A plan coming together ....

I always love that feeling when the elements of a plan start to fall in place and what started out as a vague idea begins to crystallise into reality.

As with most plans, the route for my next trip has been through a number of iterations to fit into the time available, to incorporate particular things I wanted to see, to trim back when I thought it was getting too big and to extend when I thought it was getting to small.

This trip is taking me to 11 new (biking) counties and is my first trip that will be 'visa free', despite the potential complications that Brexit could have brought.  Along the way I'll be taking in the Black Forest in Germany, the Alpine Road in Germany & Austria, the Julian Alps & Karavanks in Slovenia, the Tatras mountains between Slovakia & Poland, the three Baltic States, Finlands lakes & forests, the remote landscapes of Lapland, the bleak and most northerly (by road) European point at Nordkapp (gotta be done) and then a long stretch of superlatives down the Norwegian coast before heading hone via Denmark, Germany & the Netherlands.

The plan is about 7000 miles, 35 days and timed to be late enough that the mountain passes are open but early enough that there is still snow in the Arctic but I can camp out without becoming too crispy by morning!

Not long to go now.....