally by reading about others. I read quite a lot of articles on the Internet about do's and don'ts on a long distance road trip. That helped me a lot.

I did not wait to,

change new tires and tubes to the wheels.,

buy a headlight and rear warning light.,

buy a power bank nor I carried any power bank.,

buy a cycling helmet.,

buy a professional cycling suit.,

buy a puncture kit.,

service my bicycle nor did any maintenance at all, it was just in a cycling condition. That is all I wanted. No camping tent as well.

One must not delay or quit achieve what they wanted in life just because they do not have the right platform, gears or accessories. If you want it bad enough, you can simply manage with whatever you got in hand for now. It is all about feeling grateful to what we have and taking action. Remember, giving excuses and complaining will not move you closer to your goal.

Author's Note

Like the article? If so, like my social media pages. In case you hate it, please do let me know in comments about where I sucked. Either way, it will help me improvise. Thanks.

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