Seven days.
That’s how long it took before I decided to send stuff home. If you read the earlier posts you may remember I left with almost 70 pounds of gear – way too much. I’ve already found one of the biggest lessons of bicycle touring is frugality.
Ben has been cycling through Asia for the last two months. This morning I awoke to him cutting huge sections out of his China map and tearing the labeling off his toiletries. I poked fun at his excess, but he laughed back, “Hey, it’ll save a couple grams!” That’s when I knew it was time to purge. Here’s a list of what I shipped home, threw away, or trimmed in some way:
Long-sleeve cycling shirt (Deloitte shirt’s going home… sorry)
T-shirt
Boxers (x2)
Shampoo (gave away half)
Waterbottles (x2)
Radio
Battery charger (switched with lighter/cheaper Chinese one)
Batteries
Two maps
Anti-chafing cream
Electrical tape
Wrench
Spoke wrench
Baseball hat
Bandana
Folder
Paper
We’ll see how long it takes before I too am cutting up my maps…