The itinerary

According to the original plan, I should be somewhere in southern Australia about now pedaling along – hopefully having survived crossing the Nullabor Plain!  The Company, TDA Global Cycling, is a Canadian company that specializes in long distance cycle tours – their most famous ride starts in Cairo, Egypt and after 5 1/2 months, ends up in South Africa!  The entire Trans-Oceania ride starts in Perth in Western Australia and ends up in Queenstown, New Zealand after a little over 3 months.  That was the original plan, to do the entire ride – I originally signed up for the ride in early 2017.

However, once I decided to relocate from Los Angeles to Montana, by way of a 4 month stay in New York, life just became too complicated for me to get everything done, get resettled and head for Australia at the end of August.  Fortunately, TDA’s ride are broken into segments so you can do subsets of the ride which is ultimately what I ended up doing.  There are other riders who will only be doing the New Zealand legs and some of the riders who originated in Perth, will not be doing the New Zealand legs.  I will join up with the rest of the group in Auckland.

I am planning to arrive a few days early in Auckland to acclimate and see the sights.  Likewise, when I get to Queenstown, I intend to spend a few days there.  I will then hop over to Sydney and be there for a few days before heading back to Los Angeles to spend some time with Jordan.  And then I will drive back to Montana to see if my house has turned into a popsicle!!  (I actually have found someone to look after my house so that worry is now gone!)

As you can see from the posted itinerary, it will be a challenging trip.  But, unlike the Route 66 ride, this ride will be supported by vehicle(s) so we will not have to lug an additional 40 to 45 pounds of gear with us every day.  The truck will carry all of the camping gear, etc.  And, there will also be a cook!!!!! so we will not have to prepare meals at the end of the day – we can just collapse!