Preparation of the longest e-bike expedition in the world

„It must happen a miracle to create all that“, I said before our Mongolia expedition to which we started in 2011. And this time, before we maybe start the longest E bike expedition there was up to now, I could begin our coming adventure with the same words. It is quite peculiar, you can begin with the preparation for a big trip very early and, nevertheless, it becomes always scarce to get everything done before departure. Only the fact that Tanja has broken her collarbone few months ago was not planned. With the right treatment and a lot of training Tanja got fit again within a few month without operation.
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I think it is for an outsider hardly understandably what it indicates to say goodbye to Germany for at least 1 1/2 years. Even for us who lived through such a process during the last 25 years, it is amazing over and over again to what we must think besides everything. Actually, it is exactly the same like emigrating. The paperwork is nearly unfathomable. Many assurances must be discontinued and others, as for example a foreign health insurance, be concluded. However in our case it has not happened with emigrating there we would like to return again in our native country and hold our base. So we are on one side emigrants and on the other side travellers with a functional German household. The reason for this binary existence is because of our life form which has developed since the departure to our great journey 1991.
Here you find the link:
Some of our travel stages last up to two years. Then we return again not to lose the contact with our sponsors, to the media and above all to our family and friends. If we have refreshed our social relations again, the financing and a lot of other organizational have cleared, we proceed again exactly to the place at which we had interrupted our last expedition trip. So the longest documented expedition in history should originate in the course of decades

Now, the financing for the E bike tour stands so far. We almost have everything together, still the camera equipment, a laptop, and important components with those we want to load our E bike accumulators are absent three weeks before departure. It would be to be claimed lied to say we are relaxed about that. „Why do you not organise your technical equipment earlier?“, I hear reasonable voices. Unfortunately, the laptop had a defect and is just in repair. The cameras are anew at the market and the objectives are delivered only in a few days. And the missing components for our solar arrangement are in the developing department from Bosch. Also we wait for special parts a supplier has promised since a long time. Well, so it goes with the planning.

The train tickets are booked. From Nuremberg to Augsburg, then we change to a night train to Berlin. There we take a train coming from France via Warsaw to Moscow. In Moscow we must cycle approx. 20 km to another railway station. There we load our equipment in the trans-Siberian railway. After we have already cycled the whole distance from Germany, through Russia till Mongolia, we made the decision to make the second time the distance up to Baikal with the Trans-Siberian railway. A dream becomes true. Up to now we do not know how much kilogramme of luggage we have and whether we may load our e-bikes and our equipment in the train. There for are no regulations. At least no one could give us information about that. That was a reason why we booked four tickets for the distance.

All together, so I estimate, we will have to pack 260 kilogramme into the compartment. One of the heaviest “luggage pieces” goes to scale at 35 kg, is white like fresh snow, incredibly hairy and is called Ajaci. „Are you crazy?“, I have said to Tanja as she meant we should take our dear dog. Actually, he should live during our absence with friends. Ajaci obviously whispered to Tanja that he wants with us on the trip. „Let us constructively think about that and decide tomorrow“, Tanja suggested. After time to reflect for 24 hours I found the Idea to take our dog on the trip not at all so badly. Now it was a matter of clearing everything what it needs to take a big Canadian sheepdog on a bicycle trip. It is about the quarantine regulations of the different countries, vaccinations, international vaccination identity card, muzzle duty for the railway, a special dog trailer, test trips with dog and trailer etc. Nevertheless, where to put the luggage Tanja earlier had in the bicycle trailer?
An inventor and friend of us, has had a look at the trailer and has meant;“ You must build a roof bearer for the dog trailer, than you have space for some more load.

Visa

Day by day we come closer to our departure, however we still lack the visa for China. Because we would like to travel at least 6 months through the country of the dragon, we need a special visa. Normally a traveller gets only a four weeks visa. Besides, he is obliged to show for every day a hotel reservation. This would be the end before the beginning for us. On the 28.06.15 I am invited by the Chinese consulate to a conversation. I do not know what the ladies and gentlemen would like to know about myself, however, one is sure, it depends on this conversation whether we may travel to China or not.

The live reporting is supported by the company Gesat GmbH: www.gesat.com and the company roda computer Ltd www.roda-computer.com The satellite phone Explorer 300 and the rugged notebook Pegasus RP9 are the supporting columns of the transference.