There are some important numbers while you’re preparing a travel around the world.
The first important step was our engagement at 100% in this project. Then, it was the first 100 euros spent ; the first time we went over 100km/h with our sidecars. Today, we are 100 days prior our flight for this travel around the world – a symbolic date!
Since over a year, we are organising this project together. We went through moments of doubts. But, step by step we are developing our project, proving our motivation. We want to prove to some people, and above all to ourselves that this dream will become true. Our motivation is also making us impatient… only 100 days before our departure.
At this symbolic date, this article will be the opportunity to show the progress of our project.
After the choices and compromises… let’s act!
We are thinking about this project for over a year. From the first pint of beer we had together, our project changed a lot but we made a lot of progress.
Once the side-cars’ keys were in our hands, we needed to prepare the vehicles. Let between the expert hands of Louis-Marie, the vehicles have now a fresher look! Changes of oil, filters, exhaust pipe, plus a new protection for the engine, each part is inspected thoroughly.
The Ural side-cars are known to be easy to drive and will across the most uneven roads and various paths around the world, however we will need some training sessions in the next few days to get use to this new vehicle. These side-cars are eye-catching and great on selfie photos, but they are still a new vehicle that we need to discover. Usually riding motorbikes, riding a side-car is new for us – except for Julien already a connaisseur.
Sponsoring research
Travelling towards the unknown – fine; let some improvisation – fine; but only if our decision are taken with the locals’ advice. This project is for us a human adventure. Our leitmoiv is to travel to share this amazing experience with as many people as possible, and specifically to the young ones.
But make this dream becoming true, and sharing it, is also going through financial difficulties.
Indeed, after writing all of our future expenses in our previsional budget, an expensive amount appeared in the bottom right corner of our spreadsheet! You can imagine our scared faces… So we checked again and again to make sure there was no mistake in our spreadsheet, we adjusted slightly our estimations. But here go, this is the reality!
We have two possibilities. Reducing massively our budget and travel with our savings which means a shorter trip ; or looking for sponsorings to reduce our expenses.
As we do not want to miss one of our priorities for this travel – sharing our experience – we have chosen to look for sponsoring.
The first step was to create a sponsoring proposal. Then, we have designed our website www.friends4adventures.org for sharing our project but also our adventures in the future.
To improve our visibility and credibility with our future partners, we have also shared our project on social media.
Then, we started to contact some potential partners. No secret for this, you need to make a lot of efforts! Find the right contact details, bespoke each enquiry, prove your motivation, not being afraid of chasing by emails and phone calls.
Suddenly, during a sunny morning, we received the first reply to one of our many emails. We wanted to jump up to the sky, screaming the news as loud as we can. But none of our colleagues knew about this project. So, we kept it quiet and smiled, happy to receive the first positive reply from a person interested by our project. This is the beginning of a first partnership with a nice feeling that this travel around the world is coming soon!
The logistics, a proper job
Phileas Fogg used various means of transports during his travel of 80 days. For our project, we would have prefered to have only one. But a travel around the world starting by Europe and crossing South of America means we need to across twice the ocean. In spite of all the difficulties, we have decided to go for it! By air, by RoRo, by shared cargo, a few solutions are available with rates more or less expensive. After, many researches on various travel blogs and travel guides, we tried the shared cargo option. This transport will insure a good compromise between a reasonable price and less paperwork. Once decided, we have requested quotations. But it’s not easy to find the right supplier!
After many months of thoughts and changes of itineraries, plus the advice from previous travellers in sidecars (Cath & Da!), we finally opted for a shipping from France to Colombia, from Marseille to Carthagena in Septembre 2018.
100 days before the departure, we haven’t a clue of how to ship our vehicles from South of America to Russia in March 2019. But, we will do our best to find a solution before the beginning of our adventure in September!
Check-up
Organising a travel like this one is about avoiding many difficulties we will have. Regardless the transport issues we will have, paperwork and logistics, it’s also about the health risks we will have. Therefore, we need to have a first aid kit adapted plus the vaccines required.
It’s better to anticipate for this as vaccinations is like a marathon! From the first dosis to the booster, you need at least 6 months for some vaccines. From the pharmacy next door, the specialised travel clinic to the local GP, the advice received are various and numerous. But we can’t risk our health, so we’ll follow the advice wisely to travel safely.
Mosquitos, we are ready!
This adventure is taking more and more time in our daily life, with our colleagues, friends and families. This coming adventure is exciting. In 100 days, let’s hit the road and discover the world!
